AN INSPECTOR CALLS
J.B. Priestly wrote an Inspector Calls in the winter of 1944-1945 near the end of the Second World War. It only took him a week to write. He then sent it to Moscow (because there were no theatres available in London), where it was performed simultaneously in two theatres in 1945. It was first performed in this country in London on 1st October 1946 at the New Theatre. J.B. Priestly probably sent it to Moscow because Russia was a communist country (it took socialism to extremes). It was set in 1912.
The context of the play is when there was the establishment of the Welfare State, which was a part of socialism where everyone was equal and had the same opportunities as each other and the same rights as each other.
When the curtains were opened the audience were quite surprised at the London production as the stage was set out with the Birlings House above the stage because all of the Birlings and Gerald are enclosed into a little house just big enough to stand in. It gives you a great sense of claustrophobia and makes the audience think that the Birlings are in their own little world because they are of a higher class than the people that are wealthy as they have good solid furniture of the period the play is set in. The general effect is very comfortable but not cosy and homelike.
The opening of the play is relaxed and the Birlings and Gerald seem to be celebrating something, they all seem to be self satisfied and cheerful. The audience expects this to be challenged, but they don't know how except that it has got to have something to do with an Inspector.
Mr Birling is a heavy looking man, a rather significant man in his middle fifties with fairly easy manners, but rather countrified in his speech. He is very sure of himself and what he says goes. Mrs Birling is about fifty, a rather cold woman and socially bigger than her husband. Sheila is Mr and Mrs Birling's daughter. She is in her early twenties, very happy with life and quite excited. Gerald Croft is marrying Sheila and is the son of Mr Birling's friendly rival and hopes that Birling and Co and Croft Limited can join after the marriage. He is about thirty and quite manly. He is the well bred man about town. Eric is the son of Mr and Mrs Birling and in his early twenties. He is not at ease, half shy and half assertive.
Throughout the play we find out each person's involvement with a lady called Eva Smith or otherwise known as Daisy Renton through the investigations of the Inspector.
Mr Birling shows what he thinks he can achieve from his daughter's marriage to Gerald.
"And perhaps we may look forward to the time when Crofts and Birlings
are no longer competing, but are working together - for lower costs and
higher price."
Mr Birling is just thinking about himself and what this marriage can do to benefit him. This shows that he always thinks about number 1.
J.B. Priestly makes Mr Birling look like a fool by Mr Birling saying that there will be no war.
"The Germans don't want war. Nobody wants war."
This is ironic because between the time this play is set to when it was actually written and performed, there had been two World Wars. This is a case of Birling thinking he knows everything when he doesn't. This would make the audience laugh.
J.B. Priestly makes Mr Birling look like a fool even more by Mr Birling saying the Titanic is unsinkable.
"The Titanic - she sails next week ....... New York in five days ....
.............and unsinkable ................absolutely unsinkable."
This is again nonsense because when the Titanic actually does set sail it sinks due to hitting an iceberg. This is another case of Mr Birling thinking he knows everything. This would also make the audience laugh. J.B. Priestly is making Mr Birling sound like someone whose judgment you wouldn't trust.
Mr Birling isn't happy with the position he is in and is constantly trying to get higher up in the classes.
"There's a fair chance that I may find my way into the next Honours List.
Just a knighthood of course."
Mr Birling obviously isn't happy with his position and thinks he doesn't fit in until he becomes a Sir or a Lord. Again, thinking of himself and what he can achieve.
Mr Birling says how tough it was in his younger years, exactly the way he makes it for his workers.
"They worked us hard in those days and kept us short of cash."
This is ironic because that is exactly the way he treats his employees. This also shows he has poor judgment if he doesn't think that is what he is doing.
There is dramatic tension when we are waiting for the Inspector to tell us why he is here.
"Some trouble with a warrant?"
"No, Mr Birling"
(after a pause, with a touch of impatience), "Well what is it then?"
The audience are waiting for the Inspector to state his reason and are waiting impatiently for the reason that the Birlings celebration is going ...
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This is ironic because that is exactly the way he treats his employees. This also shows he has poor judgment if he doesn't think that is what he is doing.
There is dramatic tension when we are waiting for the Inspector to tell us why he is here.
"Some trouble with a warrant?"
"No, Mr Birling"
(after a pause, with a touch of impatience), "Well what is it then?"
The audience are waiting for the Inspector to state his reason and are waiting impatiently for the reason that the Birlings celebration is going to be wrecked.
