John Boynton Priestley was born in Bradford in 1894. On the outbreak of the First World War Priestley joined the British Army. He was sent to France and in the September of 1915 he took part in the battle of Loos. After being wounded in 1917 Priestly was sent home (England) for six months. Soon after returning to the Western Front he endured a German gas attack he was treated at Rouen he was classified by the Medical Board as unfit for active service and was transferred to the Entertainers Section of the British Army. Some say this is where he began to write plays but no one can be too sure.
In the opening sentence of the play we are already given an insight into what Birling is like, due to the fact that Birling says “You ought to like this port, Gerald. As a matter of fact, Finchley told me it was the exact same port your father gets from him” this tells us that Birling isn’t sure in himself of what good port should taste like and needs advice on what to serve at his dinner party. Birling thought it right to compliment the chef for the dinner b saying “Good dinner too, Sybil. Tell cook from me” this demonstrates that Birling is not aware of the specific roles of the man or woman of the house because complimenting the cook was only for the women to do. On page four Birling says to Gerald Croft “It’s a pity Sir George and er Lady Croft can’t be with us” which tells us that Birling is not involved enough with his daughters plans to marry Gerald Croft that he does not even know Lady Croft’s first name. Birling gets into a discussion with his son about war, and he says “you’ll hear some people say that wars inevitable. And to that I say – Fiddlesticks” which shows that Birling does not really pay a lot of attention to what is happening in the world around him because this play was based in 1912 which was before the start of two World Wars.
I imagine Birling to be wearing a very attractive suit to symbolise his supremacy as a man of upper class, which is very patronizing as he used to be from a working class family. As the Inspector walks in I would position Birling centrally on the stage with all of his body facing the inspector to show that he is happy to help with any inquiries the Inspector might have. The lighting should be over the inspector because the audience will be waiting for the inspector to speak and therefore would want to be able to see every movement he makes. Birling offers the Inspector a seat, “Sit down, Inspector” which tells us that Birling is being fully cooperative with the Inspector and is not at all troubled by his presence. As the inspector discusses why he is here Birling gets rather impatient “Yes, yes. Horrid business” which confirms to us that he can not possibly believe that he has anything to do with Eva Smith’s suicide, Birling will have his back to the inspector as this is said because he wouldn’t want the Inspector to see any of his facial expressions because it might give the Inspector the impression that Birling knows more about the suicide than he is letting on.
In one scene Birling is very happy because he is talking about Sheila’s engagement to Gerald Croft and how much this engagement means to him because he says “Its one of the happiest nights of my life” which illustrates us a very clear impression of how he feels. I believe that Birling is only happy about Sheila’s engagement to Gerald Croft because if Sheila was wed locked into the Croft family it would give Birling the chance to “unite the Birlings and the Crofts once and for all”. Birling would be sitting at the head of the table in this scene acting very proud and gesturing towards his daughter a lot.
In another scene Birling is extremely angry with his son Eric because Eric has stolen lots of money from his father’s factory and has been spending it all on a young women called Eva Smith. His father then expresses his anger by stating to his son, “You’re the one to blame for this” he says to him which insinuates that he is extremely upset, and angered at what his son has done to him and how much shame Eric has brought upon the family by stealing from his fathers factory.
Birling appears to have a mixture of emotions such as guilt and shock when he receives the phone call from a Police Officer about the suicide of a young girl, I no this because the text says “As they stare guiltily and dumbfounded”, these emotions were brought on by a phone call received by the Birlings about a police officer coming to there house to question them about the untimely suicide of a young girl. Birling would be in the centre of the stage with all lighting upon him as he answers the phone, and as he places the phone down he would be staring idly into the audience.
I was not too fond of the cliff hanger that Priestley chose to end the play on because as the play ended I was still not quite sure what Priestley had hoped to succeed by writing this play but after analyzing it you begin to understand that all Priestley wanted was for people to consider their actions before actually acting upon them. Birling in one of his profound and longwinded speeches actually says, "… a man has to make his own way - has to look after himself- and his family too, of course, when he has one - and so long as he does that he won’t come to much harm. But the way some cranks talk and write now, you’d think everyone has to look after everyone else, as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a bee hive - community and all that nonsense ….. A man has to mind his own business, himself and his own." This view ended the family in the awful position that they found themselves in with Inspector Goole. I Believe J. B Priestley is actually describing himself as the “crank” that Birling described so aptly during the play, which again shows Priestley is being ironic.
I believe Priestley wrote this play because he is trying to tell us that even when people are given a second chance to change what they have done they would rather hide from their sins and just hope no one finds out. I think Priestley was using Inspector Goole as an advocate for his beliefs because the Inspector says “One Eva Smith has gone but
there are hundreds of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us” which to me means that Priestley is saying that any of our action and our thought and our words all have an effect on someone no matter how big or small, good or bad, everything has an effect so we must be careful what we say and do otherwise there will be no Eva Smiths or John Smiths left.
By
Joe Hyland
