“Just let me finish, Eric”
He would not let Eric share his views. Birling thinks “a man has to make his own way” & after his speeches on the other subjects that we know he is wrong about we begin to become aware of what he thinks about responsibility. We know Birling is a very proud character as he as made his own way in life & got very high up in society, he cannot afford to be wrong thus his arrogance. He likes to show off what he has hence the boasting of the port to Gerald, “it’s exactly the same port your father gets.”
As well as being arrogant & untrustworthy, when Inspector is introduced we also see that Mr Birling can be very selfish too; when he hears about Eva Smith he soon thinks about his business & how this will affect him. He doesn’t see how firing this woman could have driven her to suicide, all he is thinking about is Birling & Co. There is also the matter of his reputation, as the inspector fishes deeper and deeper Birling seems to be overcome by his selfishness and in Act II he is worried about the press hearing about the accusations and people hearing about how he drove someone to kill themselves. Money becomes an issue later on in the play when Birling finds out Eric stole money and wants to hide this too “I’ve got to cover this up as soon as I can.” Ironically the Inspector turns up in the middle of one of Birling’s speeches and the fact it is one about responsibility is almost uncanny. Birling believes responsibility is for men and their families of course, the inspector thinks the opposite, and this alone could be enough for the audience to believe the inspector over Birling. As Birling is untrustworthy the audience assume he is wrong. The entrance of Inspector is effective because his ringing of the doorbell stops what seems an unstoppable force, which instantly gives us a feeling of a being with authority and power more than that of Birling, “we hear a sharp ring of a front doorbell, Birling stops to listen.” When Inspector interrogates Birling he is clearly intimidated; He tries to dishearten Inspector by boasting his contacts with the police but Inspector hardly bats an eyelid at his threats.
When it takes Birling more than 5 descriptions of Eva Smith for him to realise who it is the audience may pick up on the issue of stereotypes and they may think Mr Birling is a snob. The snob stereotype tells us that he feels anyone lower in society he will not care for or feel he has to care for. This is shown indefinitely by Eva Smith and how he does not care for his workers, if he did care for his workers then he should know who Eva Smith was, and certainly that he had some history with her and played a part in her death. His views on lower class citizens than himself are expressed when he “(thoughtfully)” asks “Eva Smith?”
Inspector Goole’s name shares that of a small port, which could indicate that he knows something fishy (peculiar) is going on & he is fishing for information on the situation. The audience may pick up that Inspector Goole seems to be a representative of Priestly & his views. If this is so the hated, untrustworthy character, Mr. Birling & his persistent disagreeing back it. Without Mr Birling, there would be no emphasis on the theme of responsibility therefore being a less memorable & powerful play. Dramatic irony plays a big part in this aspect of the play; the fact that the audiences dislike Mr. Birling because they know he is wrong is all thanks to dramatic irony. If we didn’t have the knowledge that Mr Birling was wrong, then we wouldn’t hate him as much because we wouldn’t know the extent of his arrogance. The audience tend to believe the character of Inspector Goole as he is preferred over Mr Birling & also more trustworthy from not lecturing us about world wars that have happened. Inspector Goole’s views are emphasised by the fact Mr. Birling disagrees.
Inspector Goole is a character of, “massiveness, solidity & purposefulness”. He speaks, “carefully” & has a “disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person he addresses before actually speaking”. Inspector Goole’s name is somewhat abnormal & the audience may think so too, triggering words that sound the same as Goole such as ghoul, which is some sort of ghostly creature. This name makes us wonder why Priestley named him this. Suspicion is aroused when we find out that Inspector Goole might not even exist.
Inspector Goole clearly thinks that, “We are responsible for each other” and because we assume Mr Birling’s argument against this is wrong we are forced into thinking that we are responsible for each other.
The Inspector is always building tension, making sure the story unravels slowly & painstakingly, only speaking to one initial person at any time. This makes the mood tense throughout. When the curtain falls quickly at the end of scenes it keeps the audience wanting more.
Mr Birling & Inspector Goole couldn’t be more different, which is why the play is so effective at getting a point across. At the start of the play there is harsh lighting on Mr Birling so we instantly know we will not warm to him. It is the stage direction in which we see that he is not a nice man, not someone you could confide in if you had a problem. The scene is set in a, “heavily comfortable house” before the inspector arrives the lighting is described as, “pink & intimate” until the door is opened when it becomes, “brighter and harder”. Which could be a way of getting the point across to the audience that the family is fake, even the lighting seems to know this. The lighting is adapted to the mood in the scene and emotions of characters, for example the light is harsh and uninviting when the inspector arrives. The inspector reveals what the family is really like.