The Inspector wants Gerald to stay and that builds tension because we want to know why.
"Mr Croft is going to marry Miss Sheila Birling?
Then I'd prefer you to stay."
This creates anticipation in the audience because we only have partial information. All we know is either Sheila or Gerald have had something to do with Eva Smith's death, but we do not know how.
Mr Birling doesn't want to accept any of the blame that the Inspector is putting on him.
"Still, I can't accept responsibility."
Mr Birling doesn't want to be blamed for what has happened to Eva, because he is looking out for himself and doesn't want to get into trouble. He doesn't think that it is his fault Eva committed suicide, but he started the events leading up to her suicide.
The Inspector asks why Mr Birling wouldn't pay his workers more and is shocked that someone dare question him.
"Did you say "Why?"
Mr Birling thinks that no one should question him because he thinks he is always right. He thinks that the Inspector is lower than him and that the Inspector shouldn't question him on the way he runs his business. If he paid them more, his profit would go down and he doesn't want that.
This shows that Mr Birling only sacked Eva because she had a lot to say.
"She'd a lot to say - far too much - so she had to go."
Mr Birling only sacked Eva because she questioned his authority, and as we have just seen with the Inspector, he doesn't like that.
Mr Birling tries to intimidate the Inspector to get him to leave but it doesn't work.
"Perhaps I ought to warn you that he's an old friend of mine
and I see him fairly frequently."
Mr Birling tries to threaten the Inspector by basically saying back off or I will tell your Chief Constable you have been harassing me and my family and you'll get fired. But the Inspector isn't scared and continues to ask questions.
Mr Birling doesn't think that him helping to kill Eva is very important, gives the Inspector another threat and says how he doesn't want his daughter to get involved.
"Look here, Inspector, I consider this uncalled for and officious.
I've half a mind to report you. I've told you all I know - and it
doesn't seem to me very important and now there isn't the
slightest reason why my daughter should be dragged into
this unpleasant business."
Mr Birling gives another threat that the Inspector doesn't take any notice of and doesn't think that what he did is of any importance. He doesn't want his daughter dragged into this business but the audience now thinks that Sheila must have had something to do with the death of this girl because the Inspector wouldn't get her involved otherwise.
The inspector has just pointed out that someone else knows about Eva and has done something to lead up to her suicide.
"Are you suggesting now that one of them knows
something about this girl?"
(The other four exchange bewildered and
perturbed glances)
This is a point of dramatic tension because the audience is wondering who the "inspector" is interrogating next and what they have done to make Eva commit suicide.
Mr Birling apologises to the inspector because he thought the inspector was only trying to tarnish his good reputation.
"I wouldn't have called you officious and talked about
reporting you. You understand that, don't you Inspector?"
Mr Birling has only apologised because he does not want to get in trouble for calling the inspector "officious" and threatening to report him. He thinks that the blame has been taken off of him. And he doesn't want his change of knighthood to be taken from him.
The Inspector tries to make Mr Birling feel guilty.
"She was still Eva Smith when Mr Birling sacked her - for
wanting twenty five shillings a week instead of
twenty-two and six."
The inspector tries to make Mr Birling feel guilty by repeating what he has done.
Mr Birling always thinks the worst of people less wealthy than him.
"And then she got into trouble there, I suppose...
Not doing her work properly."
Just because Eva had the courage to stand up to him, he thinks she is a trouble maker and that she would never be able to settle down. He doesn't think, good for her, she has got a good job. He instantly thinks, I bet she has got the sack.
There is dramatic tension when the audience is waiting to find out how Sheila was a part of Eva's life or, death.
(Staring at him agitated)"When was this?...
What - what did this girl look like?...
(She looks at it closely, recognises it with a little cry,
gives a half-stifled sob, and then runs out.)
There are actually two points of heightened tension in this quote. The first one is when the audience wants to know if Sheila was involved with Eva, and the second is when we know she was involved but we want to know how. When she runs out of the room the audience want her to come back in and tell them what she did.
There is another small bit of dramatic tension when Eric wants to go to bed and the Inspector does not let him.
"I think I'd better turn in." "And I think you'd
better stay here... you might have to turn out again soon."
The audience wonders why Eric cannot go to bed and thinks that Eric may have something to do with Eva, or that it could just be the Inspector wants him there so that he knows all the facts. But we do not know that then because we only have partial information.
This shows the difference between the two generations of Sheila and her father.
"I've told my father - he didn't seem to think it
amounted to much - but I felt rotten about it at
the time and now I feel a lot worse. Did it make
much difference to her?"
