Sarah Duke
How does J B Priestley use the Inspector as a voice for social change?
‘An Inspector Calls’ written by J B Priestley in 1945 is a murder mystery intended to portray Priestley’s social issues. He sets the play in Brumley which is described as being a large manufacturing town in the Midlands where there are two sides of society, the rich and the poor. He also sets the play in 1912, which was a particularly bad year for industries due to many strikes. Priestley wrote this play intentionally as he saw an urgent need for social change and used the play to express his desire for social equality. He also uses the characters to convey his own attitudes. The Birlings are used to demonstrate how not to behave and the Inspector is used to show Priestley’s own thoughts and opinions. Priestley hoped his play would give society the chance to look back on the past and not just carry on life in the same way as before. J B Priestley took full advantage of writing in observation and makes sure that it will make the audience realize how wrong they may have been assuming future events. This is demonstrated throughout the play by a character called Arthur Birling. The inspector is an important character in the play as he makes the other characters think about their actions and tries to change the way they live their lives. The Inspectors name ‘Goole’ gives off the impression that he is a mysterious and eerie character as ‘Goole’ sounds like ‘ghoul’.
The Inspector is first introduced on page 11 and the stage directions automatically give him importance and status;
‘he creates at once an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness’.
The stage directions also describe the Inspector as having a ‘disconcerting habit of staring hard at the person he addresses before actually speaking’. This suggests that the Inspector sheds a light on each character and creates an impact when speaking to them. Furthermore the Inspector's entrance brings a socialist message, interrupting the character who was speaking prior to his arrival, Mr Birling, a capitalist who had been preaching the value of capitalist views such as
"a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own".
Drama is created here as the Inspector on the other hand, believes that "everybody has to look after everybody else" and had therefore come to the house to teach the Birlings and Gerald a lesson on how capitalists mistreated the working class without giving much importance.
Unlike the rest of society, the Inspector is not undermined by Mr Birling, but instead holds more power and authority over him. This is demonstrated by Mr Birling’s reaction to the Inspectors presence. At first Mr Birling attempts to belittle the Inspector by talking about his own successes ‘I was an alderman for years- and Lord Mayor two years ago’ then saying ‘I thought I’d never seen you before’. The stage directions then suggest Mr Birling is becoming impatient with the Inspector ‘with a touch of impatience’. Mr Birling’s attitudes to the Inspector, the death of Eva Smith and his part in the mystery, are as we would expect from his character. He is dismissive of the Inspector, informing him the Chief Constable ‘is an old friend of mine and I see him fairly regularly’. He is using his social position to intimidate the Inspector to try to avoid his questions and when the Inspector persists, Mr Birling treats him with contempt saying ‘I don’t like that tone’. By doing this, Priestley tries to tell the audience of how not to behave. The Inspector often cuts in when Mr Birling is speaking
‘cutting through massively’ to show how he now has control over him. The Inspectors blunt manner is used to show how he doesn’t want to sympathise with the family.
Priestley creates Mr Birling’s character like this to represent the capitalist views on society and how you should always think about the consequences of your actions. It is people such as Birling that the author wished to influence through the writing of this play.
