Eric: “You haven’t made it any easier for me, have you, mother?”
Conflict is of course a major contributory factor when concerning the issue of engaging an audience within a drama. As the play progresses, we see the tension grow between Mr Birling and the Inspector, with the character of the Inspector managing to stay calm at the beginning of the play, in spite of Birling’s flagrant arrogance and self-importance, all the more appealing. We see Birling gradually become more and more agitated as the thought of a public scandal and of his reputation as a socially respected family man being destroyed, likely to occur.
Birling: “I don’t like your tone, nor the way you’re handling this enquiry inspector”
Stage directions also harbour a large part of the dramatic content within the play. At the beginning of the play, in which the Birling family, along with Gerald Croft, settle down to what presumably is a well prepared dinner, to celebrate the engagement of their daughter Sheila, and their son-in-law to be Gerald, we notice stage directions of a ‘happy’ nature. Words such as “amused” and “eagerly” are used regularly throughout the first Act. However as we enter Act 3, these words change by an incredible degree, when we start to see “angrily” and “warningly” coming into usage, with the erratic and intense adverbs stressing the amount of conflict, tension and dramatic build-up between the characters. The language of the stage directions therefore reflects the drama on stage.
There is a great deal of irony within the play, especially throughout the duration of Act 3. This quote is just a sample of some of the ironic phrases Mr Birling is accountable for.
Birling: “Look, Inspector- I’d give thousands- yes, thousands”
This quote from Arthur Birling clearly reflects, the character’s diminishing attitude towards the Inspector. Yes of course he would give lots of money now to help Eva Smith in her troubled situation, but back when she really needed the money, he would not have looked at her twice. It is clearly ironic. Priestly uses this irony through many of the characters within the play. Another example of this would be Sheila’s changing attitude and feelings towards her parents after the Inspector has left. The rather agreeable and shallow Sheila begins to show more depth to her character, and a more mature way of handling the situation with her parents.
Sheila: “If you want to know, it’s you two who are being childish!”
The many examples of this type of irony, again reflects the tension building between the characters, and how their personalities have changed or developed since the Inspector’s call. The irony simply helps to engage the audience and make them more involved in the play.
The Inspector holds the most mystery within the play. Throughout the first two acts, he remains calm and collected, even as the Birling family become increasingly frustrated and hysterical. As we reach Act 3, the Inspector’s role increases by a dramatic amount. Before he leaves the Birling household, he makes a prophetic speech on the entire evening’s activity and the now most believable death of Eva Smith. In the style of what could only be described as a sermon, the Inspector can be seen as the fictional version of the author J.B Priestly. He reflects his own moral message of a common humanity into the play, through the character of the Inspector. As the most profound and memorable speech of all in the play, the Inspector’s final words foreshadow the knowledge of two horrific world wars, which we as the audience know have occurred, makes it all the more dramatic. Therefore, knowing the historical context of the play (it is set in 1912 and written in 1945) enhances the dramatic irony.
Inspector: “If when will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.”
The way in which the audience has the confirmation of something to happen compared to the characters within the play, which have no idea of the blood shed which is to trouble the world, makes the Inspector’s character even more mysterious and shows a true development of his character within the play.
The basic storyline of the play itself, lulls the audience into and out of a false sense of security. After the Inspector has left, the characters start to believe that the whole evening’s events have been a hoax, and a huge sigh of relief washes over the characters, leaving the audience again questioning whether the Inspector was in fact real, and whether there really was an Eva Smith and had she really committed suicide. By easing the tension at this point, it makes what is to come next all the more dramatic.
The “coup de theatre”, the conclusive and most dramatic point in the play, is that of the final phone call, in which Mr Birling is informed of the suicide of a young girl and that an Inspector is calling round to question the family. This event shatters all sense of reality that the plot has against the realistic play setting, leaving the audience wondering what will happen next. Will it be the same inspector? Is it all still a hoax? Will things progress differently this time around? The whole idea of a cliffhanger leaves the audience on the edge of their seats, with the character of the Inspector still remaining a mystery to the other characters and to the audience.
Birling: “That definitely wasn’t an Inspector at all. As Gerald said, we’ve been had!”
The context of the play, set before both of the world wars, gives the audience an advantage of being able to see the response of the characters and their vulnerabilities around the subject of war. As mentioned previously, the way in which the audience has one up on the actual characters adds to the drama, making them feel more involved in the plot and making it easier to understand in a historical sense, but with a twist in which we see a family fall apart around the unapparent political mayhem within the so called “Golden Era”. The social context of the play (set in a time when there was little state intervention for people like Eva/Daisy) also helps shape our understanding of the play, so that we are able to see a time where social standing was important and also how destructive it can be. It reinforces Priestly’s message that we must learn from the mistakes of others.
I think that in today’s society the play is still relevant as is reflects the idea that not everyone is as quite sure about political issues as they would like to think, which is one of the main concepts of the play. Of course there is no longer as much pressure on being socially accepted as back in the early 1920s, but there are still the worries of a bad reputation or loss of a career surrounding public scandal. I feel that not everyone is as naïve today as they were in that period which could affect the way in which people would perceive the play, but it think that it is a gripping enough drama to brush aside all of these insecurities and let the moral of the play shine through.