Sheila is very sorry for whatever she has done and feels terribly guilty for what she has done. But Mr Birling doesn't seem to show any guilt and does not think that Sheila should be guilty for what she has done either. He thinks that it made no difference to her life and she had it coming to her in his opinion.
Sheila only got Eva sacked because she was jealous that Eva looked good in the dress and she did not.
"I looked silly in the thing... and it just suited her...
I caught sight of this girl smiling as if to say:
doesn't she look awful."
Sheila sacked Eva because Eva looked good in a dress that she herself didn't, and because Eva was saying that she didn't look good in a stupid little dress, Sheila used her power as a daughter of a very good customer to get poor Eva sacked.
Gerald is startled at the new name that Eva chose for a new life and is nervous.
"What? .... D'you mind if I give myself a drink, Sheila?"
This shows that Gerald has not only known a Daisy Renton, but it shows that he is nervous as well because he needs a drink. This provides dramatic tension because all we know is that Gerald knew a Daisy Renton (which is Eva Smith) but we do not know his involvement with her. Some of the audience may now think that maybe all of the characters have done something to lead up to Eva's death.
Sheila knows that the Inspector already knows about Gerald as he already knew about her.
"Of course he knows. And I hate to think how much
he knows that we don't know yet. You'll see. You'll see."
Sheila knows that the Inspector already knows about their involvement with Eva Smith before they do, so she knows that whatever he asks next is going to be true no matter how much the person tries to cover it up.
This is where there is the greatest dramatic tension so far when the Inspector asks one simple question.
"Well?"
End of Act 1
This one question right before the curtain drops is a cliffhanger which the audience needs to be answered. This one question would get the audience very excited.
Gerald thinks that Sheila shouldn't be able to stay and listen to anymore of the conversation because women should be protected from unpleasant, disturbing things.
"And you think young women ought to be protected against
unpleasant and disturbing thing? If possible, yes."
This shows that Gerald thinks men should be the ones who deal with the horrible situations just like women wouldn't be able to vote. He also just doesn't want her to know how he came to know Daisy.
Mrs Birling has just distanced herself from Eva and Sheila knows that if she does it anymore the Inspector will make everything worse for her.
"You mustn't try to build up a kind of wall between us and that
girl. If you do, then the Inspector will just break it down and
it will be all the worse when he does."
Sheila doesn't know how the Inspector will break down this wall, but she knows that he will and that it will be even worse for her mother when he does and the audience knows this as well.
Mrs Birling says that of course she wouldn't have had anything to do with this girl. Then the Inspector says something that may suggest she has.
"Though naturally, I don't know anything about this girl. We'll see, Mrs Birling."
Now the audience is almost certain all of the characters are involved with the suicide of Eva or Daisy. This also builds dramatic tension because the audience wants to know whether Mrs Birling did have anything to do with Eva, and if so, what? Mrs Birling would probably have pursued the Inspector's comment if it wasn't for Mr Birling suddenly bursting in.
Gerald explains that he didn't give Daisy a place to stay so he could make love to her.
"I made her go to Morgan Terrace because I was sorry for her ....
I suppose it was inevitable."
Gerald shows that his intentions of giving Daisy a place to stay was not to sleep with her and that he didn't really mean for her to be his mistress, but it had to happen. This is a sort of apology, but he apologises to the Inspector.
Sheila hands Gerald back the ring. Her feelings for him have changed a lot.
"I don't dislike you as I did half an hour ago, Gerald. In fact,
in some odd way, I rather respect you more than I've ever done before."
At the beginning of the play, Sheila was madly in love with Gerald but now she feels she needs to get to know him again, but this time she has more respect for him.
Like Mr Birling, Mrs Birling doesn't think she has done anything wrong and that the girl has brought it on herself.
"But, I think she had herself to blame."
Mrs Birling says this because she thinks that she will get into trouble and she doesn't want to seem to be part or the reason Eva committed suicide.
Mr Birling starts to think of himself again and explains how this new information (that Mrs Birling refused to help a woman carrying a child) could affect him.
"I must say, Sybil, that when this comes out at the inquest,
it isn't going to do us much good. The press might
easily take it up."
Mr Birling doesn't really care about what has happened to Eva and her child. He only cares about what could happen to him and what could happen to his knighthood.
Mrs Birling says how the sort of girl Eva was would never refuse money.
"As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money."
