After Edna (the maid) has announced the arrival of Inspector Goole, Birling says "Show him in. Give us some more light." At the beginning of Act One, Priestly says that the lighting should be pink and intimate until the Inspector arrives, and then it should be brighter and harder. The change in the lighting indicates one thing. It signals a change in the mood of the play. With the arrival of the Inspector a note of tension and menace is introduced. Priestley has cleverly created a sense of false security that lulls the audience into expecting the smugness and complacency of Birling and his world to be challenged. If we look at Priestley's stage directions on the entrance of Inspector Goole it shows us that this person is going to be an interesting and important character in the play. The parts of the stage directions that shows this are: "size: not necessarily big but giving the impression of strength and determination" and, "manner: looks hard at the person he is talking to - this can be "disconcerting" for the person addressed - off putting, alarming" This also shows that the Inspector has good interigational qualities, which lead to the question "why would he need them with the Birlings and Gerald Croft?"
When Birling asks what the Inspector wants, he replies by saying that he'd like some information about a young woman, who is called Eva Smith, who had died in the Infirmary two hours ago. He also adds that the women had been taken there that afternoon because she'd swallowed a lot of strong disinfectant. "Burnt her inside out, of course" he finishes, which shocks Eric initially, then Sheila. This is already showing that the Inspector has a good way with words, which can alter some vulnerable people's attitudes.
It is now seen in Act 1 of An Inspector Calls the attitudes and personalities of each of the members of the Birling family, and Gerald Croft. Also this "inspector" has been shown as a powerful and key character of the play. Briefly, the play carries on with the Inspector interrogating each of the people, and finding out how every one of them are involved in driving Eva Smith to suicide. Throughout the play the character of the Inspector is presented as a cool headed and highly interigationaly driven person. When he is interrogating and questioning, as well as provoking, the older members of the family and Gerald Croft about there connection with Eva Smith, they always reply with nonplussed looks on their faces, and total denial of anything the Inspector has to say. The Inspector, of course, knows exactly that they are lying and he sometimes will play around with them, just making them dig there hole deeper and deeper, and then when they eventually get mad, or irritated, and start having a go at the Inspector, that is when he comes down on them like a ton of bricks, with conclusive proof that they are lying and that they are connected to this Eva Smith. This "style" seems to be a trait of the Inspector that is just natural to him.
An important theme that is conveyed throughout the play is the impressionability of the young people under the influence of the Inspector.
This is shown many times with Sheila and Eric Birling, the younger members of the family, buckling under the pressure of the Inspector. Goole does not have to try hard to get the youths to admit to their crimes. He also has total control of them by continually trying to get their parents to stop barricading themselves from the truth. "Stop trying to build up a wall mother, because it's only going to come crashing down", was a statement by Sheila Birling towards her mother when she was being interrogated. That statement was a product of the Inspector influencing Sheila in a way that changed her attitude. Eric however is slightly different by not trying to convince his parents to admit to their crimes, but he himself completely believing everything the Inspector says, and admitting everything questioned of him. This again is showing how the Inspector has influenced Eric in the way that he acts.
The dénouement of the play is an interesting and cleverly concealed twist that brings a great question at the ending of the play. In the play the dénouement is a part when the Inspector has left and the family, including Gerald Croft, are going over the night's happenings and what they are going to do. Arthur and Sybil Birling, along with Gerald, are trying to find out a way in which it would disconcert they events and prove the Inspector wrong. They do this by calling the local police station and asking them if an Inspector Goole had been enrolled, they reply by saying no. This raises the spirits of them, and now they think there of the hook. Still Eric and Sheila are upset because of the "death" of Eva Smith. Gerald comes up with the proposition that the Inspector, while interigating them, had shown them all different pictures of this girl and that they have been fooled. Arthur agrees triumphantly. Still Eric replies by saying that a girl has still died and that’s all that mattered. Then Arthur suggests that no girl has died and if the Inspector lied about his position, and the photos, then he could be lying about a girl dying in the Infirmary. He then calls the Infirmary and discovers that no girl has died of suicide, and that nobody has been brought in from drinking bleach. Then the whole families go straight back into their old attitudes and state of mind like they were like at the start of the play. But then suddenly the phone rings and they all find out that a girl has just committed suicide by drinking bleach, and has died, and that an Inspector is coming round to ask some questions
