The year in which the play is set (1912) and the year in which it was performed (1945), hold crucial importance in the play. The Titanic sank just weeks after the play is set, labour strikes take place and WW1 starts just 2 years later. This all links back to the idea of dramatic irony. This is also Priestley’s way of showing the audience of how those incidents had divided the nation. The incidents are also used for dramatic irony.
J.B Priestley uses foreshadowing and dramatic irony, very early on in the play. There are a few reasons for this. Arthur Birling is where all of the dramatic irony comes from.
One example is the luxury liner Titanic, which sank two weeks after the play, is set. Birling refers to it as ‘Unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable’. Arthur Birling runs a factory; he uses his portentous ways, to take pride in British engineering and industry.
Mr Birling delivers a very long speech, in which he goes on to talk about war. He says “The Germans don’t want war”. Just two years after the play is set, World War One begins. This really shows Birling’s ignorance to the fact that Germany is becoming more powerful, and denies they will start war and remain oblivious to the idea. Not only does this show his ignorance, but it also makes Mr Birling seem like a coward. Mr Birling is very optimistic towards the idea of Gerald and Sheila having children, most likely to carry on the family blood-line and not for the couple’s happiness. During his speech, he says “In the 1940s you may be giving a party like this to your children”. World War Two starts in the 1940s, and Gerald would most likely be fighting in the war instead of being at home with Sheila. Again the use of dramatic irony strengthens the opinions the audience would have on Mr Birling-that he is very right wing, and only cares about himself and his family. Birling seems to bite off much more than he can chew, when he refers to “labour”. He says by the time Gerald and Sheila are married, they will be “living in a world that’ll have forgotten about all these capital versus labour agitations”. There were labour strikes, not too long after the play is set. J.B Priestley leaves the audience with the impression that Birling is rather portentous, even thought his thoughts are wrong the majority of the time. Priestley uses dramatic irony early on in the play, for numerous reasons. It could be that not only keeping the audience hooked on the play with dramatic irony, but he could also have used it as a way of letting them know what his main concerns were. All of the dramatic irony came from Mr Birling; this really radiates the character he is supposed to be- Ignorant, portentous and naive.
J.B Priestley uses stage directions, to create atmosphere in the beginning of the play. The opening stage directions describe the lighting in the dining-room as “pink and intimate”; the lights are almost used as a way to describe the character’s moods, without them actually talking-an almost idealistic view of the world (laughter, and fun). However when the inspector arrives, the lighting becomes “brighter and harder”. This suggests the characters are metaphorically seeing reality for the first time in a while. The doorbell is also used as a dramatic device. It is described as “the sharp ring of a front door bell”. The ringing of the doorbell stops Mr Birling mid-flow during his speech; it symbolises the door to reality finally opening, and the Birling’s idealistic evening coming to an end.
The way one of the characters leave during Act One, changes the way the others behave. Edna, the Birling family parlour-maid, “goes out” in the very first few lines of Act One. Mr Birling then starts to relax when he says “Well, well – this is very nice.” -It seems that when somebody of ‘working-class’ is around, he must act hostile towards them and he cannot discuss something only the ‘upper-class’ discuss. When Mrs Birling, Sheila and Eric leave the dining-room, Mr Birling feels that he can finally open up to Gerald. Birling feels intimidated by Gerald’s mother-he says that Gerald “might have done better for yourself socially”. This could have only been said if Mr Birling was by himself with Gerald. This shows that Birling may be embarrassed by his family’s social standings, and cannot discuss the matter with them around.
The end of act one, has a big effect on the audience. Once an act of a play was over, there would usually be an intervention. After the Inspector had said “Well?” following Gerald’s big revelation it had been a very big cliff-hanger; the audience would have been gripped into the story of the play, and would have definitely wanted to know how the plot unfolded.
In retrospect, all of act one is ironic in its own right. During Gerald and Mr Birling’s heart-to-heart, Gerald says “you seem like a nice well-behaved family”. Irony strikes, as the audience soon find out that each and every member of the Birling family had involvement in the suicide of Eva Smith. After being interrupted during his rant by Eric, Mr Birling says “you’ve got a lot to learn yet”. Almost every prediction Mr Birling made during act one had been false or over-exaggerated, so him saying somebody needs to learn is not only hypocritical but ironic. Each member of the family had denied knowing somebody by the name of Eva Smith. However, it is revealed that Mr Birling fired her, Sheila reported her and eventually got her fired again, Mrs Birling rejected Eva’s claim to get financial support as she was pregnant, Eric was the man who in fact got her pregnant and Gerald had had an affair with her. Not only was this a cliff-hanger, but it added to the irony of act one. All of the dramatic devices used by J.B Priestly to hook the audience to the play, and keep them interested.
The dramatic devices used by Priestley, greatly changed my opinion of the Birling family. At first, the Birlings had appeared to be a nice family. But after dramatic irony enters the play, Mr Birling is portrayed as an ignorant, portentous and naive man. Priestley uses dramatic irony to involve the audience. By knowing things the characters do not, it makes the audience want to carry on watching, to see how the story unfolds. The use of foreshadowing also does this-by leaving subtle hints of a character’s personality, the audience want to know what will happen. J.B Priestley had quite a few messages in the play, one that still stands today is that you should always have a sense of community with those living with and around you, and that you can’t always think about yourself, and there will be repercussions for your actions.