Mrs Birling divides up the classes again by saying that anyone in her class of people would take money if it was stolen, they wouldn't care. I didn't believe her. Just because she was poorer doesn't mean she would take stolen money. She is not any worse than Mrs Birling and in some cases, even better.
Sheila has found out who the father actually is and begs Mrs Birling to stop saying terrible things about what should be done to him.
"Mother, Stop! Stop!"
Sheila and the audience have just found out who the father is and are watching as Mrs Birling digs an even bigger hole for herself and son, Eric, the father of the dead child.
Mrs Birling has just realised that Eric is the father and Eric has just turned up.
"I don't believe it. I won't believe it ..... (the Inspector
holds up a hand. We hear the front door. The wait, looking towards
the door - Eric enters, looking extremely pale and distressed.
He meets their enquiring stares)
Everyone has realised that Mrs Birling has turned away her daughter-in-law and is the reason her grandchild is dead. When Eric enters, it gives the audience a massive amount of anticipation. The audience would be really excited and can't wait for Act Three to see what Eric has to say and what Mrs Birling is going to say to him about what she just said.
Mr Birling tries to separate the women from the men because he doesn't think that what Eric says is for women's ears.
"Sheila take your mother along to the drawing room."
Mr Birling doesn't want the women to hear what Eric has to say because it isn't something they should be allowed, in his opinion, to share. This would have been normal for the time in which the play was set, but not when it was written so some of the women in the audience would have been annoyed by this.
The Inspector makes his last speech before he leaves and gives the Birlings something to think about.
".......... We don't live alone. We are members of one body.
We are responsible for each other ........"
The Inspector makes them all think about what they have done, however little they think that might be. "It could have a massive affect on somebody's life" he says. Everyone lives in the same world and we are all part of each other. Remember that or we will have to burn it in "fire and blood and anguish".
Sheila asks whether the Inspector really was a police inspector and Mr Birling and Mrs Birling think that it makes all the difference, but Sheila and Eric say it doesn't make any difference because a girl is still dead because of them.
Sheila: "But don't you see, if all that's come out of tonight is true, then it doesn't much matter who it was who made us confess. And it was true wasn't it? You ...... that's what's important - not whether a man is a policy inspector or not."
Eric: "He was our police inspector all right."
Sheila and Eric are saying about how a woman is dead because of them. Mr and Mrs Birling only really care about there being no public scandal.
Gerald has found out for sure that the Inspector wasn't an inspector.
"That man wasn't a police inspector."
This makes Mr & Mrs Birling think that they are off the hook and act like nothing has happened again, but Eric and Sheila can't do that. The same happens when Gerald comes up with the idea that it might not have been the same photograph shown to each of them.
The tension is heightened because we don't know if a girl had actually committed suicide and just waiting for the answer gets the audience's hearts racing. When it is revealed that there is no suicide, Mr and Mrs Birling and Gerald think they are totally off the hook, although Gerald is still sorry for what he did to Sheila. Sheila and Eric still think that each one of them has partly ruined someone's life. All of this leaves the audience anticipating that perhaps the story isn't over yet.
"That was the police. A girl has just died on her way to the
infirmary after swallowing some disinfectant. And a police inspector
is on his way here to ask some questions."
Throughout the play the J. B. Priestley takes the audience carefully through the characters to show their "hidden selves" as well as their public faces. He highlights the attitudes of those of the supposed 'higher' classes to those of what they class as 'lower' classes, for example that people who had nothing would obviously not have a conscience and wouldn't worry about how they obtained money etc. He was trying to make the point that just because a person came from a poorer background didn't mean that they were less sensitive or honest he shows that everybody who exists in the world are human with all the same feelings. The main difference was that those who thought they were in the 'upper class' thought of themselves as superior and made the generalisation that all poorer people were dishonest and didn't really count for much. The Inspector makes the characters reveal their true selves to those around them and tries to make them accept responsibility (even if only a bit) of the dreadful result of what they have done to have an effect on someone else's life (no matter how little they thought it meant at the time).
I think that the J. B. Priestley also wanted to entertain the audience by making them think as well as the build up of tension and the audience's anticipation as each character began to reveal different layers of their total character and how their "hidden selves" affected all the people around them.
Although through the ages, a lot has changed people's views, there is still something to be learned from the play and which is to be honest to yourself, but also treat others with respect, sensitivity and honesty, especially those worse off than yourself.
I believe J. B. Priestley achieved what we wanted but also managed to take his audience on a journey of anticipation and tension through out the play.
Daniel Jarvis 10W
