An Inspector Calls Overview and Personal Response

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Tom Savage

An Inspector Calls

I liked ‘An Inspector Calls’ even though it isn’t the type of play I would usually have enjoyed, because of there being only one scene and small number of characters. But it had a plot that impressed and perplexed me from start to finish with a nice twist at the end.

        Set at Brumley in 1912 ‘An Inspector Calls’ is about a wealthy family named the Birlings and one night that changes each and every one of them. A man claiming to be a police inspector investigating the suicide of a young, working class girl, arrives at the stately home of Mr Arthur Birling. He has probing questions for each of the five people dining within the house and more than one person is exposed for affecting this girl’s life and driving her to suicide.

        In this play Priestley not only aims to entertain but as with almost all of his other plays and novels has hidden meanings and messages, such as the proud arrogance and irresponsibility of upper class, older generation bureaucrats and their conservative views of the period, their blindness to change and their selfish, spoiled attitudes. This becomes apparently clear as Priestley almost dons the part of the inspector in challenging the family one by one, as Priestley’s and the inspector’s views appear almost alike (Priestley being a great fighter for the rights of the working class person). This is stated quite clearly in the inspectors closing paragraph:

“But remember this. One Eva Smith has gone- but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives…”

        I also enjoyed the screenplay. I feel it was quite successful and a fair interpretation of the original play. It also changed my views of some of the characters. I felt more sympathetic for the young Eric Birling as the screenplay gave you a clearer picture of his side of the story and played on his vulnerability and sweet innocence. Also the inspector came across as more scheming and not half as democratic as in the play. I didn’t particularly take to this, as one of the reasons I liked the character of the inspector is because of his political and authoritative persona. The screenplay also gave the play a more si-fi/paranormal genre with the inspector disappearing into thin air at the end and his slightly more obvious ability to predict the future.

        I did particularly enjoy the flashbacks to each family members first meeting with Eva throughout the screenplay. These little sections enhanced the way I viewed each character’s relationship with Eva Smith. In Mrs Birling’s case I felt much sorrier for Eva and, if that’s possible, even more contempt for Mrs Birling herself. She appears a much more wicked person than in the play as you can actually witness the other committee members’ reactions towards Eva and Mrs Birling. One negative thing the flashbacks created was that they stopped the plot being entirely in chronological order, something which is heavily stressed in the play.

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        In the screenplay the producers curiously change the inspectors name from Goole to Poole. Reasons for this could be if they have him disappear into thin air at the end, calling him Goole might make it a bit more predictable that he is in fact something almost paranormal, as another spelling and meaning for Goole is: Ghoul- a spirit or phantom. This would make the adaptation boring and corny for the TV audience. But besides rhyming Poole and Goole have another relationship they are both fishing ports. The significance of this maybe that a certain method of boat fishing is ...

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