The Inspector interrupts the celebration dinner and delivers the news that Eva Smith has committed suicide. In this scene the inspector affects Mr Birling, Eric and Gerald. The audience are also affected by this new and unexpected character. Mr Birling is affected most by the Inspectors presence as Gerald feels it has nothing to do with him and Eric remains happy, due to his consumption of alcohol. As it is his nature Mr Birling immediately tries to take control of the situation and the inspector; as he feels threatened by the new assertive male company. He assumes that this control will be easy as being a typical middle/upper class man he feels that he has more authority and power over a working class civil servant. However, he has no such luck with Inspector Goole as he simply ignores Mr Birling’s pathetically challenging body language such as “somewhat impatiently” by interrupting “massively.” This affects Mr Birling as it belittles him in a way that he probably has never had to handle before. He doesn’t now how to react to the overwhelmingly confidently assertive inspector so he starts getting agitated and angry with others around him; “look you just keep out of this!” The audience now sees another weakness in Mr Birling and may either feel sorry for him or be mildly amused at this proud man who is now completely controlled and unable to do much about it.
In this scene the inspector also affects Gerald in a similar way. I doubt if he is bothered at all when the Inspector arrives as he is aristocratic and probably feels that whatever he is inquiring about will have nothing to do with him. However the Inspector shocks and disparages Gerald by treating him the same as the rest of the Birlings by implying that he may have something to do with it, “I’d prefer you to stay.” This seems to make him disgruntled and negative towards the inspector as he seems to join in with Mr Birling’s annoyance after that by adding exclamations such as “I should say so!”
The Inspectors impact on Eric at first is nothing but annoyance. He seems to be angered a little at not being allowed to see the photograph as he feels he has been treated like a child. However, he is not surprised by his treatment like Gerald and Mr Birling are because I think that he may be used to being treated like a child by his parents. I can reckon this because Mr and Mrs Birling were so shocked after hearing the revelations that Eric was drinking heavily and having sex that it seemed like they didn’t notice him growing up under their noses.
The effect the Inspector has on the audience in his opening scene is primarily a suspicious one. This is because although they have been made to believe that family are rich and humorously naive they have not yet been lead to think that there are wrong doers or evil people. So, this makes the audience feel irritated by this new character who has interrupted a seemingly nice happy family occasion. However, as the scene unfolds the audience gains a powerful impression of the inspector as he arouses suspicion about the characters. He does this by drawing in information from the outside world to make the obviously rich and materialistic people (the dining room is described as being “heavily comfortable”) seem petty and selfish. The effect of this on the audience is that they now suspect the party members to be the negative characters rather than the Inspector.
When the inspector is inquiring of Mrs Birling about her involvement in Eva Smith’s life we learn that she refused to help the destitute Eva when she asked for help at her greatest time of need, just simply because Mrs Birling believed she was herself airs and graces as she was a working class girl who purported to have the same name as her.
The most interesting thing about this occasion is that the inspector seems to have no affect on Mrs Birling what so ever. She even refuses to believe the fact that she has acted in an unjust and insensitive manner, right until the last comment made by the Inspector she protests her innocence by saying for example; “I’ve done nothing wrong – and you know it.” If she wavers at all during her very well performed testimony it is when she has to resort to blaming all of the injustice on the baby’s father; a character who at this time is unknown. Even though by seemingly keeping her cool all the way through her questioning Mrs Birling seems perhaps more intelligent that Mr Birling. However, by analysing closer I realise that this actually proves that she is more ignorant than her husband. She simply doesn’t understanding the threatening affect the inspector is having on her and the family and is not considering their consequences of social damage.
Mr Birling however is very aware of the consequences of the revelations made by the Inspector, as he sees his knighthood slipping away from him. Therefore his presence has a panicky and nervous affect on Mr Birling as he tries to stop his wife carelessly speaking very unkindly and prejudicially. This is shown at its most clear when he warns Mrs Birling that “when this comes out at the inquest, it isn’t going to do us much good.” Although this shows that the Inspector is getting the upper hand over Mr Birling, it also shows that he still hasn’t seemed to have affected Mr Birling’s way of thinking, as above all else he is still concerned about himself and how he is presented.
Sheila on the other hand seems to be deeply affected by Inspector Goole. She is disgusted by herself when her part in the tragedy is revealed, upset when her father is proved to be cruel and greedy but yet not surprised when Gerald turns out to be involved with the girl. When her mother starts to blame the baby’s father in her defence Sheila latches on to the fact that it might be Eric almost straight away. This is because the Inspector’s presence has affected her in such a way that she no longer assumes that the people she thought she knew very well are good and are in fact carrying some dark secret. He has opened her eyes to the outside world and how those less fortunate than herself are suffering because of how people of her class and conduct themselves.
The audience are also affected by the Inspector’s presence on this occasion. By this stage the audience will be completely on the Inspector’s side and anxious for the Birling family to be punished and justice to be done upon them. Also, hopefully the Inspector (although being just a fictional character) has affected the audience on a personal level and made them think about their own lives and how their behaviour might affect the lives of others without them even realising it.
The final occasion I’m going to explore in this essay is when the Inspector mysteriously disappears and Sheila and Mrs Birling suspect that he might be of a supernatural nature. Obviously the Inspector isn’t physically on the stage so some might argue that it would make this section inappropriate for the essay title. However, more than any other part of the play I think that this scene is really affected by the inspector’s presence. On the other occasions I have discussed the audience and characters have been affected by the remarks the Inspector has made and how he has said them so I suppose this shows them being affected by his physical presence, it is only on this occasion that they are affected by the very essence of his presence. This is excellent story telling by Priestly as it will affect the audience greatly.
This is because the audience will be expecting the quintessential moralistic ending of a character development story, yet just before they come to that conclusion he gives a final twist on the story and on the Inspector. The new spiritual presence of the Inspector will affect the audience as I believe they will take the story line more seriously as an original tale with a powerful message that (as Priestley is trying to convey) could have been sent by a higher being like God.
The supernatural presence of the inspector has an immediate impact on the characters. It occurs to Sheila first and the lesson which she has learnt seems to be more confirmed by the knowledge that the Inspector maybe a spiritual sign. Mr and Mrs Birling however seem to gain a reassured affect from the queerness of his presence and disappearance. They think it is a relief to think that they will not be penalised in the press or thought worse of by their neighbours. For this foolhardy presumption they are punished later when the police do actually call wanting to question them inquiring about Eva’s suicide.