Then the phone rings and, Mr Birling picks it up and gets quite a shock, It s police and they’ve sent an inspector over to their house to make an enquiry about a girl who has just died on her way to the infirmary because she swallowed some disinfectant.
The inspector is what the writer J B Priestley uses to express his views regarding socialism and Capitalism, Priestly seems to feel very strongly in support for socialism, since the characters we don’t like very much are the ones who are capitalists, like Mr Birling who is a very arrogant and selfish man who seems to care only about his reputation being damaged rather than feeling guilt about his contribution to the death of Eva Smith. In the play in act 1 Mr. Birling talks about what he thinks about people living in a community he believes “that a man has to make his own way – has to look after himself –and his family too”, we can tell the Mr. Birling thinks in business terms as he sees the marriage between his daughter and Gerald as a way in which both their families can work “together -for lower costs and higher prices”, Mr.Birling says “a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own-and-“,before he gets to finish his point there is an interruption because of the inspector, its almost as if J B Priestley’s response to Birling’s opinions is the Inspector, who’s opinions are totally the opposite to Birling’s. The inspector believes that that all people should live in a society which does not segregate people because of their class or because of there social status, people need to take care of each other and be responsible for each other. Priestly uses the Arthur Birling to show how ignorant capitalists are, when Arthur Birling makes his pompous predictions about future events, like when he says that “the Germans don’t war”, which is quite ironic because two years after this story was set the First World War took place. The Inspector is portrayed like good guy, with good intentions he believes that socialism can benefit the poorer classes, unlike capitalism which make the rich more rich and the poor more poorer. On the other hand you have Mr. Birling who represents greedy business men, who don’t learn from the mistakes they make and do not seem to care about what consequences there could be to their actions, they are more concerned about the amount of money they make or lose.
The inspector is a very serious man, he doesn’t’ have time for jokes or smile or laugh he is extremely determined to carry out his duty as a policeman. He likes to be organised, this can be seen when he says the way in which he like to work is “one person and one enquiry at a time. Other wise there is a muddle”, this plus the way in which he carries out his enquiries is done in strategically, for example when he is showing the photo to Mr. Birling he makes sure no one else sees the photo by blocking their view, he doesn’t want them to see the photo so that they can not make an alibi or lie about it. It seems that the inspector either knows all the details to do with the death of Eva Smith, or he is using a limited amount of information in an effective way as to make it look like he knows all the truth about the involvement each character has with Eva Smith, It is very well possible that the characters being questioned just think that he knows everything when he actually doesn’t, so they see no point in lying and confess their involvement with Eva Smith. The inspector is so intimidating and is always direct in his questioning that the character has no choice but to tell the truth. When the Inspector is talking to the characters he make sure that the subject they are talking about is not changed, and if is changed he makes short and quick comment that reflect n his interest for anything other than his investigation, an example of this is when Mr. Birling says “How do you get on with our Chief Constable Colonel Roberts?”, to this the inspector replies “I don’t see much of him”, he doesn’t say much but says enough to answer the question without going into another conversation unrelated to the investigation. If the Inspector is not really a police officer and he said that he doesn’t see much of The Chief Constable Colonel Roberts, he has not really lied because if he is not an inspector he wouldn’t really see much of the Chief. The inspector is a man who is not persuaded by bribe or frightened by threats of loosing his job as we can se from the incident where Mr Birling says he knows the Chief Constable Colonel Roberts very well and they “play golf together sometimes”, the inspector replies using a witty comment to dismiss the whole threat showing he isn’t bothered by such threats. You can see that money doesn’t change his mind either which can be seen by when the Inspector rejects the offer of “thousands, yes thousands” of pounds by Mr. Birling by replying “You’re offering the money at the wrong time”. Inspector Goole is a man of high principles; he doesn’t degrade himself by accepting bribes to shut up or being frightened of losing his job. Overall the inspector is a character that is portrayed as a hero for people who strongly believe in socialism, he is also a very mysterious character since we never know if he is actually an inspector or not and what is so eerie about him is that the event which he has come to make enquiries about has not happened yet.
The inspector treats each character in the play in a certain manner. To understand how he reacts with each character I firstly need to talk about each one of the characters.
The first character I will talk about is one I have already talked a lot about i.e. Arthur Birling. He describes himself as a “hard headed business man, everything he thinks of is in business terms, like when he says that the engagement between Sheila and Gerald would be a good way for Crofts limited and Birling and company to end their business rivalry and work together “for lower costs and higher prices”, he see the engagement more like a business transaction. He doesn’t agree with the ideas of socialism, he calls people who believe in socialism “cranks”, the inspector is one of these so called “cranks”. He believes in capitalism so strongly that in one point of the play he says “that a man has to make his own way – has to look after himself –and his family too” this shows he doesn’t really care about any one else except him self and his own family showing how selfish he is. Mr. Birling is the sort of person who thinks his always right, he is very arrogant, and an example of this is the statements he makes regarding the First World War and about the Titanic. He says “there isn’t a chance for war” when in fact two years after the story is set the First world war took place,Birling also says that the Titanic is “unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable” , this comment is quite ironic because the Titanic as we know sank on its maiden voyage. When Birling finds out about Eric stole from the factory, and was a drunkard and had also found to be the father of Eva Smith’s child Birling yells “You damned fool - why didn't you come to me when you found yourself in this mess?”, Eric replies ”Because you're not the kind of chap a man could turn to when he's in trouble” which indicates to us that Birling is not really much of great father, probably because running his business and making as much money as possible is his main priority before being a good father. He never admits to his share of responsibility of the death of Eva Smith, he instead passes all the blame on t Eric.
The inspector makes witty remarks such as “I don’t play golf” and generally tries to make sure he is in control of the situation.
