Tension is raised at this part of the play when Birling says: “Give us some more light.” This raises the tension because the atmosphere changes from calm and celebrating mood to an uneasy mood with harsh lighting. The strong lighting would make this part of the play seem more like a police interrogation at a police station. By changing the intensity of the lighting the audience knows that the play is becoming more serious. The contrasts of the moods would emphasise how different the mood is now.
The lighting that is turned up when the Inspector arrives is symbolic, because it represents that light is being shed on the family. It is as if the Inspector is a guiding light for the family to the truth. Light has connotations with purity and goodness; this is seen as what the Inspector is bringing.
Also by the light being increased the faces of the characters are more clearly visible emphasising their facial expressions. This adds tension to the play because it is then really clear what the characters and thinking and feeling. When Sheila is shown the photograph by the Inspector she doesn’t say anything, but it is still made very clear what she is thinking by her facial expressions. The stage directions describe her reaction: “She looks at it closely, recognises it with a little cry….” Sheila’s face is brightly lit so her reaction is made more dramatic.
The Inspector adds immense tension to the play by his interrogation of the characters. He forces them to reveal secrets about themselves, that they otherwise would never have revealed. By forcing out these hidden thoughts the Inspector changed the relationship between the family. As the Inspector forces out more and more of the truth from the characters about their twisted involvement with Eva Smith, the characters get pushed further and further away from each other because they learn that everyone has secrets they were trying to hide.
The first person the Inspector interrogates is Birling. Birling has no idea why the Inspector wants to speak to him and doesn’t seem to care. He treats the Inspector’s visit with no urgency or importance, Birling says to the Inspector: “Have a glass of Port- or a little whiskey?” The Inspector replies with “No, thank you, Mr Birling. I’m on duty.” This creates tension because Birling tries to treat the Inspector’s visit as frivolous, but by the Inspector saying “no”, he shows that it is a serious matter. This shows that Birling has little respect for the Inspector, because Birling is an arrogant man.
From the Inspector’s interrogation of Birling, we learn that Birling had fired Eva Smith for striking and not thought twice about it. He hadn’t tried to hide this fact or keep it a secret. He said: “we were paying the usual rates and if they didn’t like those rates, they could go and work somewhere else.” This indicated that Birling didn’t think he had done anything wrong and so had no-need to feel guilty, he thought like this because he didn’t think he had any responsibility among society.
When the Inspector has been questioning Birling for a while, Birling begins to get very annoyed because he thinks that he has told the Inspector everything that he knows, Birling says: “I don’t see we need to tell the Inspector anything more. In fact there’s nothing I can tell him.” This creates tension between the Inspector and Birling because Birling thinks the Inspector has out stayed his welcome and the enquiry is over. The tension is raised because if the Inspector won’t leave, there must be more to say. As the play continues Birling gets angrier with the Inspector. The Inspector raises the tension hugely when he lets the family know that he is here to speak to other people as well. Birling replies to this with: “You didn’t come here just to see me, then?” When the family learns this, the tension increases because they wonder what else he would need to find out. The stage direction say: “The other four exchange bewildered and perturbed glances.” By letting the family know this, the Inspector eases Birling’s tension and raises the tension among everyone else. This is an example of the Inspector raising and lowering tension.
Before the Inspector begins to interrogate the next person, he gives out more information about Eva Smith. He does this to bring her to life and to change ‘Eva Smith’ from just a name to a real person. “She was out of work for the next few months. Both her parents were dead, so that she’d no home to go back to.” This gets the characters more emotionally involved with the girl, so they feel sorry for her because they know about her unfortunate life and therefore will feel more guilty when they discover their individual involvement in her rotten life.
The next person the Inspector interrogates is Sheila. Sheila seems like more of a caring person than Birling. While the Inspector is telling everyone about Eva’s life, Sheila says: “It’s a rotten shame.” She feels sorry for the girl, which contrasts with Birling’s opinions, making Birling seem more heartless. When the Inspector reveals Sheila’s involvement with the girl Sheila feels instantly guilty. The stage directions say: ‘She looks at it closely, recognises it, gives a half stifled sob, and then runs out.’. The Inspector caused Sheila’s dramatic reaction and guilt without even having to persuade her that it was her fault. When Sheila returns to the Inspector, she had excepted that she had done something wrong and didn’t try to hide anything.
