The use of the pronoun ‘We’ emphasizes what the inspector has said earlier, but in a more direct approach towards the Birlings. The use of this advocates the need for unity and ‘togetherness’ throughout the family, and for each, and one of them to accept the responsibility for their role in Eva Smiths’ death. Through this, he may be implying that the Birling family may want to fix things by helping and showing more respect in the future to the working class, and not to take advantage with the power that they may have over them. He reiterates this through the speech, reinforcing what he has just said to show again how important it is to work in unity with everyone else to succeed in life. Furthermore, the idea of togetherness is supported in this metaphor, “We are all members of one body’, suggesting that all classes interconnect, and that the different classes don’t matter as we are all one – hence the one body. Moreover, The ‘body’ represents society, and also suggests interdependence between the classes. It is presented like an actual human body, as different body parts work together to carry out functions and if one part stops working, the whole body will stop working. This is directs especially towards the Birlings, due to the fact that they as it is do not work in harmony with each other in the household (there is conflict between the mother, and father).
The Inspector is presented as an omnipotent being of great authority, “And I tell you that the time will soon come”, the modal verb in this sentence makes this be the subject of the future tense, giving a strong impression that the Inspector has knowledge of what will come in later date, making him seem god like, teaching them to change their ways before something unwanted will come in the near future; which of course is dramatic irony as we know exactly what happened a few years later, and so does the audience (World War 1). This is cleverly put by Priestley, as intentions where to try and persuade the audience into making them change their attitude towards classes beyond their own, and this of course must have struck them quite deeply, as many of them presumably must have still been recovering from the war, due to losses of loved ones. This style of writing has been used before, such as in the novel ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens.
We again see the inspector playing a god-like role, where he mentions “they will be taught it in fire, blood, and anguish”. We are again introduced to dramatic irony as this can be put to represent World War 1, as after the war, Britain was devastated, and the blood and anguish would be a representation of what happened during the war; and the audience of course knows that it is going to happen, whereas the characters themselves do not. This is also cleverly put by Priestley as he knows that the war was partially built around society defending themselves and this is reminding the audience the consequences of not following the things that the inspector is pointing out, which would work powerfully upon the audience as they do not want to go through another war like that again. The inspector can be put as a god-like preacher as he is made out to be able to foretell the future (if interpreted that way). He could almost be seen as a teacher like Jesus as well. He comes before the actual death to warn them, and tell them what predicament they would get into if they were to carry on. The fire, blood, and anguish could all be a description of Hell, and that is where they may go if they carry on down this route, which again supports the idea of the Inspector being a teacher/messenger of good. The rule of three is used to bring about a bigger impact on the reader, as we take in the depth of how much man will suffer if they do not learn to treat each other equally. It could also be like a representation of a ‘Judgment day’. It seems the J.B Priestley believes in Karma as well, as he is insisting that if you do not change your way then you will be punished for it. The inspector could also be seen as a threat because of the horrors that he foreshadows, which would be a Juxtaposition due to his God like characteristics turning bad like Satan. These same words could also be translated to Eva Smith’s suffering, which the Birlings could endure if they do not change their ways.
The Inspector then ends his speech with “Good night”, which can be seen as sarcasm, as ‘good’ has been the exact opposite of night that the Birling family has had, which is very much like dramatic irony. It is as if that the inspector does not care as the family does not feel remorse, so why should he bare a benevolent attitude towards them? And this short sentence has an impact on the audience as the abrupt sentence finishes his lengthy speech and it is as though he is leaving the decision to the audience about whether to listen to his warnings or not, and give them time to think over his words. As well as the contrast in sentence length.
Priestley has created a very powerful last speech for the Inspector, by using comparisons between the extravagant lives of the Birlings and the classes below them, and Priestley uses juxtapositions to define them even greater, and through this, he has made a blow upon the audience, persuading them to try and act upon his beliefs, and since the audience is predominantly Upper class, he makes it clear to them, that they should try and change their attitude towards the lower classes – and being a socialist, J.B Priestley is very mush against the class system.
