J.B Priestley uses the inspector to question the values and morals of the middle-class household of the Birling family. As the inspector enters (p.10), Arthur Birling has been discussing his opinions and responsibilities ‘That a man has to mind his own business and look after him and his own.’ Mr Birling also believes that the war is never going to happen, ‘Germans don’t want war, no one wants war,’ he says, this gives the audience the impression that he is very naïve and has no idea of the world outside his family, his business and his worries. Because the play is set before the war and it is shown after the war, the audience already knows what has happened and this makes them doubt Birlings convictions, if he’s wrong with his facts the audience would probably think that he must be wrong with his opinions, this will then make them not trust him.
The inspector’s last speech is very powerful because he is saying more than would be expected in normal conversation. In the actual speech the inspector often uses words three times to get the message across, ‘Millions and millions and Millions,’ With what we think say and do’ this makes the audience aware of the point he is trying to make. The Inspector also talks about all the Eva smiths and Johns smiths in the world, saying they are ordinary people and their lives are intertwined with others whether they like it or not. He also uses language like ‘us’ ‘we’ and ‘our’ as though he is talking to everyone and not just one person quote, ‘we don’t live alone. We are all members of one body. We are responsible of each other.’ This speech is very effective in that it reflects J.B.Priestleys own views on war and contrasts strongly with Birlings views which were stated at the beginning of the play. With Birlings speech at the start the inspector’s speech at the end this really balances the play, and leaves the audience going out of the theatre thinking of the inspector’s words and not Mr Birlings.
The inspector is a crucial to the plot and the structure of this play. The plot is very simple a middle-class family are celebrating the engagement of Shelia (the daughter) and Gerald Croft with a family diner. During the evening, an inspector calls to the house and interrogates them about the recent suicide of a young woman. Through his questioning, the inspector exposes the secrets of individual characters and shows us how each of them played a part in her death. In this way the inspector controls the structure and the pace of the play by questioning each family member in the order in which they became involved in Eva smith’s life. The three acts of the play each end with the idea that something that has just been realised and leaves it on a moment of dramatic suspense and we as the audience are anticipating another confession. It is the inspector who controls the pace of the questioning, he’s the one who determines who speaks, and when as though he is a puppeteer, by the inspector constantly checking his watch it makes the audience always aware of the time which is another way to control the pace. After the inspector leaves, the phone rings and we hear that a young women has died and an inspector is on his way. So, even by leaving the stage, the inspector allows the story to return to its starting point.
Each character is a ‘type’ found in society, from the Mr Birlings who are business men and are very one-minded to the Shelia’s who are born into wealth and never has to know what a days earning feels like. The inspector’s treatment of each character resembles how J.B Priestley would deal with each different fraction. The audience would be a cross section of the middle class, many of them having the same values and beliefs as Birling does. Priestley uses the inspector to expose the audience’s involvement in the wrongs in society, this then makes them question and even possible begin to acknowledge their responsibilities just as the characters on stage do. After the inspector exits the stage, the characters become guideless as if they are saying ‘what do we do now?’ Like the characters on stage, some of the audience will settle back into their attitudes that they had at the beginning of the play and some will have changed, they will walk out of the theatre and try to change themselves and pass this on to their children and hopefully make society better.
To conclude the Inspector is very good in the way he conducts himself and controls everything that is said and done on the stage. He is a tool to get the authors beliefs across to the audience, in the way that he makes the characters confess and accept responsibility for their own actions. The inspector is there to allow the characters to change, to allow the audience to change and to finally see what their roles in society are.
