The lighting in act one starts off very pink and intimate. This makes the house hold seem very peaceful. The Birlings seem to lead very comfortable and protected lives. So when the inspector arrives the lights become white and a lot brighter. This dramatic change in light has an immediate effect on the mood in the house. The house changes from being very calm and intimate to being very tense and menacing. This change also suggests that the inspector is about to throw some light onto past events that have once been concealed.
The setting of the play makes a statement in its self. It shows the audience just how rich the middle classes were. “heavily comfortable but not cosy and homelike.” this tells us that the Birlings furnishings were very nice and expensive but it was more like a show home than a nice family home. The Birlings preferred to have an expensively furnished house than a cosy family home.“ it has good solid furniture of the period.” The furniture that the Birlings have is of the highest quality. If u compare this furniture with the working classes furniture there would be no comparison. Eva could not afford any expensive furniture. No working class person could. ”decanter of port, cigar box and cigarettes.” Eva smith and the rest of the working class could not afford the finer things in life so they definitely couldn’t afford these luxury items. The gap between the Birlings and Eva smith was massive. The Birlings could afford most things where as Eva could barely afford to live. The dining room is considered to be the heart of a home so that is why the play is set there. The inspector has come into the house and attacked the household from the main room of the house. The dining room. He has become the main figure in the play.
Priestly makes Mr Birling seem like a fool because of the way he uses dramatic irony. Mr Birling says that “some people think that war is inevitable. And to that I say fiddle-sticks! The Germans don’t want war nobody wants war.” this statement makes Mr Birling seem extremely foolish because the audience know no that he is wrong and that war actually was inevitable. There wasn’t even just one war there was two. Mr Birling also says that “the titanic is unsinkable, unsinkable absolutely unsinkable.” the audience know that Mr Birling is totally wrong again because the titanic did sink. It sunk on its maiden voyage after it had struck an iceberg. These two uses of dramatic irony portray Mr Birling as being very foolish and quite stupid because the two things he was adamant wouldn’t happened actually happened.
Inspector Goole is central to the play. He is extremely commanding and authoritative, in his speech and in his personal presence “he creates at once an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness. He dominates the other characters, even Mr and Mrs Birling, who are used to dominating others and being obeyed. were as Arthur Birling is Described as “a heavy-looking, rather portentous man in his middle fifties. He is a snob because he looks down on those socially beneath him, like the Inspector, yet looks up to those above. Mrs Birling is described as “a rather cold woman, and her husband's social superior.” This ‘social superiority’ characterises her throughout the play; she is extremely snobbish, and regards those on a ‘lower’ social level as ‘beneath’ her. Sheila Birling is perhaps the most sympathetic of the Birlings, though her own part in Eva's death is arguably less defensible than Mr Birling's. She is a highly perceptive character who is the first to realise that the Inspector is no ordinary policeman, and that he has an almost supernatural knowledge: “Why - you fool - he knows. Of course he knows. And I hate to think how much he knows that we don't know yet.” Eric Birling is the younger child of Arthur and Sybil, described as “not quite at ease, half shy, half assertive. Gerald Croft is, like the Birlings, a member of the upper class. He is described as “very much the easy well-bred young man-about-town.” He is slightly older than Eric, and seems far more assured, confident and capable of dealing with awkward situations.
At the end of act one the inspector’s final line is a one word question “well?” This question comes straight after the stage directions say ‘the door slowly opens.’ this ends the chapter on a cliff-hanger. This is what builds up a lot of suspense amongst the audience. The audience expects there to be an answer but there isn’t, so in
Act Two the audience know that there is a lot more to come. This engrosses the audience and grabs their attention in anticipation for Act Two.
The effect of the dramatic devices affect the play in various ways. The photograph builds up tension amongst the Birlings. The lighting sets the mood for the play. The setting shows the difference between the classes. The dramatic irony portrays Mr Birling, the boss of the household as being quite foolish and lastly the character descriptions shows what the characters are really like. J.B Priestly engages the audience very well he builds up a lot of suspense, with the photograph and the one word question at the end of Act One. He also gradually prepares the audience for the inspectors arrival by changing the lights in the play from being pink and intimate to being white and bright. The play touches on the issue of social responsibilities. The inspector trys to make the Birlings realise that everybody is responsible for each other, no matter what social class you come from. So the moral of the story is that everybody is responsible for everyone else.
