Priestley used his play as a dramatic device so he could influence his audience to follow the socialist ideas about collective responsibility and equality. Priestley’s audience were middle class, upper class and largely capitalists. In my opinion most of his audience were ostentatious people who were oblivious of socialism. A play in my opinion is more effectual; it is a subtle way. A play I believe captured his target audience, they would have no other choice but to focus on the story line and eventually come to terms with the sub-text whilst they attended the play. The message Priestley wanted to inform his audience of within the sub-text was not direct but in my opinion obvious. Any other method to get his message to strengthen towards his target audience would have had many disadvantages then a play. Public speeches would have had no effect on the public whilst they were going about their normal daily routines. Newspapers, advertisements and radio would have enabled Priestley to get his view across yet all he had to say cannot be printed or on air.
The setting and lighting was extremely significant it would have effected how the audience felt towards the play. The setting is used to generate dramatic irony. Priestly shows a homely comfortable atmosphere though the irony is that the audience do not know of what tragic and distressing scenes are to come ahead. The lighting is at first soft and pink. It makes the audience feel calm and comfortable. The setting is a dining room; all of the scenes are played in this particular room. It was very important to Priestley that the setting was appealing towards the audience throughout the play. When the play started a bright light very stark would signal the inspector’s arrival in the play. The lighting was used in this way to make the audience shocked to acknowledge the inspector’s presences and so that they may see him as a key character in the play.
In the play the characters are a small group who represent certain classes and attitudes. Priestly used this microcosm to represent his views. Each character played a role in Eva Smith’s suicide; the inspector always accounted for their typical middle class behaviour as the cause of the tragic suicide. Priestly used the Inspector as a vehicle to promote his views, he intended the inspector to be decisive and keep control of the interviews with the Birling family through out the play, by the inspector being the driving force it was easy to determine who were the false and the sincere characters.
One narcissistic character was Mr Birling; he is the factory owner, with him belonging to a respectable class and a family he thrived in his ever-glowing capitalistic world. He is the head of the Birling family and he is proud and in my opinion conceited. Mr Birling believed in capitalist ideas.
‘‘Still I can’t accept any responsibility. If we were responsible for everything that happened to everyone, we’d have nothing to do with it, it would be very awkward.’’
It is Birling's speech in the beginning that sets the mood for the play. Birling is assertively talking to Eric and Gerald about what he thinks about the future. He thinks of everything in business terms (for example, he states to Gerald that he is optimistic that his firm and Gerald's father's will become partners) and also is a man who imagines that a man should make his individual way in life. He disregards the people who moralize the socialist philosophy of everyone living together as equals. Birling's attitude towards industry forms the cornerstone of his one man for himself' philosophy. He finds it hard to resist talking about his business ideas, even when celebrating his daughter's engagement, as he describes the time that they are marrying in “will be a time of increasing prosperity”.
However, his idea of increasing prosperity does not extend to Eva Smith. He is dismissive towards the workers' strike, describing it as a “pitiful affair”. Birling’s misguided faith in the progress of the future and its creations is emphasised by priestly use of dramatic irony. He claims that the liner Titanic - designed and built by people like Birling - is absolutely unsinkable and stresses the size of ship, 46 800 tons. However, a few weeks later, the unsinkable ship was at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean with the loss of 1000 lives. Again Birling's visions have been shown to be totally incorrect. Birling has no time for the idea of socialism and workers' rights. Birling’s grand predictions would have seemed particularly bitter and ironic to the audience who first watched the play in 1945. During this period the world was going through a disastrous war and Birling's wildly over-optimistic prophecies would be seen to be totally wrong. The audience knows that, with hindsight, all that Birling believes in is about to be torn down. Birling predicts that in twenty or thirty years' time that there will be peace, greater prosperity and happiness everywhere. When in fact, the world was about to be plunged into the carnage of the First World War.
It is at this point that the Inspector enters the play, interrupting Birling in his speech. In this way he can be seen as Priestly's response to Birling's opinions and he soon begins to tear down the ideas that Birling flourishes on. On hearing of Eva Smith's death Birling is at first dismissive of what has happened, saying that he does not see what the events have to do with him. Birling repeats his prior opinion on community, telling the inspector that he can't accept any responsibility for what happened to her, even though it may have been a chain of events. When asked why he dismissed Eva Smith for asking for a relatively modest wage raise, Birling tries to protect himself by alluding to financial reasons. He is surprised when the Inspector asks why he declines the raise, as he is sure the inspector will concur with him. Birling again shows his disrespect for other people when he says:
‘‘ If Eva Smith did not like working at the company she could go and work somewhere else - it's a free country.’’
This view is undermined when Eric points out that:
‘‘It isn't if you can't work somewhere else.’’
This shows Eric’s opinion of his father’s conduct.
