Priestley uses these social experiences to mock the social ladder that existed before the war. He was warning in this play that people like this existed and going back to that era of social importance would cause our downfall. He was trying to change this new age of citizens so they would be more socially aware. He did this by comparing the two types of generation in his characters.
Mr and Mrs Birling represented the old, and self-satisfying values upper-middle class families had, whereas Sheila and Eric represented the new and young way of thinking, being socially aware of yours and other’s actions. Inspector Goole is something of a question mark, he is supposed to leave the audience in wonder and it is his speeches that get people thinking, some theories are that he is the voice of Priestley. Gerald Croft is quite similar to Mr and Mrs Birling and is set in the old values of his family, but through the play Priestley shows a change in Gerald where you see his compassion, but at the end as soon as he realises it is a hoax “Even then, that may have all been nonsense,” he seems to forget everything that he has learnt and throws more energy into protecting himself rather than changing. Priestley is quite clever in using these different profiles on the characters. He shows the change in Sheila Birling from being a spoilt daughter of a rich businessman to a person that by the end of the play has a deeper understanding of how her actions can affect others, and that she shouldn’t just shrug that off. He wanted the audience to realise that as well. Initially Eric is the most socially aware in his family but first impressions are that is this spoilt child who wastes money on getting drunk but as the play continues you are able to see why and how the lack of love in his life has affected him, although Priestley does not excuse his behaviour. Seeing that he wanted to steal the money for a good reason makes the audience have some compassion for him. In the beginning he is the only character that shows a glimmer of social awareness and, by the end of the play his eyes have obviously been opened even wider as hopefully the audience’s have as well.
Comparing the two views on society really puts it into perspective for the audience of how wrong it is to be wrapped up in your own affairs and what can happen when skeletons are allowed of the closet. Priestley does that cleverly with the intention of getting them to think. He uses the two different reactions of the family to criticise the older generation Birling through the dialogue of younger generation Birling. It is effective as the audience are able to relate with the statements and the characters and understand his message fully. You could say that Priestley is enabling the audience to grow with Sheila and Eric. Even though both of them have wronged it is there shame and understanding of what they have done in their past actions which allows the audience to sympathise with them. Whereas with Mr and Mrs Birling the audience are shown a couple who are so desperate to keep their high status in town that they are unwilling to admit they have done anything dishonourable. For example when challenged about Eva Smith Mrs Birling says “I think she had only herself to blame,” even though Mrs Birling refused her case because she thought Eva was impertinent as she came to her for help using the name Mrs Birling. Priestley is mocking her and other women who are/were like her. Mrs Birling was on the Brumley Women’s Charity Organization, because she ‘cared’ for the welfare of people far worse off then she was. In fact by the end of her questioning from Inspector Goole it is quite clear that in fact the only thing she did care about was her own personal image of being a ‘charitable’ women. Priestley not only mocks her, he also mocks other ‘Ladies or Gentlemen’ that did similar things to make them outwardly appear to be compassionate for those who were less fortunate. Inwardly they had only compassion for themselves and everything they did was about them and Priestley wanted the public to understand that.
Inspector Goole generally is the voice of Priestly in the drama and makes his opinions strongly heard. He does this by using speeches, dark humour and good timing. He is a prominent character and fulfils his role of Inspector and thought provoker very well. He is a vital character and without him Priestley would be unable to convey his main message about society to the audience. He uses the smart humour to pull apart the Birling family thus enabling the audience to understand their faults and why they were not faults a person should have. Through Inspector Goole Priestley shows how he is unimpressed with high authority and Mr Birling who feels he is Goole’s social superior is constantly reminding Goole of his contacts and how he is a strong figure in the town and was once the Mayor. However Goole cuts through that to know the facts and finish his job. Priestley is pointing out that even though Birling may be Goole’s social superior it does not mean that people of that ‘standing’ can go around treating people who are ‘lower’ than them badly and should be aiming to help others instead of ignoring their cause.
J.B. Priestly cunningly has a message behind the stagecraft and uses it to express his general feelings of the Birling family and/or other families similar to them. He keeps everything in one room so as to get the feeling of them being completely separate to the rest of the world and what is going on in it. Another impression Priestley gives you of them being remote is Mr Birling’s speech at the very beginning where he talks about the Titanic being unsinkable and war on the cards being nonsense he says “There’ll be peace and prosperity and rapid progress everywhere.” It is this lapse of judgement that gives the spectators cause to doubt his opinions later on in the drama. Especially as they know that the Titanic sank on it’s maiden voyage and two World Wars happened shortly after that speech. Priestley cleverly adds that time warp to show the audience that pretending what is going on around you doesn’t exist will not make it go away, and it is better to open your eyes to the facts.
Priestley kept his production simple and straightforward for the viewers to accurately take in and comprehend all the messages that were conveyed through the dialogue. This backs up the idea of keeping it all in one room so there is nothing in the background distracting the audience from what they really need to be concentrating on.
On the whole Priestley uses these techniques to effect and obviously conveyed his point about society and how it could stop Britain from moving on and rebuilding what they have. Writing for an audience who are most likely to be predominantly middle class enables the audience to relate to the characters. During the play they would progress from ignorance to knowledge, which is exactly what Priestley wanted and achieved. He gave the Inspector the ability to question not only the characters but the audience as well as they would question in their minds traits that were similar to the Birling’s and Gerald Croft’s.
