Consider Inspector Goole's Interrogation of One or More of the Characters in "An Inspector Calls" by JB Priestley. How might an Audience Respond to the Sequences You Choose?

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Consider Inspector Goole’s Interrogation of One or More of the Characters in “An Inspector Calls” by JB Priestley. How might an Audience Respond to the Sequences You Choose?

        JB Priestley’s skills as a playwright meant that he could often sculpt the audience’s reactions to the different sequences in ‘An Inspector Calls’. He uses the characters and their interrogations as a way to convey meanings and the purpose of the play, in several key sequences.

        One of the main interrogations in the play is that of Arthur Birling. Before his interrogation has even begun, a threatened Birling makes an attempt to intimidate the inspector when he mentions that he ‘was an Alderman for years and Lord Mayor two years ago’. He lists his several political statuses to overwhelm the inspector into a state of awe and respect. He also feigns knowledge of exactly why the inspector is calling. He cites ‘some trouble about a warrant’, as the reason the inspector would be there, and comments on the inspector’s position in the police force, to try to let the inspector know that he is involved within the police force. His attempts to appear knowledgeable and authorative have already fallen flat on their face with the audience, after the use of dramatic irony earlier on in the play, where the audience is given a sense of power and superiority over Birling at his lack of knowledge of the Titanic’s sinking and the impending war. Furthermore, as the play progresses, the inspector establishes a more authorative tone, and manages to stay cool, as Birling becomes agitated and frustrated with his loss of control of the situation. In my opinion, the inspector is in fact exposing Birling to not be as clever as he thinks, which is probably the way that the audience feels about Birling at this stage of the play. This would therefore, probably affect the audience’s opinions of the characters; with the inspector being favoured more, for refusing to let Birling intimidate him. This idea of Inspector Goole exposing characters of the upper class such as Birling as everyday people who are no better than the lower class could be seen as the inspector’s purpose, and his role in the play. JB Priestley uses Inspector Goole as a tool to analyse and expose an upper class family.

During Birling’s interrogation there are many signs of who is in control of this investigation. Despite Birling’s attempts to intimidate the inspector that have already been discussed, it is the inspector who is in control of the interrogation. In fact, there are several instances when simply the language could be interpreted as intimidating and controlling. For example, the inspector’s use of the phrase ‘of course’. The death of Eva Smith was ‘suicide, of course’. The disinfectant ‘Burnt her inside out, of course’. By doing this, the inspector is saying what he is telling the family is stuff they should be smart enough to figure out, already. Just these two words make the inspector sound more intelligent, and also more intimidating, not only to the characters, but also to the audience, who, via JB Priestley’s language techniques very well may be in a position of respect and awe of the inspector. It’s not as if one of the character’s will suddenly open their mouth and declare that they didn’t realise the death was suicide! An alternative reaction from the audience to this behaviour from the inspector would be respect for an inspector that sounds very learned, and well informed. The inspector sounds like he knows what he is talking about, which may cause the audience to respect him.

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Something else that the inspector does to control the interrogation is to only show the photo to one person at a time. For example, he simply shows a photo of the girl to Birling, and refuses to show it to an irritated Eric and Gerald. This is a strong example of the inspector controlling the investigation. The inspector simply cites ‘there might be’ a reason as to why Gerald and Eric shouldn’t see the photo.  The way that Priestley writes the inspector’s character is rather consistent. This one phrase is incredibly mysterious, and doesn’t give much away, which is true ...

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