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

Stephanie Ghartey 10/0

An Inspector Calls

By J.B Priestly

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

In An Inspector Calls by J.B Priestly an inspector is introduced who wants to show and teach the Birling family. He wants to teach the Birlings about being responsible for their actions and that their actions can severe consequences. Priestly’s main concern is to make to make the world a better place to live in for everyone. The date 1912 in which the play is set in is important because two years later World War One broke out. This is ironic because when the play is written in 1945 and that is when World War Two had just ended also this is when the first audience watched. So the first audience were aware of what starts wars, as well the social ideas behind the play would have stuck. An inspector Calls belongs in a mystery, detective play in addition to a play of social morals.

In An Inspector Calls, J.B Priestly uses a variety of different dramatic devices to influence the audience in Act 1. First of all, Priestly uses dramatic irony very early on in Act 1. Mr Birling has a very long speech that he gives at Sheila and Gerald’s engagement; he speaks about the titanic being unsinkable but ironically it sinks. He also declares that no-one want war however two years later World War 1 starts. In addition he says that the world would have forgotten about Capital versus Labour but it is ironic because the Labour Party is voted in parliament for the first time in England in 1945. Priestly makes Birling’s judgement wrong because he wants to show the audience Mr. Birling can’t be trusted, arrogant, pompous and has opinions on everything.

Another example of dramatic irony is when Sheila answers Gerald’s question by saying ‘Yes- except for all last summer. When you never came near me, and I wondered what happened to you’. In the end of act one the question is answered, because Gerald says he had an affair with daisy Renton, who is really Eva Smith.

A further example of dramatic irony is when Eric says in Act One ‘Yes I remember-‘(but checks himself).

The lighting in the play is significant at the start of the drama compared to the way it changes when the Inspector. ...

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Another example of dramatic irony is when Sheila answers Gerald’s question by saying ‘Yes- except for all last summer. When you never came near me, and I wondered what happened to you’. In the end of act one the question is answered, because Gerald says he had an affair with daisy Renton, who is really Eva Smith.

A further example of dramatic irony is when Eric says in Act One ‘Yes I remember-‘(but checks himself).

The lighting in the play is significant at the start of the drama compared to the way it changes when the Inspector. At the beginning of the play the lighting is pink and intimate which suggests the family is happy. However when the inspector enters the house, the lighting becomes harsher and brighter. This symbolic because the changing light, proposes to bring to light the Burlings pretences, actions and consequences.

The doorbell as a sound effect in Act One is very important as it brings Inspector Goole on stage. This puts a stop Birling’s speech he gives to Eric and Gerald on his personal; philosophy about every man for himself; which suggests that Birling’s speech is immorally wrong and the opposite to view the moral of play. In-script stage directions are adverbs to tell the actor how to say the text. This can be slowly or quickly, loud or soft. We find out the Inspector is coming due to a "sharp" ring of the doorbell. Everyone, especially Eric, becomes uneasy and Mr. Birling becomes rather angry. Priestley writes;

Eric (who is uneasy, sharply) and

Birling (sharply, staring at him)

This increases the tension as the audience notices this change in the characters speech. The audience has noticed how the characters have begun to rush and worry. This could mean that they could have known that the Inspector is coming to question them and they are showing their guilt. The doorbell brings a new character on stage who, is not huge in size but creates at once an impression of being massive, solidity and purposefulness .It is at this point that the Inspector enters the play, interrupting Birling in his speech. In this way he can be seen as Priestly's response to Birling's opinions and he soon begins to tear down the ideas that Birling thrives on.

When Inspector Goole arrives at the Birling house the happy music in the background will stop and the happy atmosphere will be drained away as he walks around. The inspector will be wearing a white suit and hat and have pale skin and dark eyes to make his appearance more surreal and ghostly. The Inspector has a big impact on the rest of the characters as he begins to break down their pretences. The Inspector is the catalyst for the events of the play: without him, none of the characters' secrets would ever have come into the open, for a variety of reasons.

In act one the tension in the Birling house begins to increase greatly, the inspector is pressuring the Birlings and Gerald to tell their story of how and when they met Eva Smith. At first they deny any knowledge of the girl, but as the play goes on the Inspector manages to show that they all helped kill her. Mr. Birling had her dismissed from his factory for demanding a small increase in wages; Sheila ordered her to be dismissed from her job in a shop simply because of her pride; Gerald Croft kept her as his mistress before leaving her suddenly. The Inspector's role in the play is a very important one. There are several reasons, the first being he opens up the characters personalities with his questioning. The inspector leads the characters to confront their own weaknesses, which makes them feel shocked and guilty.

Characters exiting the play, makes the audience wonder why the left and what have they got to hid and if they knew Eva Smith, what happened. When Sheila leaves, she is crying while running out because she recognized the photograph the inspector showed her. Later we learn that Sheila got Eva fired at Milward’s in a jealous rage. Also when Eric leaves the table with women, although he wants to stay with the rest of men, he can’t. this shows that he is treated as if he is ten years but he is now a young man.

Act One, ends on at a climax where the Inspector says ‘well’, to Gerald who has told Sheila he had on affair with Daisy Renton. This leaves the audience wanting to know how Gerald met her, how long the affair lasted and is everyone in the family connected to Eva Smith’s suicide. As Sheila, Mr Birling and Gerald,

The Inspector's role is to show that this is not the case. Throughout the play he demonstrates how people are responsible for how they affect the lives of others; his views are summed up in his visionary and dramatic final speech: The Inspector performs a very important speech that covers all the main themes of the play and allows Priestly to get his message across. The speech is very powerful and dramatic it is quite similar to a political speech. The reason it is so dramatic and powerful is because of the use of 'we and us' and memorable phrases like 'fire and blood and anguish'. We can see this at the end of act three: "We don't live alone, we are members of one body, we are responsible for each other." "If men will not learn this lesson they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish" What Priestly is trying to get across here is that we (us) need to use collective responsibility in order to maintain peace in the world. If we don't then it could result in a war, because personal suffering or as in this case leads to someone committing suicide.

The beginning half of Act One is very much ironic in retrospect to the whole play. As in the beginning of the play before inspector Goole arrives the members of the family are full of pretences. They behave like they are perfect family with nothing to hide but there are clues that everything is not as it seems. One is when Sheila answers Gerald’s question by saying ‘Yes- except for all last summer. When you never came near me, and I wondered what happened to you’. Gerald replies ‘And I’ve told you- I was awfully busy at the works all that time. Another clue is when Eric says in Act One ‘Yes I remember-‘(but checks himself). As well the whole of act one is ironic as Eva Smith’s suicide hasn’t even happened yet. The reason for inspector Goole visit is for showing the Birlings and Gerald their actions have serious consequences.

Our opinions of Birlings at first were that they a very normal rich family

Responsibility is one of the play's key themes, and the Inspector is Priestley's vehicle for putting across his own views of this as a socialist. In this final speech, he is speaking as much to the audience as to the characters on stage. His words here are a warning to an audience in 1945 not to repeat the selfish mistakes that led to the 'fire and blood and anguish' of two World Wars and the years between them. Also the message of responsibility is still relevant today as capitalism is still in this modern day world.