When Gerald realises his involvement with Eva Smith he tries to keep it a secret. He does this because he knows the truth will destroy his relationship with Sheila. When Sheila does realise that Gerald was having an affair she is furious and doesn’t want to marry him. This drastic change in their relationship is due to the Inspector forcing Gerald to reveal the truth. Sheila realises that Gerald knew Eva Smith because the Inspector forced him to give himself away. As soon as the Inspector mentions “Daisy Renton” Gerald gives himself away. The stage directions say that he is “startled.” The Inspector had purposely not mentioned Eva Smith’s other name (Daisy Renton) until now so that no one would know that Eva Smith and Daisy Renton is the same person. He saved this information until he could use it to benefit his investigation.
At the end of act one the scene freezes and act two starts exactly the same way. The Inspector repeats the word “well?” to remind the audience of the goings on from the last scene. The freezing of the characters keeps the audience in suspense.
The Inspector is responsible for Mrs. Birling realising that Eric is a heavy drinker. This is an example of how the Inspector changes the relationship between family members. If it weren’t for the Inspector’s light shedding, then Mrs. Birling wouldn’t have been forced to face the truth about her, less than perfect, son.
The next person the Inspector interrogates is Mrs. Birling. The audience learns from these questions and her answers that she is just as arrogant as Birling. When the Inspector asks her if she recognises the photograph of Eva Smith, she lies and says “No. Why should I?” This makes the audience dislike Mrs. Birling because she doesn’t want to take responsibility. As the Inspector carries on with his questioning it is made obvious that Mrs. Birling is a snob.
Tension in the play reaches a climax when Mrs. Birling blames Eva Smith’s baby’s father for her suicide. She says: “I blame the young man who was the farther of the child she was about to have.” She continues to blame this man and hold him responsible for Eva’s suicide, during this time the audience realise that this man is Eric. This makes the audience dislike her even more because they know that she wouldn’t be holding this man responsible if she knew he were Eric.
The Inspector caused the whole story to unravel revealing everyone’s involvement in Eva’s suicide, he left all the characters feeling very guilty, and both the characters and the audience re-evaluating their morels about life. With everyone feeling so venerable and deep in contemplation, Priestley took this as an opportunity to get across his final message. This message came in the form of the Inspector’s dramatic final speech. The Inspector’s final speech is very dramatic and completes everything he has said throughout the play and enforces all the points he has made, making his leaving very dramatic and memorable. His final speech is hard hitting and relates to the audience. The Inspector uses pronouns to include the audience such as ‘us’, ‘our’ and ‘we’. By using pronouns it sounds as though the Inspector is talking to every individual, making each person feel more responsible. To emphasise what he is saying he repeats words, for example “millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths.” This emphasises the point that the Inspector is trying to make about the responsible people have for less fortunate people. The Inspector also uses dramatic and emotive words to get his point across. He says: “they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.” These final words will stick in the audiences’ heads because they have just lived through two wars and are still suffering from the devastating consequences of war. The play is set in 1912 (before the two wars) Priestley has used dramatic irony here, because the audience have lived through the bloodshed of wars, but the characters have not. The Inspector’s final speech creates tension because he makes everyone feel responsible for Eva’s suicide.
The Inspector’s true identity was never revealed, so the characters or the audience never know who he really is, where he comes from, or how he knows so much about the case. Some people may believe that the Inspector was a time-traveller, who went back in time to try and correct the past. They may have been led to believe this because, in the 1992 Royal National Theatre production the Inspector wears 1940 clothes when the play was set in Edwardian times. In this version of the play the Birling’s house is precariously balanced up high, it looks as if it could come crashing down at any moment, and at the end of the play the house does fall down. This symbolises the way that the Birlings thought that they were superior to the lower classes and the way that the Inspector brought these ideas crashing down. In the 1954 film version of the play the man who plays the Inspector is a pale faced man with dark dramatic eyes. This makes the Inspector look ghostly enforcing some peoples theories of him being a ghost.
Because the Inspector’s true identity is not revealed the tension in the play is increased. This is because the audience don’t know anything about the Inspector, so do not trust the inspector and there-fore would be put on edge by him.
Priestley has presented the Inspector in a very mysterious way, we do not know where he comes from or anything about him, but it is soon made clear why he is in the play; to teach an important lesson. The audience is left thinking about the play and all the issues raised in it. This play definitely left me thinking about my role among society.