Birling confidently predicts the outcome of certain events that are real outside of the play, which the audience knows the outcome of. At this point we know for certain Birling is an untrustworthy and ignorant character, and when we meet Inspector Goole we see him as an all knowing being as he seems to disagree with everything Birling says. The audience would warm to inspector more than Birling due to the fact he is right about the events that happened outside of the play. This puts Priestly at an advantage, if he didn’t have Birling as the hated character disagreeing with Inspector then the points Inspector made would not be as powerful.
Nearer to the end Inspector Goole Says, “I haven’t much time.” This backs up the fact he knows all, you can’t help but wonder why he is in a hurry. Maybe he knows the real inspector is nearly ready, or maybe he knows that Birling & family will not be owning up to anything anytime soon so they need to experience this all again. Also Birling seems to be feeling violated as he is not in control in hi own house. Whereas the Inspector is and he is quite clearly very calm about the situation. These contrasting moods seem to emphasise the difference between the two characters and we naturally like the calmer, more powerful character.
The sole fact that Birling & Inspector are contrary to each other in it self, may criticise British society. However this goes much deeper, how Birling thinks very highly of himself, he is very proud & will not let anything stand in his way. Especially if there is something like a knighthood at the other end, when Birling realises that the newspapers could hear about this story of how he doesn’t care about his workers he denies everything. He doesn’t want anything to bruise his status; he even tries to intimidate the inspector with who he knows. He clearly doesn’t care for anyone but himself & those higher than himself in society or those who could heighten his status. This could be referring to Priestleys views on British society & how Birling (high-middle society) does not care for Eva Smith (lower class citizens).
In the inspector’s final speech we realise all through the play everyone is a symbol, all regarding something to do with us, the audience. When inspector says, “Eva Smiths & John Smiths still left with us” we realise that the whole story is talking to us & how we shouldn’t treat people like the Birling family did. We start to think about how we have treated people in the past and how we are going to treat people in the future. Also the religious input makes us trust and believe it more because we want to be involved with our faith, and we have to do what the bible & Jesus tell us to, because it is right. We recognise the quote, “we are members of one body” from church & associate it with doing right. We make the connection of Birling & Eva Smith and how he did not treat her as a member of his body. He uses short and long sentences to grab attention & give information. The short sentence at the beginning makes you think more than you would if he started with a long sentence. He finally comes out with “we are responsible for each other” after hinting it throughout the play he has to put it bluntly to get the family to put it into action. Before knowing that there was no girl that died in the infirmary Mr Birling seems to be taken aback by this speech. When reading the speech you get a sense of omniscience and wisdom. This could be the voice of God because the only true omniscient being is God thus meaning the Inspector is either God or a representative. Looking at it from a less religious view we could see this as the voice of Priestley as we know he is writing the play he must have some sort of view on the matter. From a more theological point of view we may see him as our consciences and this is what should be happening, we know this and yet we do not act it out. The whole play is based around arrogance and not obeying our consciences and what is right, to a certain extent.
When Mr Birling is told that Inspector Goole wasn’t even an inspector his initial reaction is relief and he instantly forgets the whole ordeal. This could be suggesting that some people are so ignorant that even when faced with their downfall when offered a chance to redeem themselves they would rather not make the effort to change their ways because it is inconvenient. However some of the family do learn their lesson and this could be seen as another analogy of British society. It seems to say that everyone is different and everyone learns differently.
In conclusion I think that Priestley did a good job of using contrasting characters to get his point across that people must be responsible for each other. His use of lighting & stage direction to show the mood is a good way of setting a scene without any action or speech. I think the fact speech is not used, it is much more effective as the audience feel ‘it’ instead of having to see ‘it’ and then think about ‘it’. The use of dramatic irony was to give the audience an upper hand and knowledge superior to Birling; this was used to shape Birling’s character & the audience’s views on him. This seems effective when he disagrees with Inspector, due to dramatic irony, we do not trust him and decide Inspector Goole is right on responsibility which is an open subject. Without the aid of this character Priestley would have found it hard to emphasise his point of responsibility. All in all Priestly used the contrasting views of Birling & Inspector to criticise certain aspects of British society such as the stereotyping of lower & higher class citizens. Birling being the snobbish, high middle class person, indulgent & proud. Inspector a totally different being in most characteristics & viewpoints. Then Eva Smith, the low class citizen who Birling cares not for she got into trouble because of other people & ended up dead for it. Responsibility is widely discussed throughout the play and there are many different techniques of getting the point across. The play was meant to appeal to more than the characters and that is the audience, the very fact that it is aimed at the audience concludes that Priestley has criticised British society, and he did it by using contrasting characters to share his views and teach them.
