This proves to be a horrifying experience for the Birling’s as they learn that they have all played a part in the suicide of a young girl called Eva Smith.
In this essay I will be focusing on the different roles the inspector plays by his dramatic structure of moving the story forward and the moments on intensity and tension he creates on stage. I will be commenting on how Priestley uses the inspector to present his central themes and how he engages the audience.
J B Priestley took full advantage of writing in hindsight and makes sure that it will make the audience realise how wrong they may have been assuming future events.
The stage directions the immenseness of the Inspector is aroused in the audience's mind.
"Pink until the inspector arrives ...brighter and harder"
The pink atmosphere also helps to highlight the happiness and optimism of the Birling Family at the start of the play. The white atmosphere will help to show the harsh treatment that the inspector will provide during the play. Whiteness is also an emphasis of truth and honesty.
“The light hits all corners of the room”
The inspector’s solidity is continuously present.
"(Dryly) I don't play golf" and "Stop!"
The Inspector has harsh way of controlling the conversation throughout the play, words and phrases such as "stop", "I don't want", "sharply" and "harshly" help to show this.
The inspector is quite bombastic and his techniques of pausing and constantly repeating himself makes the other characters feel uneasy.
I think the Inspectors role in the play is a moral one. As the tension increases, as does the intensity, he is mysterious and is not stereotypical in his investigation.
The Inspectors name, Goole, also has a big significance in this play. It is a homonym of ghoul; A Ghoul is "an evil spirit".
The play is set out in ‘real time’, which means that the play is happening instantaneously at the same time the audience is watching it.
The genre of this play is a ‘who-dunnit’. The inspector keeps us in suspense by gradually talking to each member of the Birling family and getting a step closer to solving the mystery but not letting out any clues of the significance to Eva Smith’s death.
In Edwardian England, they attitudes to working class women were very different than today and the treatment of women by men seems sexist.
“She had a lot to say – far too much – so she had to go”
at the end of the play, Mr Birling gets a call from the real inspector. I think Priestley wants us to leave the theatre wondering how each character will react to the Inspector the second time around.