‘And I say there isn’t a chance of war’ and ‘the world’s developing so fast that it make war impossible’
It dramatic irony because the audience should have known that there was a war and it had serious consequences, but the characters especially Mr Birling doesn’t know that. An additional form of dynamic irony is from Mr Birling again him still explaining to Eric about the world mention in between about the Titanic (the ship)
‘ The Titanic-she sails next week-forty-six thousand eight hundred tons- New York in five days- and every luxury- and unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable’
We know it is dramatic irony because the Titanic hit a ice burg on the way to New York and sink on the April 14th 1912 about 5 days after Mr Birling mentions it.
To summon up on the way the Act opens showing the theme of class the Birlings represents Society, Capitalism money and power. They are very powerful characters with confidents particularly Mr Birling. The scenery shows what J. B Priestly exactly wanted to portray about the difference in working class.
During the celebration there is a sharp ring at the doorbell, this immediately stuns the audiences and the characters on the stage. The doorbell signifies the dramatic effect in the act because later in the play every time a doorbell rings something usually happens also it signifies on the beginning of what is going to come ahead. I noticed that the celebration mood in the house changes immediately especially Mr Birling’s tone. Before the doorbell Mr Birling is very talkative after the doorbell he is very suspicious and conserved, mainly when Edna mentions the visitor is an Inspector.
When Inspector Goole enters the room the play describes him as a man who represents massiveness solidity and purposefulness.
‘The Inspector needs not to be a big man but creates at once an impression of massiveness solidity and purposefulness.’ The play also describes the Inspector of ‘speaking carefully, weighty and has a disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person he addresses before speaking.’ The shows that the Inspector has a strong presence and influence over the characters straight away, the Birling family is effected by the Inspector Goole’s entrance because you could sense the atmosphere that had changed with the characters all suddenly quiet plus the reaction of the audience wondering what sort of character the Inspector is going to be.
Inspector Goole questions each member of the Birling family in turn, showing how they are each individually responsible for Eva Smith’s death. Questioning Mr Birling first from here we find out more about the character we find out that Mr Birling played a part in Eva Smith’s death firing her from her job on where she used to work. As the interview goes on Mr Birling shows his true self because of his impatience shows that Mr Biring is a strong capitalist representing abuse of power
‘Well it my duty to keep labour costs down, and if I agreed to this demand for a new rate we have added about twelve per cent to our labour costs’ The quote showing that Mr Birling’s aim was to become successful in life no matter how it harms people in particular people in lower class. The inspector interviews Sheila after Mr Birling, Shelia is a young women in her early twenties she can be caring but also very jealous, immature and spoilt. It is clear because of the way she uses the power she has over lower class people (Eva Smith) she really gets what she wants.
‘ I went to the manager at Milwards and I told him that if they didn’t get rid of that girl, I’d never go near the place again and I’d persuade mother to close our account with them.’
Sheila gets Eva Smith sacked from her job because she looked prettier than she did in her dress. This exactly shows what she represents in the society abuse of lower class and bullish behaviour. The inspector sees these attitudes, pointing out an importantly quote.
‘And so you used the power you had, as a daughter of a good customer and also of a man well known in the town, to punish the girl.’
Goole brings out Priestley’s message to explain how bad the class and society really is.
Gerald Croft fiancé to Shelia, son of Mr Croft is a posh character with manners. He is in a higher class than anybody else and is very rich and also proud. He played a part in Eva Smiths/Daisy’s death by having a caring relationship with her then after breaking her heart
‘And by that time Daisy knew it was coming to an end. So I broke it of definitely before I went.’
We know Gerald broke of Eva/Daisy heart because he could of only married her if she was in a higher society class the fact is that this shows the capitalism and socialism the next message Priestley is trying to put across.
Eric is a very shy character in the play; he is in his early twenties like Sheila a young character with a lot of serious problems. Eric is a nervous character treated like a baby in the family described by Shelia as a bad alcoholic in which that he is.
‘Eric goes for a whisky .His whole manner of handling the decanter and then the drink shows his familiarity with quick heavy drinking.’
The quote is trying to explain that Eric is a strong alcoholic and the drink is the reason behind his behaviour. Eric played a part in Eva Smith saga as he represented the total abuse of woman at that time by raping Eva/Daisy in a palace bar.
