How does Priestley use the "Inspector" as a dramatic tool to increase mystery and suspense

‘An Inspector Calls’ is a play written by J.B.Priestley. It is set in 1912 but written in 1945. The play is written in the style or genre of a detective mystery play. It starts with a death that is believed to be a suicide, and the plot of the play is the investigation of the death of Eva Smith. As the involvement of each character is revealed, the play becomes a detective mystery similar to a ‘whodunit’ as the Inspector depicts the life of Eva Smith using each family member’s story. Each member of the Birling family has a connection to Eva Smith and has contributed to her death. The audience is kept in the dark about who drove Eva Smith to her death as all the characters have had some involvement with her. Priestley uses cliff-hangers to end each act to hold the audience in suspense but to also to interest the audience by slowly using the characters desire to find out who was responsible for Eva’s suicide.

The inspector is important, as he is the main character that controls the suspense and mystery to the story. He is introduced at the beginning of the play as a typical detective investigating a death. His entrance was a pivotal point in the play as it shows the inspector impression on the characters ‘an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness’. The timing of the entrance is almost ironic as the inspector appears just after Mr. Birling’s speech. His comments, ‘a man has to make his own way’, ‘community and all that nonsense’ are that of a wealthy anti-socialist, man with status. His prejudice between the classes shows the importance he thinks he is entitled when compared to the lower classes; the opposite of the views in which Priestley believed. This dramatic irony is shown as soon as the inspector arrives and already he has made an impression with the audience before his display of near omniscience that is prominent throughout his talk with the Birlings.

The inspector appears in the normal clothes for an inspector of that era ‘plainish dark suit’. His professionalism is obvious and he shows how seriously he’s taken the investigation when he turns down the drink ‘no thank you Mr. Birling, I’m on duty’.

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He gets straight to the point of why he is there by shocking them and the audience by going into the details of Eva Smith’s death. He says he comes with the news that a girl had committed suicide by swallowing some disinfectant ‘burnt her insides out’. He then goes into detail of that even though they did everything for her she was in great agony. When his questioning starts he establishes his rule of only dealing with one person at a time, ‘one person and one line of enquiry at a time’. He then questions each character individually and with great systemity. He asks simple and straight forward questions; ‘why?’ ‘when?’ ‘how?’, and also by making suggestions and trying to trick them into saying something ‘don’t you Mr. Birling?’. Each character has a varied level of resistance to the inspectors questioning but eventually they all confess to their influence on Eva Smith’s life and later her suicide.

It is apparent that the inspector knows more about the Birling family than they do themselves this heightens the mystery that surrounds him’ and to add to this characters enigmatic nature he seems to know a great deal about Eva Smith even though he admits he has never spoken to her. He knows that she her name changed, ‘she used more than one name’. He also knows that she worked for the Birlings and the reason why Mr. Birling sacked her, ‘wanted the rates raised’. He also knew about Gerald’s affair, Sheila involvement in having Eva sacked, Eric getting her pregnant and Mrs. Birlings cold hearted and spiteful manner when Eva came to her for help using her own surname. He knows that each member of the family has had some involvement with Eva Smith. How he knows it, is unclear but it is presumed that he knows it simply because he is an inspector and that he researched this case, but that assumption is abandoned when it becomes clear that he is not even a police officer let alone an inspector.

The tone in which the inspector puts his point across is quite blunt and unnerving to the Birlings, as they believe that they are about to enter a time of great prosperity but the inspector suggests that if they do not change their ways then the true result will be the opposite of what was hoped ‘if men will not learn that lesson they will be taught it in fire, blood and anguish’. The speech would have appealed to the audience due to its irony as it looks into the “future and tells” the audience of the time and what the soldiers in the world wars fought for. These disturbing words as well as the continued use of the first person ‘we are’ and ‘their’ emphasises the point and build up as to how the speech ends, ‘Good night’, and the audience are left waiting, expecting the inspector to return and tell them who the main culprit was.

After the dramatic speech from the inspector their suspicions begin rise as to who he actually was, which is scrutinised more heavily when Gerald arrives back home with information that there is no Inspector Goole in the local police force. Relief spreads as they begin to believe that it was all a hoax but to check, they phone the hospital and are told no suicide victim had been brought in that day. Mrs. Birling starts laughing, relieved that it is was just a cruel joke and that she is still the “respectable” person everyone thinks she is. Mr. Birling’s anger rapidly changes to excitement, ‘By Jingo, a fake’, thoroughly relieved his respectable name is not thrown into the gutter and his knighthood once again becomes a reality. Gerald is as jovial as Mr. Birling as it means his involvement with a prostitute will not become common knowledge. However Sheila and Eric are are left shell-shocked by the evening. They feel different to everyone else and believe that it didn’t make a difference who the man was, they come to realise that you should take the effects your actions had on other people into account when you made decisions. It has a lasting effect on both of them and it distances them from the others. The inspector is a device used to expose the Birlings disregard for society and to make them see that actions have consequences.

It is Priestley’s final sentence of the speech, ‘fire and blood and anguish’ that he finally makes everyone aware of the inspectors’ almost supernatural quality. Who or what the

‘Inspector’ was, is left deliberately unsolved by Priestley, almost as if to heighten the supernatural nature of the inspector.