How Would a Modern Day Audience Respond To a Performance of ‘an Inspector Calls?

He then shows Sheila a picture of the girl and integrates her over getting the girl fired from a clothes shop after she

"...Held the dress up as if she was wearing it. And it just suited her. She was just the right type for it, just as I was the wrong type"

On the surface this play can be seen as a detective thriller - a "whodunit" because the main features of such a theme are a good plot, strong characters, suspense and a final twist, all of which are includes in this play also in this book the story unfolds slightly more with each passing person integrated as they become involved with Eva's past, this is all parts of a good detective thriller.

At the ends of the Acts we are always keep in suspense with dramatic cliffhangers. E.g. ACT one Shelia was arguing to Gerald he knows what happened to him when he hadn't told any body when inspector Goole walks in. in Act two Mrs Burling says,

"I blame the man who was the father of the child she was going to have. If, as she said, he didn't belong to her class, and was some drunken young idler, then that's all the more reason why he should not escape. He should be made an example of. If the girl's death is due to anybody, then it's due to him." And then he implies the father is Eric Burling.

We never Actually know who was ultimately responsible for Eva Smith's death as we don't actually know if Eva's died in the end of the play, this is the final twist in the story, when the burling family start to settle down after the Inspector leaves Mr Burling answers a phone call, on the end of the phone is the police saying an inspector is coming round to question the family about a girl who just died in the infirmary after swallowing disinfectant! This Final Twist in the plot sort of turns this play into a different type of play, more of a science fiction.

However, this play can also be seen as a modern "morality play" because the story seems to attempt teach the audience about the way people should lead their lives,

The Inspector always seems to be telling the family about responsibility:

"We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if we will not learn that lesson they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish"

"Public Men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges"

"If there is nothing else, we will have to share guilt"

Mr Birling's comments are very contrasting from ACT one:

"A man has to look after his own business and look after himself and his own"

And he seems to forget anything happened to anybody just because the man that visited them wasn't and inspector:

"The whole thins different now"

"...The famous generation who know it all"

After Mr Goole was revealed to not be an Inspector, the only people who seemed to care what had happened was Sheila and Eric as they began to see that responsibility is up most and that they must be responsible for their own actions.

The people originally watching this play would have just been through

World War 2 and so they would find the final warning to the Birlings very prophetic

"But just remember this. 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 their chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, and what we say and do. We don't live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish. Good Night"

A 1946 and 2002 audience would find some of Mr Birling's comments ironic for example the comment about the titanic

"...Bigger and faster all the time. And then Ships. Why, friend of mine went over this new liner last week - the Titanic - she sails next week - forty six thousand eight hundred tons - New York in five days - and every luxury - and unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable..."

And a comment about an inevitable war (second world war)

"Just Because the Kaiser makes a speech or two, or a few German officers have too much to drink and begin to speak nonsense, you'll hear people say war is inevitable. And I say - Fiddlesticks! The Germans don't want war, except some half - civilised folk in the Balkans. And why? There is too much at stake these days. Everything to lose and nothing to gain by war"

The Play is set in the Edwardian era and is very much a reflection of Edwardian society, J.B Priestly points out in the play the inequalities of Edwardian society and points out serious flaws in a society that allows disadvantaged Eva Smith to live alongside privileged people like the birlings who treated working classes so poorly. There was no welfare state so working classes like Eva relied on charity from the more privileged people and so they where at their mercy. People like Mrs Birling had the power to destroy or rebuild people's lives as in the play Eva Smith appeals to her organization for help (Brumley Women's Charitable Organization) for money or advice. If the 'charity' did give them what they wanted then the person could live a slightly better life if they didn't they might end up like Eva Smith had. Rich people in that era exploited the poor for profits (Mr burling thinks it is his duty to keep labour pay down) and for pleasure e.g. Eric's (and maybe Gerald's) use of Eva.

The Inspector will puzzle the audience as the Birlings are interrogated

E.g. after she left the clothes shop she changed her name to Daisy Renton. Goole questions Gerald and seems to know what Gerald had done before he confessed his story. This is typical for the inspector during the course of this play, as he always seems to be hiding something from the family. The inspector is an enigmatic figure we never even find out what his first name is, he never changes or develops during the play.

Inspector Goole's name is obviously a pun on the word ghoul (a spectre or ghost). The inspector could be seen as a ghost sent by the dead girl in order to torment the family's' consciences, or comic policeman conduction an enquiry preliminary to the day of judgement, or as a forewarning of things that are to come.

Certainly it seem that J.R. Priestly did not want to promote a single interpretation on exactly who the inspector was, his dramatic power lies in this. To later revile his identity or some such kind of spirit would have spoilt the Un-resolved tension that is so effective at the end of the play.

The Inspector speaks carefully, weightily, and has a disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person he addresses before actually speaking. "There is an air of menace about him and unlike all the other characters; he odes not deviate from his moral position.

He is single minded in pursuing his chosen line of investigation. He alone is certain of his facts. The other characters question these facts only after he has left. Whilst the Inspector is present, nobody challenges his version of events.

The scope and range of Inspector Goole's questions surprise the others. He makes judgements about their characters, which they feel unusual in a police inspector. He undermines their complacent assumptions that they are respectable citizens. Each of them discovers that this a shattering experience. Those characters that resist telling the inspector the truth suffer more than those who are more open. The Inspector says to Gerald, ".... If you're easy with me, I'm easy with you." Notice that he makes no judgement upon Gerald, and deliberately tries to stop Sheila from blaming herself too much.

However, he begins to lose patience with Mr Birling:

"Don't stammer and yammer at me again, man. I'm losing all patience with you people."

Mrs. Birling resists the most, and the Inspector is accordingly harshest with her:

"I think you did something terribly wrong...."

The Inspector persuades characters to reveal things that they then would rather where not known. Sheila points out that there is something about the inspector that makes them tell him things because they feel that he already knows.

The most dramatic example of the Inspectors ability to put his finger on untruth is when he directly accuses Mrs Birling of being an out right liar.

Inspector Goole has several functions in the play. He acts as the storyteller, linking the separate incidents into one coherent life story. He also behaves like a father confessor to each character, encouraging them to acknowledge their guilt for Eva's suicide, and to repent. Significantly, the Inspector himself neither forgives nor punishes. Each character is made to face up to the fact that they must find the courage to judge themselves: only then will they have learned enough to be able to change.

Sometimes, the Inspector behaves as the voice of social conscience: "You see, we have to share something. If there's nothing else, we'll have to share our guilt". He points out that social responsibilities become greater as privileges increase.

Having studied the play and seen a faithful television production of it I would like to end by saying that "An Inspector Calls" by J.B Priestly is not just about one well-off old fashioned Edwardian family and one poor working class girl it is a play about morals and the way we should all try to live our lives as best we can and trying not go down the path of the birlings, it is also about not re-making the mistakes that has already happened in the past (Edwardian society) and so a modern 21st century audience can still get some good ideas from a 20th century play.

The Inspector's dire warning, that if we don't have a social conscience and be more responsible for each other we will pay the price, this can still be relevant today by a way of guidance to show how we can end up if we follow the Birlings' route.

Chris Hunt 11W3

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