Seconds before the inspector’s arrival we have Birling give one of the most important speeches of the play. Now Birling talks about “look after himself and his own.” We now know exactly the character we are being introduced to. “You’d think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive - community and all that nonsense.” Again we have another vision of this characters personality and shows that he fails to realise his social and collective responsibility and he doesn’t realise how much of an impact that he has on others. Another technique Priestley uses is that he is highlighting Birlings self obsessed attitude and only wants himself to look after. Priestley waits until now to introduce the inspector because now Mr Birling has revealed himself and has widely expressed his opinions and now is the time of the arrival, the time for the breaking of this man. The inspector is about to interrupt their little celebration, their past memories and reveal their true identity to each other.
At this stage the inspector is about to be introduced to us. Birlings speech is rudely interrupted as if it wasn’t accidental. As the inspector is about to enter Birling says, “Give us some more light.” This explains that he wishes to shed light on what is about to happen but what he doesn’t know is things are about to become harsher just like the light itself.
He doesn’t realise that his little pink light of family happiness is about to be stepped on and soon destroyed. Before Birling’s speech ended he was interrupted with a sharp ring of the front door bell. At this stage little do the audience know is, that this man is about to change their lives. With a sharp ring he has timed his entrance correctly and so far he is successful and next he is to teach them all a lesson, a lesson they shall never forget.
Before the inspector says a word, Priestley includes a really important stage direction about him. The stage directions are absolutely essential, not only in this play but in every play. A stage direction is important as every direction directs the character and creates a personality and what actions to proceed with. They give every character guidance and how the play is set up. The stage directions give the actor more insight into the character they’re playing and how to portray them to the audience. During this specific stage direction we are told, “The inspector needs not to be a big man but he creates at once an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness.” Priestley includes this to tell us about the inspector’s personality, temper and attitude. It tells us that the character will constantly be taking charge and will be determined to do anything to receive any information necessary.
Soon after, Edna introduces the inspector and explains that his name is Inspector Goole. Priestley’s technique of using this name signifies to us that Goole sounds like “Ghoul” a spirit who has a morbid interest in death, a spirit that is said to take fresh life from corpse. It’s like this characters existence is due to Eva Smith’s death. Priestley also makes us explore even deeper into the situation. Goole is also a small fishing town and this suggests that he is about to fish for information and take as long as it needs which we soon recognise in his methodical line of inquiry.
Throughout this stage direction Priestley says, “The inspector need not be a big man but he creates an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness.” These words states that the inspector grows and remains solid while each of the other characters breaks down as he is becoming more successful. These words tell us that the inspector is here to act as a conscience and take no nonsense and constantly keep taking charge of the conversation. These words give an impression of someone who is both an outsider and omniscient. This makes him appear more mysterious and powerful.
Priestley also gives the inspector the ability to unnerve people before he speaks. The inspector makes things happen and allows secrets to be revealed. He controls everyone and their actions. Before he speaks he strongly looks at his victim, letting them know that he is here for a reason and he will break anything that they maybe trying to build. Priestley gives the inspector the power to fish out anything that is required. The stares of his eyes, lets the other characters know that this isn’t a man to be contradicted. By the stare of his eyes he lets them know that he will eventually get what he wants.
I shall now focus on how the inspector has the ability to interrogate each of his suspects and how he has a methodical way of questioning each of the characters and how he has the ability to receive any information he requires from them by using his economical choice of words. Although I have insignificant time to concentrate on all five characters, but however I shall concentrate in two in detail, which are Mrs Birling and Shelia. He interrogates them one by one in order to complete his mission and stop confusion. The first character I will focus on will be Mrs Birling.
As she enters the room she enters “briskly and self-confidently,” as if she is not going to be broken down. But as she is shown the picture of the girl the inspector straight away realises that the picture has been recognised. “It’s an organisation to which women in distress can appeal for help in various forms. Isn’t that so?” At this particular point there was no wealth fare state and so people turned to charities and organisations for help. This is one of the questions that begin to break down Mrs Birling, which she fails to realise. Priestley is getting his own political views across and criticising the government for failing to provide for the less fortunate members of society. Afterwards the inspector asks questions that begin to frustrate and put Mrs Birling under pressure so from this he receives the information by his economical use of questions. As time moves forwards the inspector keeps his victim’s case under control and massively takes charge as he is constantly being interrupted which tells this family that they will all gain the equal amount of respect no matter who the characters are.
At Eva Smith’s death we get a glimpse at society at the time through each of the characters. Through the inspector and as Mrs Birling is one of his suspects he is attempting to show his attitude towards human morality and responsibility. He is teaching the audience an important point about society and the different generation’s attitude towards it. Priestley wanted to express the fact that everybody has a responsibility but some don’t face up to it as shown through Mrs Birling. As the inspector, Priestley was trying to show the differences between the older generation and the younger generation. Through Mrs Birling he tells us how she thinks she is more superior to others, “a girl of that class,” “she only had herself to blame.” These quotes tell us that Priestley is highlighting that the more superior look down on people as worthless and nothing better to do, and they don’t take responsibility for their actions upon others.
Priestley uses the technique of cliff-hangers at the end of each scene in order to keep the audience engrossed and full of tension and suspense. At the end of each scene the audience are sitting at the edge of their seats waiting for the curtains to reopen to find out whether or not if the inspector is successful in breaking the façade between him and this family and find out if they will face up to their responsibilities.
