Priestly engages the audience through the use of dramatic irony. After living in a war torn Britain Priestly conveys his anxiety through the character Mr. Birling. “I say there isn’t a chance of war.” For a 1945 audience this quote is laughable. The war Mr. Birling was convinced would never happen not only raged for four years but killed millions of people. Birling continues to dismiss future problems, “The Titanic - she sails next week – absolutely unsinkable.” Again the audience are aware of the tragedy involved, this creates a powerful effect. The audience could react in several different ways. They could laugh, Mr. Birling seemed so sure that she was unsinkable but the exact opposite happened. The audience may on the other hand react negatively, when the Titanic did sink a large loss of life occurred and some audience members may have been affected so would have found this joke to be of poor taste. Priestly presents Mr. Birling as a fool.
Throughout the play the setting and lighting are very important. At the beginning of Act One Priestly describes the scene in great detail; He says “the lighting should be soft and pink before the Inspector arrives then should gradually become brighter and harder.” The lighting always reflects the mood of the play, it symbolises the truth or ugly reality it is deliberately ungentle and glaring. “The dining room of a fairly large suburban house, belonging to a prosperous manufacturer. It has good solid furniture of the period. At the moment they have all had a good dinner, are celebrating a special occasion, and are pleased with themselves.” Priestly creates subtle hints that not everything could be as it seems. Towards the beginning the audience start to wonder why the seemingly happy atmosphere is oddly forced. Sheila shows curiosity about Gerald’s location throughout last summer and Eric is clearly nervous about something, this is clear when Priestly describes Eric at the start of the play. “In his early twenties, not quite at ease, half shy, half assertive." This provokes interest in the audience who want to find out about what is going on! This of course is very dramatic as the audience are automatically listening intently already trying to unravel mystery.
After the Inspector's arrival tension starts to mount in the Birling household. The Inspector interrogates all family members before discovering the vital truth. Every member of the Birling family including Gerald had a part to play in the death of Eva Smith. These new pieces of information help contribute to the construction of the story. “You stole the money,” “Damned Fool” Mr Birling especially displays the extreme tension of a divided family. The audience are shapes in their own minds the personality’s of the characters to which the audience members would give a positive or negative response to. The Inspector is always in control, not only does he control the tension but the pace also.
One of Priestley’s concerns was the attitude to the lower class. Excluding Edna the maid the cast of the play does not include any lower class characters. The audience only see the upper class Birlings and the wealthy Gerald Croft. However the audience learn a lot about the lower class through the different stages of Eva Smith’s life. Eva symbolises all who are disadvantaged. The audience witness the Birling’s attitude towards her. Mr Burling simply sees Eva as cheap Labour, easily replaceable. “By the way some people act you’d think you have to look after everyone else.” This illustrates Birling’s mindset, “every man for him self.” This shows that Burling felt no need to show compassion towards the community. Many Londoners would be outraged by his selfishness as there was a huge sense of community in 1940’s London.
Shelia admits to being jealous of Eva and has her fired out of spite; Gerald simply regarded her as a catch that could be discarded at will. Eric found her as easy sex after a drunken night out on the town and Mrs. Birling denied her the charity she so desperately needed. Priestly tries to show that the upper classes are completely unaware that their laid back lives fall upon the working or lower classes to carry out all hard work. The audience know that Eva Smith had a sense of right and wrong. “She wouldn’t take any more.” Eric confessed after giving Eva stolen money from his father’s office. This completely contradicted a comment Mrs Birling had made earlier. “Girls of that class,” Mrs. Birling looks down on Eva as if she is simply a lower class immoral person and nothing else. The audience would react with outrage to this as unlike Mrs. Birling Eva could answer to her conscience and show some sort of morality.
Priestly focused on the fact that every member of the family had a different attitude to responsibility. The Inspector tells them “each of you have helped kill her”. Throughout the play the Inspector very much reflects priestly himself. This is clear when the Inspector delivers his final speech as it is not only addressed to the Birling Family but the audience also. “One Eva Smith has gone - but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, and what we think and say and do.” The inspector talks of a collective responsibility. He believes every one in society is linked no matter what class, age or sex. These views reflect the views of the socialism movement to which J. B. Priestly was apart of. The Inspector sees society more important than individual gain. This completely contrasts Mr. Birling’s view in Act one. The Inspector goes on to issue a warning. If the people of Britain were to go on ignoring responsibility horrible things would happen. “If men will not learn that lesson, when they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish.” Priestly is of course talking about the world war a 1940’s audience has just lived through. Priestley’s concern for the new generation to learn from previous mistakes may not be in vain. Both Eric and Sheila showed huge guilt at Eva Smith’s death contrasting greatly to their parents who did whatever they could to shift the blame.