The son of Birling, Eric represents the younger generation in the microcosm Priestly set out for the play. Eric has a split personality through out the play. Eric Birling is at first a young man who is mostly occupied by drinking alcohol and he has many wasted opportunities. Eric Birling was connected with Eva smith especially well, though he knew Eva Smith as Daisy Renton. He met Eva Smith at a bar, impregnated her then stole money from his father’s office to support her, he then proposed to Eva but was refused. Since then they had not seen or heard from each other. When the audience is first introduced to Eric he seems much like his father. He appears to have great interest for his fathers' capitalistic ideas until the Inspector arrives that is. The reason for this early change is due to the fact that Eric, of course, has been seeing Daisy Renton/Eva Smith until very recently. His instinctive words:
‘‘My God!”
Shows he knows whom the Inspector is talking about when he mentions the murder for the first time. He is appalled by what he hears concerning his father and Eva smith from the inspector. This is seen by his initial apprehension about the girl's outcome. Eric begins to distance himself from his opinions once he hears of the account of events that began with his father's dismissal of her. Eric is angry, he believes that the actions of his parents have led to the death of the woman who was to have his child and is understandably upset.
Sheila Birling is a young woman, daughter to Birling and fiancée to Gerald Croft. As well as Eric, Sheila also represents the younger generation in the microcosm Priestly set out for the play. Sheila Birling was also a link in the chain of events before Eva Smith’s suicide. After Eva Smith’s dismissal from Mr Birling’s factory, she acquired a job placement at a store called Milwards as a sales assistant. One afternoon Sheila entered the store Milwards and was assisted by a sales person and Eva Smith. Whilst Sheila was trying on a dress, Eva Smith expressed her opinion of Sheila’s choice of item by giggling. Eva Smith’s actions infuriated her. Sheila then complained to the manager claiming that Eva Smith was incompetent and rude, unaware of regrets she may encounter in the near future.
Inspector Goole: ‘‘And was it the girls fault? ’’
Sheila: ‘‘ No not really, it was mine.’’
Sheila can be seen to be feeling genuine guilt for her role in Eva Smith’s suicide; unlike her father she sees the error of her ways.
Gerald Croft is a young man and fiancée to Sheila Birling. Gerald had a brief affair with Eva Smith whom he had known as Daisy Renton. He met Eva Smith at the palace bar and became very familiar with her. Gerald soon kept her as his mistress sexually exploiting her as he pleased. He supported her by providing her a friend’s apartment to stay in. Gerald Croft being a typical middle class man believing in capitalistic ideas took advantage of Eva Smith but I believe Gerald comes out of his interview with the Inspector better than any other character. He did not do anything to Eva Smith that harmed her in the way that the other characters. Indeed, had he not been engaged to Sheila his conduct would have been entirely acceptable for a normal relationship. Gerald is a character whose opinions are difficult to judge, because unlike the other characters he has a motive for stating ideas that are different to what he actually believes. Gerald attempts to do and say what he hopes Mr & Mrs Birling will agree with however, the fact that he was engaging in an affair means that he is thought of in very low esteem by Sheila and her parents after he tells the details of his affair.
Mrs Birling also had a part to play concerning Eva Smith’s suicide. Eva Smith approached Mrs Birling at the woman’s organisation asking for support, she might have got that support had she not used ‘Birling’ as her name. Mrs Birling was stunned at the fact a working class girl had the decency to say her family name, typically Mrs Birling approached this matter rudely and offensively. Mrs Birling influenced her fellow member’s of the organisations board to refuse Eva Smith some money just because Eva Smith choice in name. Mrs Birling is shown oppressing the working class because of her capitalist ideas; she treats Eva Smith who represents the working class people in Priestley’s Microcosm as the upper/middle class people did to the working class in society at that period of time.
Inspector Goole represents Priestley’s views. The inspector is used as a vehicle in the play to promote Priestley’s views on society to the audience. They shared the same opinions about the inequality and the lack of collective responsibility within society. The inspector was made to seem omniscient and omnipotent. This is clearly shown through out the play whilst interviewing the Birling family. Inspector Goole would ask the family questions he already knew the answer to. To the audience it may have seemed he had a telepathic power, it is as if he knew what they would say.
An inspector calls was written by J.B Priestley in order to express his genuine concern for the lack of collective responsibility within the society he live in and for the lack of inequality. I believe Priestley used his characters so effectively that the audience may have understood the message he was trying to promote.
In the plot of An Inspector Calls, the characters respond to the message that they are given by the Inspector in different ways. Sheila and Eric fully understand the idea that, as the Inspector says,
"We all live as one body.”
Unsuccessfully they try to persuade their parents of the merits of these arguments. Birling and Mrs Birling stubbornly cling to their beliefs and Gerald also comes out on their side, although this could be a result of him trying to make the Mr and Mrs Birling happy with himself. By the end of the play the two older Birlings have still managed to keep up their self-deception whilst the audience can see that they are a very dysfunctional family.
As well as teaching a moral lesson about community, An Inspector Calls reflects many of the historical, social and cultural attitudes that were prevalent both in the time the play was set (1912) and the time in which it was written (1945). In this way the play is Priestly's comment on the values of that period. Cultural and social attitudes of the time the play is set in are prevalent in An Inspector Calls. There is a marked difference between the attitudes and values of the older characters in the play and the younger ones.
