J B Priestly's ' An inspector calls'.

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Act 2 ends not with an exit but with an entrance, Eric’s. The act finishes with an atmosphere of tension and immense expectancy of what is yet to come. How does J. B Priestly achieve this and what dramatic devices does he use?

J B Priestly’s ‘ An inspector calls’ is a first-class, proficient play containing an excellent diversity of clever dramatic devices and stage directions to guarantee to have you hanging on by every word and motion throughout the play for the expectancy of what is to occur.

   The way in which Priestly employee’s theses dramatic devices are very well organised and timed. For insistence at the beginning of the play his stage directions are very deliberate whilst using the lighting. It directs the lighting to be ‘pink and intimate until the inspector arrives, and then it should be brighter and harder’ this suggests it to be an intimate and friendly atmosphere whilst their celebrations for Sheila and Gerald’s engagement but as soon as the inspector enters it changes to show seriousness in the room and the atmosphere hardens, the friendly atmosphere has gone-this I think is premeditated to prepare us for the things that are to come. The lighting then stays the same throughout the rest of the play because the atmosphere and tension does not leave also. The stage directions are intentional in the way they are seated at the dinner table’ which has no cloth and desert plates and champagne glasses, etc. and then re-placed with dentor of port, cigar box and cigarettes.’ This represents their wealth and the champagne suggests a celebration is taking place, the fact that they have no cloth over their table proposes that they are too good and it’s a fashionable manner. The way in which they are also seated is Mr Birling is at the top of the table and his wife the other end with Eric ‘downstage’ and Shelia and Gerald’ upstage’ this advocates family status and that Mr Birling is the head of the family-he is the one with the most power.  Another stage direction is ‘ All five are in evening dress of the period, the men in tails and white ties, not dinner-jackets. Arthur Birling is a heavy-looking rather portentous man in his speech. His wife is about fifty, a rather cold woman and her husband’s superior with life and rather excited. Gerald Croft is an attractive chap about thirty, rather too manly to be dandy but is very much the easy well-bred young man about town. Eric is in his early twenties, not quite at ease, half shy, half assertive. ’ At this time of the play, you already start to get an indication of the characters and the 1912 standards the date of the scene is set you recognize this by their outfits. ‘At the moment they all have all had a god dinner, are celebrating a special occasion and are pleased with themselves’ this alludes to the fact that something is going to happen-the tension begins to set in.

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  Another dramatic device is a ‘dramatic pause’ by Mr Birling himself when he gives a speech to Shelia and Gerald about marriage and work. As soon as he begins he says ‘ I don’t often make speeches at you-‘ rather pompously in the stage directions he ‘holds them for a moment before continuing’ this purpose of this is to show power by Mr Birling and suspense to want to know what he says in his speech the tension then also rises. This is intentional. Moreover when Birling asks the inspector what his business was with them and asked if ...

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