"An Inspector Calls" - Write in detail about how the author creates mystery and suspense and keeps the audience intrigued and interested to the end of the book.

GCSE Coursework English

20th Century Drama “An Inspector Calls”

Write in detail about how the author creates mystery and suspense and keeps the audience intrigued and interested to the end of the book.

In this piece of coursework I will be writing about J.B Priestley’s “An Inspector Calls”. We have been asked to write in detail; about how J.B Priestley creates mystery, suspense and keeps the audience hooked on it all the way to the end of the play. It is full of changes, twists and upsets that interest and intrigues the reader.

“An Inspector calls” is an unusual play which influctucates tension and has the audience surprised up to the end. In the book there are lots of twists and most of the time there is lots of tension and suspense centred around the characters. One of the factors that makes the play captivating is the use of climax, the way it holds the audience all the way through, building up slowly, gathering the plot as it goes on and then finally ends in a stunning climax, for example the way the Inspector extracts small threads of information from the members of the family and slowly puts the picture together and narrows it down to the main culprit as the climax.

The first wave of tension hits the audience when the Birling’s and Gerald and celebrating the engagement between Gerald and Sheila Edna the maid say’s “Please Sir, an Inspector Called”. The actors all look up at the maid and from that point of the tension stars to build throughout the play. The Inspector is a very shady character, he is believable as an inspector but there is something about him that leaves the audience wondering. He talks to them all very aggressively and shocks them into a state that wants them in. In the stage direction it says that he stares at them and pauses before speaking. The audience at this point are completely focused on the Inspector, eager to see what he will say.

The characters are gradually pulled into the plot of the play. It starts off with just Mr. Birling as the culprit but as the story goes on the rest of the characters are brought into the story. It is not until the end that you know the entire truth and even after that there is still a twist. This play focuses mainly on tension and climaxes. As an actor I would say that this play would be a challenge to do. It has lots of ways of doing it and you would have to be very subtle in the way you speak and your movements.

First the Inspector, who calls himself Inspector Goole G-O-O-L-E, integrates Mr. Birling. He tells him that a girl called Eva Smith has died on the way to the infirmary, from drinking too much disinfectant. She had work for Mr. Birling and that he had discharged her for asking for more money then trying to raise a strike. This arises a lot of tension and suspicion from the audience. As the convocation goes on Mr. Birling gets more agitated by some insignificant things the inspector says. This adds a lot of tension and makes the foundations for the play to go on. Mr. Birling also questions the inspector, checking his name and who he knows. This also starts to make the audience aware that the inspector is also very suspicious, seeing as they know no background on him. Also when Mr. Birling is shown a picture of the girl, Gerald is annoyed that he wasn’t allowed to see it “Any particular reason why I should see the girls photograph Inspector”, the Inspector replies with “There might be”. The audience now become suspicious of Gerald and also become suspicious of why he wasn’t allowed to see the photograph.

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Next the Inspector questions Sheila, Mr. Birling’s daughter. It comes apparent that Sheila had got Eva Smith fired from a cloths shop. This build on the tension more because it starts to add more people into the story, rather then just one culprit there are beginning to be more. Sheila lies about knowing Eva Smith, she is forced to tell the truth after it becomes apparent that the inspector already new. This adds to the tension because the audience become more suspicious of the Inspector. Later on it becomes apparent that Gerald knows Eva Smith too. This causes tension between Sheila and Gerald, who have just been engaged. This all adds to the tension because they are starting to argue and from there expressions and lines the audience can see that Gerald has a lot more to do with the story then at first glance. An example of this is when says “don’t say anything to the inspector”, this shows that he has things to hide.

When Mrs. Birling enters she appears calm and social. Shelia gets angry by this, she sees how they had all started calm but the inspector had broken them down and got the truth out of them. Sheila wants her mother just to come clean straight away, she is keen to find out how Eva Smith died. Mrs Birling mentions how there son Eric is in an “excitable silly mood”,” rather too much too drink”. The Inspector replies saying “ isn’t he used to drinking”, this adds to the tension massively for many reasons, it suggests that everyone has something too do with Eva Smith and also creates a massive amount of tension and suspicion around the Inspector. The audience wonder how he knew this and if he actually knows everything already and is just making them realise what they have done. The Inspector now turns on Gerald, who tries to deny him knowing her but soon realise it is to no affect. The audience find out that Gerald had had an affair with her that had not lasted long. This gets Mrs. Birling angry and she refuses to believe it, and starts to blame the Inspector.

At this point it is obvious that it is the truth and Mrs. Birling is made to look more suspicious by refusing and blaming the Inspector. Gerald mentions how when it ended she had left and he had not seen her again, the Inspector says how he knew a little about where she went from a rough dairy she had kept. This takes some of the suspicion of the Inspector, which is good because it makes the twist at the end have a better affect and impact on the audience. Mr. Birling is outraged by this and the manner the Inspector is taking. When he speaks up to the Inspector, the Inspector replies saying “it’s your fault for turning her out”. This creates a lot of tension between all the characters on stage and the audience. It begins to make the characters seem a lot less secure and strong as they did at the beginning of the play. At this point in the play, it has changed a lot since the beginning where they are all celebrating. There is a massive amount of suspicion for all characters. Therefore the characters are very tense in the manner that they act. Apart from Shelia who seems to have taken it very emotionally and wants them all to come clean, and get to the bottom of it. She starts to realise that the Inspector has a lot of information on what happened and is using it to get the full story out of every one. He does this by mentioning little things, therefore the characters come clean and the story starts to grow. This build a lot of tensions because it’s hard to tell what will happen next, and what the other characters have to do with Eva Smith.

