In Act One of "An Inspector Calls", how does J.B. Priestley use dramatic devices to convey his concerns and ideas to the members of the audience, as well as interest and involve the in the play?

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“An Inspector Calls” Essay

In Act One of “An Inspector Calls”, how does J.B. Priestley use dramatic devices to convey his concerns and ideas to the members of the audience, as well as interest and involve the in the play?

The modern play, “An Inspector Calls” may initially appear to be a simple play depicting the suicide of a young girl, and the interrogations of an inspector as to why she died, bearing elements of a “whodunit” similar to popular stories and plays of the times. Whilst it is simply not possible to categorise this play into one genre, there are elements in it of a murder mystery, similar to that of a Sherlock Holmes story, which enables the connection of each member of the family to be gradually unravelled, making the story more exciting to the audience, whilst also enabling Priestley to convey his opinions. However, with more in depth and critical analysis, it emerges that the play contains a much deeper subliminal implications, and develops into a play of morality, of what Priestley believes in, and he uses the Inspector in the play to bring in a message of “fire and blood and anguish” unless society’s attitude towards their fellow man changes, and has conveyed his beliefs using a series of dramatic devices.

        J.B. Priestley was born in 1894, and fought in First World War, where he was introduced to the harsh realities of the English class system, one of the main focal points in this play. He remembered the war as a period of suffering and misery, where recognition and status in the armed forces were given based on your status in society. Rich men, and gentlemen were made into officers, regardless of their ability to lead or command. It was from this that Priestley developed his contempt for the “high flyers” of the day’s society, and of the morals and ethics by which they lived their life, and for what they represented. This was a time in which the gentlemen and businessmen still had very much control over their peers, and administered complete authority with only their own interests at heart.

        Priestley found these people to be “incredibly stupid and complacent”, and he felt that many of the disasters caused during the war, was predominantly due to the lunacy of the High Command, which would have comprised of the people who Priestley felt most distain towards.

         The images that he saw whilst serving his country gave him many of the view that her tries to convey in “An Inspector Calls” as he shows by the contempt, that is inferred, of Arthur Birling, who is symbolic of the upper/middle classes who Priestley disliked so avidly, and tries to incite the audience to feel similarly towards Mr. Birling, and what he represents.

        What he saw during the First World War, and the extent to which the sacrifices of the ordinary working class people affected him brought about many of his concerns with the problems of society, and despite many people believing him to be nothing more than a political preacher, he merely wished to convey his issues of doubt over the society that he resided in, and of peoples attitudes towards their fellow men. The horror that he saw in the war is reflected in the prediction from the inspector of “fire, blood and anguish” if people do not learn to live together and realise that they are all part of one body. Priestley was committed to communicating his views and his doubts to as many people as possible; he was keen to make an impression and to impose his views onto others, in the hope that it might make the society that they lived in better. After the experiences of the war that would have forced the audience to build on the changes that had occurred, he wanted to ensure that society did not regress and descend again to the values represented in the play, by Mr. Birling and Gerald Croft.

        He was able to communicate convey his ideas very effectively in “An Inspector Calls”, by using a series of dramatic devices, and his use of time. The play was first performed in 1945, shortly after the Second World War had ended, a time when people would have been all too aware of the damage that others can case, with no regard for the people on to whom they are inflicting the devastation. The audience would therefore be more receptive to Priestley’s views, and the opportunity for producing a result was optimum. Although the play was written and performed after the war had ended, it was set in 1912, which enabled Priestley to use irony very effectively to convey his thoughts, which I shall later examine in greater detail.

        Priestley sets this play in the past, because it enables the audience to take a more retrospective look at the values, which were represented by society in the past. Having experienced life in the working classes himself, J.B. Priestley had experienced first hand the morals that the upper/middle classes represented, and the way they could treat others in society, without regard for the consequences for the individual. His encounters are echoed in the description of Eva Smith, and the way she was subjected to inequitable treatment at the hands of the employers and the business, the people who could exercise such immense control over the working class.

He uses the inspector to voice his own opinions to the audience, by the revelations he makes about the consequences of this continued behaviour to the Birlings, in the play. To an audience watching this play in 1945, it would be obvious that the “fire and blood and anguish” that he talks about, symbolise the two World Wars, the lives that were sacrificed, and the devastation that was caused by, what Priestley believed to be, the upper classes, who have refused to acknowledge the fact that there are “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 within our lives…we are members of one body” and that their lack of consideration of this has brought about the “fire and blood and anguish”  in the form of two world wars and the total devastation that the audience of the time would be familiar with.

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In order to influence to the audience with optimum effect, Priestley uses a range of dramatic devices, which are designed not only to interest the audience, therefore making it easier to convey his messages, but to reinforce and strengthen the way in which his messages are related to the audience.

The use of sound effects is an example of a dramatic device in effect, with particular reference to the doorbell, the most prominent sound effect in the entire play. The doorbell is used in order to surprise the audience, a factor to increase the interest and the appeal ...

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