The second character I will now comment on is Sheila who is a member of the younger generation. Again the inspector has a methodical approach and is able to receive all the information he requires and doesn’t have to speak a great deal in order to get what he wants. He only talks to one character at a time to stop confusion and so that he doesn’t leave himself in a difficult distressing position. He has an impression of “massiveness, solidity and purposefulness,” which shows us that he grows and remains solid while each of the characters crumble in distress. He is a catalyst, which gives him the advantage against Sheila and his other victims. He is there to bring about change and dissolve the affluent status quo.
His use of economical questioning gives him the aptitude to draw information from Sheila as they have a desired affect, which she isn’t very aware of at this point. The inspector asks his questions relatively fast and in this case of doing so he receives a rather fast answer. But they fail to recognise, they gave him what he wanted. “A nice little promising life there, I thought, and a nasty mess somebody’s made of it.” There is a sense of dryness in the way the inspector speaks and yet he cleverly points out the obvious. He allows Sheila to think, allows here to realise what she has done and since she is a member of the younger generation she accepts her responsibility. “Yes, but it didn’t seem to be anything very terrible at the time. Don’t you understand? And if I could help her now, I would.”
Through Sheila Priestley separates the difference between the older and younger generation. “But these girls aren’t cheap labour, there’re people.” Priestley includes this quote to show that she realises that she has responsibilities for others and how wealth and power has an impact upon her community. However the older generation fail to accept this responsibility. “It isn’t going to do us much good. The press might easily take it up.” This is an example of the older generation. They just cared about appearances and, reputations and fall short to see the impact they have on others and in this case there wasn’t one mention of Eva Smiths case, which backs up the argument even more. Whereas the younger ones accept what they’ve done.
Through Sheila Priestley allows us to see the class system of the time. Priestley helps us understand that the younger generation are the future and through this play he helped people seize opportunity and to build a better, more caring society.
It is important to focus our attention on the inspector’s final speech as it has a huge effective impact upon the structures and effectiveness of the play. The inspector is an allegory as he has a fixed symbolic meaning. He acts as a socialist, believes that wealth should not only belong to one person but also be spread all around and share responsibility for each other. “We don’t live alone. We are members of one body.” After this speech it takes you back to when Mr Birling said, “You’d think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive.” In contrast the inspector believes we all have collective responsibility and as members of a community, we must live together or we will face “fire, blood and anguish.” From this he clearly means war. However Mr Birling acts as a capitalist, believes that wealth should only be for ones who earned it and be spread through only groups worthy of it.
Inspector Goole tries to demonstrate how people are responsible for how they affect the lives of others. He sees the world as districts, were everyone should be helping each other (socialism). The fact of the timing of his entry was very significant because Birling was talking about how every man should look after himself. So now the inspector articulates how everyone has a responsibility.
The inspector is talking about a collective responsibility where everyone in society is linked in the same way that the characters are linked to Eva Smith. Everyone is apart of “one body.” The inspector sees society as more important that individual interests. The views he is propounding are like those of Priestley who was a socialist.
The inspector’s final speech has a different impact upon each generation. The old are set in their ways. They are utterly confidant that they are right and that they see the young as foolish. They have never been forced to examine their consciences before and are unable to do it now – as the old saying goes, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” However the young are open to new ideas. This is first seen early in act one when both Eric and Sheila express sympathy for the strikers, an idea that terrifies Birling, who can only think of production, costs and ignores the human side of the issue. “Just because the miners came out on strike, there’s a lot of wild talk about possible labour trouble in the near future. Don’t worry. We’ve past the worst of it.” Also the young examine their conscience and see the human side of Eva’s story and are troubled by their part in it.
Soon after the inspector’s departure the family discuss what has happened and their suspicions about him. As they find out that the inspector isn’t really what he said to be, the older generation are relieved and already building another façade, as the stage direction says “Has his drink now, and raises his glass.” In contrast the younger generation still accept the part they were involved in. “That’s what’s important-and not whether a man is a police inspector or not.” This quote identifies that the inspector has had a huge impact upon Sheila and has been successful in her case as being her conscience and made her face up to her responsibility. But compared to the older ones they take his true identity nothing but a joke and put the young girl’s death behind them and build another façade. We can be optimistic that the young-those who will shape the future society are able to take on board the inspector’s message. “We’ve all been had.” Ultimately we find out the inspectors true identity nearing the end of the play and it makes us wonder, who is the inspector? Well first of all Priestley was concerned with social inequality. Priestley was so concerned that he did all he could to set up a political party called “The common wealth party.”
He wanted public ownership of land, greater democracy and new morality. His party soon merged with the labour party and soon developed the wealth fair state. Priestley may have also thinking partly about the World War they had just lived through - the result of government’s blindly pursuing “national interest” at all costs. Well who was the inspector? I believe the he represents Priestley’s strong moral view. The moral dimension of allowing people like the Birlings to see that they can find forgiveness through future good. Behaviour makes Goole different from the normal policeman. He is more concerned with morality than legality.
Inspector Goole is what puts the structure of this play together. Not only does he teach the characters on stage a lesson but also kept the audience engraced and full of tension and suspense throughout, from beginning to end. As a dramatist he has the skill to provoke thought and debate throughout the world. Priestley made the audience understand that the ruling classes saw no need to change the status quo but afterwards there was a great desire for social change. Since Priestley’s creation of the inspector, times and situations have changed massively since 1945.