Gerald now asks “I’d be glad if you would let me go”, the Inspector agrees for him to go for a walk. This gives off a lot of tension, also from why the Inspector would let him go and also if Gerald was holding back more and needed to go before it was pulled out of him. Next the Inspector shows the photography to Mrs. Birling, it becomes apparent that Eva Smith had gone to Mrs Birling who was part of the “Brumley Women’s Charity Organization”. She had gone there under the name of Mrs. Birling, which angered Mrs. Birling, Eva Smith had wanted help. She told Mrs Birling how her husband had deserted her and the audience eventually find out how she was also pregnant. Immediately the audience think the baby must be Gerald’s, but this is crushed with the Inspector “(cutting in sharply) No. no. Nothing to do with him”, this leaves the audience wondering who’s it could be and also by Eric Mr. Birling son, running out during the convosation it builds a lot of tension and suspense around him. Through out the play the Inspector makes it apparent abut his feeling towards Eva Smith “Her position now is that she lies with a burnt-out side on a slab”, this shows how the Inspector has taken the death of the girl very hardly and takes quite a lot of suspicion off him. Which again makes the ending more effective with a greater impact on the audience. At the end of the scene it becomes apparent that Eva Smith had stopped taking money because she had reason to believe it was stolen, also he gets Mrs Birling to say that the father of the child is to blame and should publicly apologise. Then it comes apparent that the Inspector has suspicion to believe the father is Eric. This shocks Mrs Birling and it seems Shelia knew the Inspector was doing this. As Eric enters at the end of the scene gives good suspicion that the story is coming to and end, this create a lot of tension because it leaves the audience thinking the final outcome will be Eric confessing then action taken from there, however this isn’t the case at all.

During the next scene it becomes apparent that Eric is the father, he knows it straight away saying “You know don’t you”. It comes apparent that Eric had slept with her after a “drunken night” and she had told him she was pregnant. Eric had been stealing money form Mr. Birling’s office and had given it to her “until she had refused it”. Then Eric finds out how Mrs. Birling had rejected her when she needed help. The tension quickly escalates now with Mrs Birling realising her helped kill her Grandson and Eric knowing his own mother had killed his child. The audience would be on the edge of their seats wondering what would happen next. After this they all realise what they had done and begin to become desperate. An example of this is when Mr. Birling offers the Inspector money “I’d give thousands, yes thousands”. At this point the inspector makes a speech that hits the characters and audience hard, making them really think and realize what they have done, then the Inspector leaves them “Good night”.

During the next part of the play the characters think about what had happened, at one point Eric mentions how Mr. Birling had said to him “a man has to make his own way, look after himself and mind his own business”, right after this the Inspector came this makes Sheila think hard about the Inspector and her suspicions become obvious about him when she says “but was he really a police Inspector”. This starts to builds more tension that the play might not be over and that there is going to be a twist in the story. Everyone apart from Sheila seems to blame Eric and none seem to take reasonability for any of their actions. Apart from Sheila who remains upset about the ordeal and believes it all to be there faults. This shows the audience how arrogant the characters our even after knowing there wrong. This build suspicion that there will be a twist from the consequences of them not learning anything from it. The key point of this scene is when Gerald gets back. It comes apparent that there is no inspector Goole in the police force in their area, Straight away after this all the characters forget completely about anything that had just happened apart form Eric and Sheila who try to make them realise what their doing and that even though he might have not been a real Inspector what they had done was just as real. But there is suspicion on if what happened was real, they wondered why he didn’t show them the photograph at their same time and if the picture was even the same girl on each. They start to discus what had happened and seem to quite believe there innocence. This builds the tension massively because at this point the audience don’t know what to believe and can only wait in suspense to find out what really happened. Near the end Gerald says “Everything’s alright now Sheila, what about the ring”, she replies “No, not yet its too soon I must think”, this shows how Gerald has completely forgotten about what had happened while Sheila still has doubts on if its true or not. Then Mr. Birling says “Now look at the pair of them – the famous young generation who know it all. And they can’t even take a joke”, this also shows how Mr. Birling has been so arrogant to forget anything that happened previously. Straight after his last words the telephone rings, as if it was waiting for him to finish. He answers it. Next the audience find out something that twists the whole, play around and leaves them with lots of questions and wonders about certain parts of the play. “That was the police. A Girl has just died – on her way to the Infirmary – after swallowing some disinfectant. And a police Inspector is on his way here – to ask some – questions”, all the tension that’s has been building and dropping of different characters and situations in the play has been leading the audience up to this, when they hear this the [play has put them in such a mood which really shocks them and makes them think hard.

The techniques J.B Priestley’s uses in “An Inspector Calls” create an unusual and atmospheric play. It leaves the audience wondering who the Inspector really was, and if they whole thing was a test to try and teach them a lesson. I think if they had realise what they had done after he left the phone would have not rang, also at the end of the play the truly realise the errors of there ways and you would expect them all to come clean straight away.

By William Oliver