Explore the role of Inspector Goole
Explore the role of Inspector Goole. Choose two occasions where his presence on stage has an effect on the characters and audience.
We first encounter the Birling family at a gathering celebrating Sheila and Gerald's wedding engagement. Mr Birling, the head of the household is automatically portrayed as a self-important, power-hungry man who has made it perfectly clear to the audience and the rest of his family in a inciting speech that he believes it is 'every man for himself' world and family should be an after-thought.
As the evening's festivities continue an inspector calls. His presence on stage rapidly changes the atmosphere throughout the stage and auditorium as a festive occasion soon becomes a sombre awakening. A young girl had committed suicide due to various incidents that had knocked her back had finally taken their toll and so one night she decided to drink disinfectant. The Birling family soon learn of their involvement in the end to her life and the build up to it, starting with the pompous Mr Birling.
It becomes apparent that Mr Birling was the boss of the girl, Eva Smith, and when she demanded more pay as the wages were very low, he sacked her leaving her with no job and little self esteem.
She eventually acquired a new job at a department store named Milwards, where the Birling family had an account and were very much respected customers. Sheila, the Birling's daughter, was shopping there one day when she tried on a dress contrary to everyone else's opinions that it would not suit her. Realising they were right, she decided against purchasing the dress but Eva put it against her. It had suited her a lot better and, driven by jealousy, she complained about her, threatening to terminate the account with the shop if she was not immediately dismissed.
Left, again, out of work, she found herself in the Palace bar many a night and soon she met Gerald, Sheila's fiancé. He became aware of her suffering situation and decided to help her. He soon became involved in a sordid love affair with her despite his blossoming relationship with Sheila. He was a financial aid to Eva when she lost her job but knew the affair had to come to an end because of Sheila.
After this, Eva's visits to the Palace bar grew to be more frequent and so there she also met Eric Birling, ...
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Left, again, out of work, she found herself in the Palace bar many a night and soon she met Gerald, Sheila's fiancé. He became aware of her suffering situation and decided to help her. He soon became involved in a sordid love affair with her despite his blossoming relationship with Sheila. He was a financial aid to Eva when she lost her job but knew the affair had to come to an end because of Sheila.
After this, Eva's visits to the Palace bar grew to be more frequent and so there she also met Eric Birling, Sheila's brother. Eric, already a heavy drinker, had a one-night-stand with her which resulted in her becoming pregnant. To try and help support Eva in her state, Eric stole money from his father's office thus his situation became dire.
Eric abandoned Eva and so she sought out the only solution she could think of. She went to the Brumley Women's Charity Organization, where she became the perfect candidate for their help. However Mrs Birling was a worker at the organization and after she found the girl to be impudent for using 'Birling' as her last name she turned her away.
The inspector comes to review the family's involvement in the case and forces them all to confess to the moral wrong-doings which led to Eva's eventual suicide. After the inspector makes a haunting speech about human nature and the consequences of actions, he leaves, leaving the Birlings in doubt of his existence, involvement in the case and the case itself. After the family consider the options of the night's events, Mr Birling makes enquiries at the police station and local infirmary. Mr Birling then receives a phone call relating to a young girl's suicide by drinking disinfectant, identical to that of what the inspector had already told them.
My own views on the role of Inspector Goole are mixed. I see the inspector as a supernatural presence, maybe a spectre or ghost of some kind. I have also considered his identity to be the conscience of Mr or Mrs Birling or an angel or God. All these possibilities seem likely and relevant to the story but whichever form the Inspector is supposed to take, the message is still the same. It is very evident that the young are far more impressionable and so learn from the experience far better than Mr or Mrs Birling.
It is Gerald who first doubts the Inspector's identity and encourages the rest of the family to think alike. Gerald, it appears, is the most level-headed and logical of the characters, whilst Sheila seems to be getting the right idea in that whoever the Inspector turned out to be, the fact is that they are all responsible, in some way or another, for the death of a young girl. Eric also understood the moral of the presence of the Inspector and thus proving that the younger generation are more easily influenced.
I have chosen to discuss, for my first occasion, that of when the characters on stage discover that Eric is the father of Eva's unborn child, at the end of Act Two.
There is a clear moment of suspense and dramatic irony as the audience becomes aware of Eric's involvement before Mrs Birling does as she rather comically talks of how the father of Eva's baby should be punished.
Mrs Birling had makes very clear that she has no remorse or regret for her involvement concerning her turning away the pregnant Eva Smith as she had made up many stories and so felt her to be untrustworthy. What she does not come to realise until the end of the act was that the man who was the father of her baby is in fact her own son. The inspector then shrewdly uses Mrs Birling's ignorance to his and the audience's advantage by enticing her into saying how the father should be treated. "He should be made an example of. If the girl's death is due to anybody, then it's due to him." The inspector throughout this scene is constantly mocking Mrs Birling to increase the dramatic irony. This also intensifies the anticipation for the audience as they become just as eager to know the identity of the father as Mrs Birling herself. The stage directions however read 'grimly' when describing the inspector's line: "Don't worry, Mrs Birling. I shall be doing my duty." This could perhaps imply that the inspector isn't revelling in Mrs Birling's stupidity and arrogance, rather he is trying to get the ordeal over with so to speak. The inspector is not paying too much attention to Sheila at this point as he is very aware that he has got the message across to her. The inspector's general presence on stage makes the characters uneasy and so the play has a very tense ambience.
The second occasion I have chosen to discuss is the inspector's parting speech. This is a direct contrast to the speech made by Mr Birling at the beginning of the first act where he made it clear that it was every man for himself and that a sense of community is nonsense. Instead the inspector talks of how we are all "one body" and that our lives are intertwined in some way or another. He is very emphatic about how we as human beings are all responsible for each other. J. B. Priestley, the play's writer, makes a direct relevance to the time in which it was written - 1945 - a time when the second world war had come to an end. He mentioned through the inspector's leaving monologue that "if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish." This refers directly to the fact that the play was set in 1912, before the first world war also, before the bloodshed and tragedy began.
After the speech the inspector walks out of the room and off the stage but even after his departure the stage is still left with his powerful presence. He had certainly made an impression on the characters and they are all left to ponder on the evenings' events.
When it becomes evident that the inspector's identity is not as real as it seemed when Gerald suggests that the whole thing could have been a hoax. Sheila fast becomes aware of the impact that he has had on the family though Mr and Mrs Birling however seem to gain a reassured affect from the peculiarity 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 reckless presumption they are punished later when the police do actually telephone wanting to question them inquiring about Eva's suicide.
I very much enjoyed reading and studying this play as the twist and climax towards the end were very entertaining and enthralling. I found the constant dramatic irony very gripping and would very much like to go and watch a performance of the play to see it from the audience's perspective. I agree very much with the messages being conveyed throughout the play, clearly instructing and advising the audience to think about the consequences of their actions, to treat others how they would wish to be treated. Other messages that I interpreted were to not exploit or misuse authority, not trust people on first appearances and to not be vain, greedy and self important because it will eventually come back to haunt you, as the Birling family indeed discovered.
Emma Merritt 11.1
