Priestley has incorporated this into the story, “ he inspected us aright” and” he was
our inspector”. This suggests that the inspector is someone who has come to
inspect our lives and try to get us to change for the better. He does this with each
character in the book, but never forces change. It is like he is trying to educate us in
the correct ways to behave.
The inspectors name is a pun for ghoul. This then leads us to believe that the
inspector does not exist, that he is some sort of ghost or phantom who is a
nightmare to the Birlings. The Birlings have other beliefs that prove the inspector
does not exist like Gerald who finds out from another police sergeant from the
county force that there is no one like or called the inspector they had met. In
addition, the older generation seem to think it is all a hoax. For example ‘It’s a hoax
of some kind,’ said Gerald. This shows that the older generation thinks it is some
old fool playing a trick on them causing a scandal. There is nothing wrong with them
believing this as they now have evidence that the inspector really is not an inspector
but a fraud but that is only if he really does exist which is unknown to everyone. It
could also show that the inspector is a bad ghoul playing tricks on family to have fun.
He seems to know about he future because he knows what will happen to Eva Smith
that no one else knows about, which may give the audience an idea that he is not a
human being. He is another type of life such as a spirit that does not exist in our
world, as it is virtually impossible to predict the future. He does make the Birlings
scared of him as he breaks them down one by one leading them to confess. This
may also show why he is a ghoul because he is scary. The inspector being a ghoul
makes the audience more interested in the story because there is no obvious thing
at the beginning of the story that gives him away but we all have our suspicions and
this leads to tension as we want to continue to view the play to find out whether our
suspicions were correct or not. This is another aspect that makes the play so good
and again it involves the truth hidden behind the inspector.
His last speech before he leaves is him teaching us. It is quite like a sermon.
This links in with a lot of religious references form the inspector. He talks about the
Birlings treating Eva Smith as an equal. Like all of mankind is one family. This is
religious and has been spoken by Jesus, a character that the inspector is quite
similar to. The inspector also mentions “Blood tears and anguish” which is another
biblical reference from the end of the bible.
The “blood tears and anguish” statement is also a reference to the upcoming
World War One. The inspector seems to know about this, which suggests he is from
the future and he is trying to prevent it. Maybe he knows that Eric will fight and die in
the war? Eric leaves part way through the story and returns later. Maybe this is
symbolic of Eric leaving to go to war but in this instance he does not return. J.B.
Priestly wrote the book to show how we could have prevented the war if everyone
back in 1912 thought the same way as the inspector.
One theory might be that the Inspector is truth personified and is not a real
person at all but just a representative of justice. In the play he does not simply
confront each character with the truth, but to force each character to admit the truth
they already know.
Whoever the inspector is, he acts as the catalyst for the events of the play:
without him, none of the characters’ secrets would ever have come into the open.
Mr. Birling could not see that he did anything memorable or wrong in sacking a
troublemaker; Sheila thought her rather spiteful jealousy of a pretty shop-assistant
was not ‘anything very terrible at the time’ ;Gerald needed to conceal his
involvement with the girl from a jealous fiancée; Mrs Birling is too cold ever to ‘have
known what [the girl] was feeling’ and her effect seems lost on her; and Eric had
resorted to theft, which he too needed to conceal. The inspector’s acts throughout
the play change all their opinions on these matters. Without him the Birlings and
Gerald would have never have seen the error of their ways. This suggests that the
inspector was created purposely only to do this.
Certain plays dress the inspector in clothes from the mid 1940s. I would not
do this, as I do not think we should give any explanation to where the inspector is
from or who he is. This adds more to the mystery of the inspector while putting more
emphasis on the messages he has come to convey to us all.
I would have the inspector just walk out after his final speech. Some
performances of the play have the inspector vanish into thin air. I would not do this,
as it takes away some of the impact of the final telephone call.
The inspector is a character in a fictitious play written by J.B. Priestly.
Priestly wrote the play with a clear idea of whom the inspector was from the start.
Maybe, Priestly never thought that the origin of the inspector was of importance to
the meaning of the play. What are more important, are the messages that the
inspector delivers.