An inspector calls

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JB preistley uses very accuratley detailed stage directions in the opening of

the play, to set the scene, for instance he describes the furniture as being "good

and solid", he is also very exact about the position of the furniture, for example he suggests that the dining room table should be moved upwards after act one, to make the audience

curious to know what happened after the curtain was lowered at the end of act one.

He also says that the general effect should be "substantial and comfortable and old fashioned, but not cozy and homelike". this shows that the Birlings are rich enough to afford comfortable furniture but the are only superficially happy and united.

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Preistley also uses dramatic irony to ridicule Birlings speeches on the titanic "unsinkable,

totally unsinkable" this produces a differetn meaning of the audience than of the immediate

listeners. this could also be seen as a metaphor of Birlings own family and prestigous

position, which he apparently sees as "unsinkable".

Timing is another, critical dramatic device used by Preistley, for instance the entrance of

the inspector is at a time when Birling is giving a rather pompuous, self inflated speech on

how "a man has to look after himself and his own". This is in contrast with the ...

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