How Does Priestley Create Suspense And Tension At The End Of Act 2 Of "An Inspector Calls".

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How Does Priestley Create Suspense And Tension At

The End Of Act 2 Of "An Inspector Calls"

In this essay I will be talking about the different ways that Priestley pulled off the effect of creating suspense and tension to the reader in the last few pages of act 2 in "an inspector calls".

I will start off with talking a bit about the plot so far in act 2. In this act the inspector unearths more secrets about the link between other members of the Birling family and Eva Smith. So far Mr Birling, Sheila Birling and Gerald have admitted knowing Eva Smith. We know that Mr Birling sacked her after she was one of the main perpetrators of a strike at his factory. We also found out that Sheila admitted to forcing Eva's boss in to sacking her while she was working at Milwards and Gerald admitted to having an affair with a girl called Daisy Renton who had changed her name from Eva Smith.

One of the dramatic devices that Priestley uses in the last few pages of act 2 is the punctuation that is used to convey a tone or an expression. For example on page 48, when a hyphen is used at the end of a sentence. This shows that the inspector, which emphasises the point that the inspector is being serious, has cut off Mrs Birling. It also shows that the argument is getting more heated and less civilized because they are cutting each other off without letting them finish. An example of this is when Mrs Birling says, " if it hadn't been for him- and the inspector interrupts by saying "so he is the chief culprit anyhow". This also happens when Sheila says " but don't you see-, and gets cut off by Mrs Birling who says " you're behaving like an hysterical child tonight." These points convey the tension that is in the house and shows that they are getting more impatient.

Priestley also uses exclamation marks to convey a surprised or angry tone. This is used in an angry tone when Mrs Birling says on page 46 "oh - a lot of silly nonsense!" This is used in a surprised tone when Mr Birling finds out that Eric is the father of Eva Smiths baby, when he says "my god! But - look here".
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Another dramatic device that has been used in the end of act 2 by Priestley were the use of stage directions. This is because it shows what mood each of the characters are in while they are talking. For example when the inspector says something, "very sternly" is described in brackets. Another example is when Sheila realises Eric is the father and in her stage directions it says "with sudden alarm". This is used to convey the mood of the people in the play. This helps in making things dramatic and aids the reader to understand what is ...

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