Mrs Birling the final character she is probably in my view the most coldly. The wife of Mr Birling is very posh and speaks her mind. She above everybody as her characteristics is very stubborn, arrogant and quite bossy lot like her husband. Mrs Birling acts completes the mystery on Eva’s death because before she died she begged for advice and help from Mrs Birling but arrogantly she turned her down due to the fact that she had the same surname as the Birlings (because of the relationship with Gerald) it was Eva’s last hope, the act from Mrs Birling shows the ignorance to the lower classes and to represent humanity and equality the wife of Mr Birling is the ideal character.
Priestley uses Inspector Goole as a dramatic device to question the Birling family and to show tension throughout the play. The inspector is described as a cool person who represents the good side of society; he speaks carefully and slowly making him an influence over people when he speaks the novel describes the way by uses words like ‘Gravely’, ‘Dryly’, ‘rather slowly’, ‘impressively’ and ‘steady’.
Some of the characters act and react differently to the Inspector for example Mr Birling. He was pretty impatience throughout to the Inspector with every time the inspector asks him or tells him something he gets angry because of the way the Inspector is controlling what is going on in his own house. This also goes on with Mrs Birling as she as well appears to be quite impatience with the Inspector speaking to her like she was from the lower class in a posh language.
There is another element of suspense, which is used by the Inspector; it was the photograph of Eva Smith he was using as a piece of evidence to show the Birlings. With every time he shows it to a character the Inspector interposes himself between them and photographs not letting the other characters seeing it. He does this to each character (showing the photo) one by one with the only character Gerald that does not see it. The introduction of the photo is important because of every time it is shown to a particular character something dramatic happens straight afterwards probably involving the character’s reaction.
‘She looks closely, recognizes it with a little cry, gives a half-stifled sob, and then runs out.’
Again the dramatic tension is present.
The structure of the play is designed to show that the Inspector has a significant presence and to builds up audience expectation until the end. The Inspector has the ability to make each act effective control and leave the audience on tenterhooks for example in the end of Act 1 Sheila was speaking dramatically to Gerald about keeping a secret from the Inspector, afterwards the Inspector appears looking steadily and searchingly at them then he says ‘well?’ this causing an dramatic ending with him being the dramatic effect. The same with the end of Act 2 with the Inspector becoming the dramatic effect, again causing a dramatic ending with Mrs Birling to spills the beans allowing the Inspector to catch her out telling him about Eric. I have to mention the use of the door slamming and the bell ringing technique, which is used to anticipate the audience. The door slamming is used every time a character leaves the room the slamming sound ‘she turns away we hear the front door slam again’ usually quiets the audience and the characters on stage because the slam starts them causing a dramatic effect, the same with the bell ringing.
The Inspector’s passionate speech acts as a climax to his socialism beliefs, which represent humanists’ beliefs of Priestley, writing at the time of the Second World War when people would be conscious of capitalism. The point of the speech tells us that though one person had died horribly there were more people out there with the same lives’ dreams and hopes. People should look after one another as if they are a community with every single person responsible for one other.
‘We don’t live alone we are members of one body. We are responsible for each other’
The inspector hopes for chance in the future that meaning there is no treat ness between any classes of people.
The Inspector leaves straight after the speech leaving the Birlings to think about what they had done. The Birlings has a short argument until Gerald comes back from outside then he tells them that the Inspector was an impostor explaining to them why. Hearing this the rest of the characters is relieved except from Eric and Sheila who were still very emotional. Mr and Mrs Birling stars to get back to their normal self with relieve until suddenly they get a telephone call from the infantry……….
The end of An Inspector Calls is really important because it ends with a mighty cliffhanger leaving the audience very anticipated wondering. There were two characters that had learnt from the Inspector they were Eric and Sheila because even when the rest of the family thought that the whole story could have been a set-up they still felt really bad and ashamed of what they had done and because of what they had done to someone was still there that was not a set-up. These characters offer a glimpse of hope at the end of the play for the reason that they are younger than the older characters that could mean a better future for society change.
After the play the audience of the time would have had a little thought about the messages of the play. They might of agree or disagree Priestley beliefs were expressed through the Inspector, the Inspector acting as a holy figure teaching people the way to live with each other. Priestley hopes that there is hope for the future generations changes in classes and sociality. This is the role of the Inspector in An Inspector Calls.