The use of repetition in the play is significant. The repeated words are the most important ones in conversations, like “remember” in the speech of Inspector. This repetition brings both annoyance and attention towards the inspector. Also, these two feelings help the thrill to be increased.
The setting of the scene is very simple, to make the audience focus on the characters and their actions. There are only one table, a few chairs and a phone that can be seen. The location doesn’t change; it’s only the living room of the Birling family. The mood gets worse in each act, which makes the play exciting but mysterious. It is first pleasant, with a “rose-tinted” light around, which causes the audience to be relaxed. When the inspector arrives, the family gets disturbed, and the light gets sharper to wake the audience up.
The different way of inspector’s questioning causes the audience’s curiosity and suspect to increase. Each time the inspector inspects a character; the uneasiness gets worse and worse, until it reaches its peak which is panic, guiltiness, worry, regret and shame. He inspected them one by one, forcing them to admit their actions. Later on, these admissions were being used against them. At first, they couldn’t think that the inspector knew nothing, because he had affected them very much by his sentences which were brief but strong. He also prevented them to be affected from each other by showing the photographs to only one person each time.
The way of Priestley’s description of characters was so perfectly done that the audience could quickly get the idea. The inspector “gives the impression
of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness, he stays solid and calm while the other characters brake down”. Birling is described as a person who is “heavy-looking, rather portentous” and pompous. The only thing that he cares about is his money and image, which make him to look suspicious. Sheila is a girl who appreciates life in her little bubble. She is emotional so can quickly be affected by anyone stronger than her. Eric is “not quite at ease, half shy, half assertive”, and is the member of family who they don’t know much about. He tries to struggle with his father and drinks to show that he is mature. He isn’t aware of the problems which his actions could bring. Mrs. Birling is a “rather cold woman and her husband’s social superior”. She only cares about her image and career. The people who are on a lower class do not have any importance to her. Ironically, she is working in a charity. Gerald is an “attractive chap about thirty”, and his only fault was his honesty and desire to help people. However, he should have known that accommodating a foreign woman into his friend’s flat could bring trouble. All of these have brought suspense building up on the characters.
The reactions of the characters also help to increase the tension. The inspector’s immediate arrival caused a small panic in the family, which Birling tried to bribe him to shut up. When Sheila heard about the death of Eva Smith, she overreacted, and when she realizes that she had a role in this suicide, her actions were extreme. These extreme actions made the audience not to be able to think clearly, so to be totally confused. The tension was being continued with Eric’s actions, with the aid of his mother’s phrases. When she told the inspector that the person which made Eva Smith pregnant should be punished severely, she thought that this person was a low-class man. The realisation of this person being her son, at least made her regret her actions.
The tension decreases when the characters find out that there was no inspector, and at last, they were completely relaxed. This relaxation continues until the ringing of the telephone, about an inspector on his way to question the family about a woman who killed herself. This news resets the level of the thrill once again.
As the events of the play take their dramatic course and as the mood progressively changes, Priestley succeeds to create a non-stop tension during the whole play. This play could be watched more than once, because each time another thrill object could be discovered. There are many social meanings and messages embedded within the play.
(Word count: 903 words)