One thing that the audience will notice, which is connected to the previous point, is that the Inspector engages and interacts with them. He does this in several ways, such as asking awkward questions, and giving vivid descriptions of things like Eva’s suicide and how each character affected her; “She’d been taken [to the Infirmary] this afternoon because she’d swallowed a lot of strong disinfectant. Burnt her insides out, of course.” These strong statements capture the audience’s imagination.
By asking awkward questions, he allows the audience, not only to examine themselves, but also to see the Birlings struggling. For an audience, especially the audience watching the play in 1945, it would be fun for them to see the Birlings get their comeuppance. At this point in the play, Priestly has already shown that Mr. Birling is not as shrewd as he thinks he is, by using dramatic irony when Mr. Birling voices his opinions on topic like war; “The Germans don’t want war. Nobody wants war”, and the Titanic; “She sails next week… unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable”.
His comments on war are ironic because WW1 started a few years later, and the play was performed to an audience who had probably lived through the effects of it and WW2 (which finished in mid-1945). The audience would also have known that the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage. His comment “There’ll be peace and prosperity and rapid progress everywhere – except of course in Russia” would have been especially ironic to the first audience to see it performed because it was in Russia, after the Russian revolution.
Priestly’s use of the Inspector to interact with the audience ensures that they remain interested and focused on the play. It also means they will probably enjoy it, and therefore recall it and its themes and main points more easily.
The Inspector is also there to move the play forward; without him guiding the characters’ conversations the play would probably be reduced to petty squabbling. For instance, in act three when the Inspector is questioning Eric, Mr. Birling interrupts – “So you had to go to bed with her?” Eric replies “… I hate those fat old tarts around the town – the ones I see some of your ‘respectable’ friends with” to which Birling replies “I don’t want any of that talk from you.”
At this point, the Inspector demonstrates his role as guide by cutting across them both and saying “I don’t want any of it from either of you. Settle it afterwards.” He then continues asking Eric questions, ending any argument and reinforcing Priestly’s point that you cannot get away from your responsibilities.
Another way he guides the plot is by manipulating the characters so they say what he needs them to say to make his next argument. An example of this is the following quote.
Gerald (to Sheila): Why should you [stay]? It’s bound to be unpleasant and disturbing.
Inspector: And you think young women ought to be protected against unpleasant and disturbing things?
Gerald: If possible – yes.
Inspector: Well, we know one young woman who wasn’t, don’t we.
In the above segment, the Inspector asks a question which is shaped to give him the response he needs, so that he can go on to say “Well we know one woman who wasn’t…”, thus getting the conversation back onto the subject of Eva’s death and the causes of it.
To give the messages delivered by the Inspector authority, Priestly makes him a very mysterious character. Firstly, there is his name; Goole sounds like ‘ghoul’, and Inspector reminds us of the word ‘spectre’, both of which suggest that the Inspector is an ethereal being. Enforcing this theory is his remark “We often do [have an impression] on the young ones”, which makes us wonder what ‘we’ he is part of – perhaps the undead, or perhaps he is an angel of some sort.
Another theory, which is that of the older Birlings, is that he is just somebody playing a trick on them and not a police officer at all – “That man definitely wasn’t a police inspector at all… we’ve been had.” However, the fact that the Inspector knew so much about them, and Mr and Mrs Birlings’ low regard in the eyes of the audience (who know the full details of what they’ve done), lower the credibility of this theory.
Further supporting the idea that the Inspector is not quite human is his final speech, and the way it is delivered.
The Inspector’s final speech does not sound like an ordinary conversation; the way it is structured and the language used make it clear that the Inspector wanted the Birlings to listen carefully (and that Priestly wanted the audience to listen carefully). The first way this is shown is through his language. He uses powerful words and phrases - some of which sound almost biblical, reinforcing his almost angelic status – to ensure the speech stays in the minds of those listening, for example: “millions and millions and millions”.
The structure is varied to make sure it is not tedious; the first sentence is very long and is therefore followed by a very short one.
Priestly uses words like ‘us’ and ‘we’ to show that he identifies with the audience, as in the line “We are members of one body”.
The first person singular ‘I’ is used to make the speaker sound more sincere (as suggested by Eugene Scribe), as it sounds like he is speaking about something he personally believes in.
There are contrasting pairs such as “their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness”, which have a similar effect to listing things in threes, such as “fire and blood and anguish” and “millions and millions and millions”; these devices get the audience’s attention and make them more likely to remember the message.
Priestly also makes good use of historical context, and events between 1912 and 1945 are hinted at. He uses lines such as “if men will not learn that lesson [that we are responsible for each other] then they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish” to remind the audience of both world wars, and their causes. He suggests that men did not learn their lesson so there was a war, and when they still had not learnt their lesson, that caused another war.
The speech also has an interesting rhythm; it starts quite slowly (“But just remember this…”) and then gets faster as the content of the speech intensifies (“We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other”), until suddenly stopping with an anticlimactic “Good night”.
In my opinion, this speech also has strong religious subtexts, linking to the theory that the Inspector is an otherworldly creature such as an angel. Phrases like “We are members of one body” (which is reminiscent of the Anglican Communion service) and “I tell you that a time will come when, if men will not learn… they will be taught…,” remind the audience of the Bible and Christianity, the main religion of England at that time.
The meaning of this speech also ties in with Priestly’s strong socialist views, which could mean that the Inspector is merely an embodiment of Priestly himself.
Historical context plays a huge part in the Inspector’s role. Priestly probably set the play in 1912 because that was a time when class and gender distinctions were very strong, in contrast to the time when he was writing. In comparison, immediately after the Second World War there was a great desire for social change; perhaps Priestly was implying that men had learnt their lesson, finally, and was highlighting it so that the audience, and anyone else who got his message, would not forget and revert to their old ways.
His illustration of the Birling’s attitudes and lifestyle was a ‘typical’ representation of how upper class attitudes affected working class people; for example, Mrs Birling said of Eva, “as if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money!” and gave it as a reason for not helping Eva.
It should also be noted here that this play was performed just a few years before the welfare state was implemented, which could mean that plays like this were the catalyst for that change.
In conclusion, the main role of the Inspector in ‘An Inspector Calls’ is as a device through which Priestly can reveal his own socialist views, and prove them. The Inspector is also a partly amusing, partly mysterious character who keeps the audience entertained. He has this effect on any audience, whether in 1945 or contemporary, and Priestly effectively manages to entertain the audience whilst delivering his message by using a variety of different devices, showing that he was a skilled playwright. The Inspector retains his air of mystery throughout the play, and the ending further enforces it, as the Birlings are left wondering if he was real at all. Therefore, for the most part, the Inspector is there to sustain the audience’s interest and to deliver Priestly’s message to them in a memorable way.