At the start of the play Sheila Birling seems to be a very happy about being engaged, “she is pleased with life”. By the end of the play she is the character that feels most guilty about what she has done as she starts crying and sobbing due to the guilt running through her mind. She truly regrets what she has done and admits to her mistake and responsibility in the death of Eva by and promises that she would “never, never do it again”. This shows us that she actually has learnt from her mistake and will not do anything irresponsible like that in future. The inspector affects and makes an “impression” on Sheila, as she also seeks the truth the same as the Inspector; she is more honest and lacking of the cold bloodedness unlike her mother and father. She seems to be an ally to the Inspector all the way through the questioning for each character, she keeps making comments about t characters being interviewed.
Sheila is more like an ally to the inspector as she keeps cutting in to the interviews and making accusing comments, the inspector tries to comfort her by saying that she should stay and listen to all the questions being asked to the others so she doesn’t feel entirely responsible. She agrees with inspector most of the time so the tone in which the inspector speaks is more pleasant than when the inspector talks to Mr. Birling.
Gerald Croft is the character that supports both the parents and the younger generation including Sheila and Eric and has he sees both side of the argument. But he is more biased with the views of Mr. Birling, especially when Sheila returns the ring to him because she finds out that Gerald had “hardly come near” her all last summer because he had an affair. Gerald was probably the least to blame for the death of Eva Smith since he gave her home to stay in and kept her happy for the duration they had an affair, and he did this out of pure sympathy. Gerald Croft thinks the fastest on why The Inspector might not have been real and came up with a whole theory of his own about there being more than one girl.
Gerald Croft does most of the talking so after the Inspector persuades him to talk by telling him he already knew he had an affair with Eva Smith/ Daisy Renton.
Mrs Birling is even more arrogant and the Arthur Birling and is a “rather cold woman”. She supports Mr. Birling’s opinions so strongly about social status and etc. She is a proper snob because she treats all lower class with disrespect as if they are a different species at one point she refers to Eva Smith as “girls of that class”. She thinks a lot of her self, she thinks she is better than others and even runs a charitable organisation for women, but even then she is very unkind and uses her prominent position in the organisation to influence the decision on whether the organisation should help Eva Smith or not, she chooses not to because she believes the girl was telling “a pack of lies” and simply because she didn’t like the girl. Mrs. Birling never admits she is wrong; she tries to justify her actions on not giving money to Eva Smith. But even when the Inspector tells her that her actions were not justified she still doesn’t admit that she is wrong. Just like Mr Birling she tries to shift the blame on to the father by saying “The girl wouldn’t have come to us, and have been refused assistance, if it hadn’t been for “the father of the child. You can see her Hypocrisy when she says that the father of the child should be “compelled to confess in public his responsibility”, but then she is quite shocked to hear that it is her son, Eric that is the father, we can tell that now she wants take everything she said back when she says”But I didn’t know it was you” to Eric. Overall Mrs. Birling is a Hypocrite, she pretends to care for other people through her charity when in actual fact she thinks so lowly of the lower class, and she is so bad that she feels that any of the things the Inspector has said has no affect on her, she doesn’t accept responsibility in helping to cause the death of Eva Smith.
When The Inspector talks to Mrs Birling he is quite smart the way in which he has to talk to her, he would talk about the actual incident that led to her death, he accuses her of it being her fault and her organisations fault and that she should be ashamed of herself. Then he makes Mrs. Birling say how they should take care of the father of the child.
Eric Birling is exposed to be a drunkard, father of the child that Eva Smith was going to have, and a thief. He was the one that got Eva Smith pregnant while he was drunk one night. He always speaks what is on his mind like when his father says that if the workers didn’t like the usual rates “they could always go work somewhere else. It’s a free country”, Eric responds to this by saying “it isn’t if you can’t go and work somewhere else”. Eva Smith didn’t want to marry Eric because she thought he was too immature. Eric is so angry at his mother at the end for “murdering” his own baby that he is about to physically attack his mother. He is really annoyed by the fact that his parents will not accept any blame fro the death of Eva Smith, but he admits and feels guilty in the responsibility of the girl’s death. It’s as if the younger generation agree with the inspector and understand how people are part of one body and society.
The Inspector goes easy on Eric, he even allow Eric to have a drink before they start the questioning. He controls any of the arguments that erupt amongst the family members, he tells them to resolve the problems after he has gone.
Since the play is set in the early 1900’s the clothes and furniture will be from that era. The stage will be set up so that there will be a table that is oval shaped on the left hand side of the stage. The people will be seated in such a manner on one side of the table so that their face can be seen. The table with the telephone will be on the left side of the stage in front of the table. The door that should lead to the drawing room and the door that the servant Edna uses will be on the left hand side, behind the table. The door that Inspector Goole enters from will be on the right hand side of the table. On the far right hand side of the stage should be the fireplace with a couple of chairs around it. I will also need to make sure that there is no obstruction that blocks the view of the door, so that the Inspectors entrance can be seen well and an image of massiveness is created because the size of the door it self is not much big,but the first thing you should see is a long shadow coming from the door, this can be done using spot lights. I think I will keep the stage directions that were made by Priestly.
The language used in ‘An Inspector Calls’ is quite simple and uses easy to understand language even though the book uses phrases and words that are rarely used to day e.g. the phrase “fiddlesticks” is not used by many today. The way in which The Birlings speak sound very posh, but the way in which the Inspector talks looks like it is just standard English. The play could also begin where it has ended, so they could make the play continuing from there, because this ending is very sudden, it leaves you wondering what will happen next.
I hope you find my suggestions helpful and if you have any concerns contact me on 05372 38729.
Yours sincerely
(Director of the new production of ‘An Inspector calls’.)