The atmosphere was very happy and jolly. Everyone was enjoying the engagement party. The characters are behaving like they don’t have a care in the world. Of course they do not know what is about to happen. They do not know what they have done.
The second point is how dramatic irony and things that people say tells us about the characters. Take Mr Birling, when he says ‘Titanic – she sails next week – forty – six thousand eight hundred tons – New York in five days – every luxury – and unsinkable.’ But the people in the audience, or people reading the book know that the Titanic actually sunk on its maiden voyage.
Then, Birling went on to say ‘there isn’t a chance of war.’ This shows that he was wrong again. This play was set just before World War I
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and was written just after World War II. So the audience would have thought to themselves, he does not know what he is talking about. The war that is about to happen is one of the biggest, if not the biggest ever to have happened.
The third point is how when the inspector calls the mood and atmosphere of all the characters changes. When the inspector comes into the room where Gerald, Eric and Arthur are, the three men don’t know why he is there.
Mr Birling says to the inspector ‘Well, what can I do for you? Some trouble about a warrant?’ The inspector replies by saying ‘No, Mr Birling.’ This takes Birling by surprise. The inspector then says ‘I’d like some information… Two hours ago a young girl died in the infirmary.’ After Birling heard this he said ‘Yes, yes. Horrid business. But I don’t understand why you should come here inspector.’ When the inspector mentioned the name of the dead girl, Eva Smith, Birling started to remember. The inspector then shows Birling a photograph, then Birling remembered who she was. He went on to say ‘…She was one of my employees and then I discharged her.’ After saying this Mr Birling went very defensive, he said ‘Just keep quiet Eric… this girl left us nearly two years ago.’ He went on to mention ‘Obviously it has nothing to do with the wretched girls suicide.’
Birling doesn’t want to answer some of the inspector’s questions, and when he questions this, Birling does not like it. ‘Did you say why.’
Birling has changed from the start of the play. In the beginning he was confident and smug. Now he is a nervous wreck. He thinks this could stand in the way of him getting a knighthood. He also thinks this could damage his hard earned reputation.
The last main point that I will comment on is how things are not what they seem in the rest of the play. The girl that died was called Eva Smith, with this name she was recognised by Sheila and Arthur Birling. But when the inspector said her name was Daisy Renton Mrs Birling, Eric Birling and Gerald Croft recognised who she was. For example when the inspector says ‘so first she changed her name to Daisy
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Renton.’ Gerald replied by saying ‘What?’ The reason that he recognised the name was because he had an affair with this girl.
Close to the end of the play Gerald Croft enters the house for a second time and has some news for the Birlings. He comes in and says ‘That man wasn’t a police officer.’ All the Birlings find this a great shock. But Gerald has some evidence to back up his statement. The first thing he told Mr Birling to do was to phone the police station to ask if there was an Inspector Goole in the force. Mr Birling phoned and sure enough there was no Inspector Goole in the force. The second point he made was ‘How do you know it was the same photograph? Did you see the one that your father looked at?’ Sheila replied by saying ‘No I didn’t.’ This shows that not everyone saw the same photograph. All of the deaths were either different or didn’t happen. After this the Birlings were sure that the inspector was an impostor.
Eva Smith, Daisy Renton, are they dead? Or has nothing happened to them? This was the next thing they had to work out.
Gerald picked up the telephone and rung the infirmary. He asked whether a girl had died by drinking disinfectant. After a short wait Gerald turned round to the Birlings and said ‘No girl has died in there today. Nobody’s been brought in after drinking disinfectant. They haven’t had a suicide for months.’
I believe J.B. Priestly has done a good job showing that things are not what they seem. He does a good job changing the characters feelings as he goes through the play. For example, at the start of the play Eric says ‘Steady the buffs’, in a happy and jolly fashion. But at the end of the play Eric says ‘I agree with Sheila it frightens me to.’
The last thing Priestly does to make things not quite what they seem is in the last words of the play, the telephone rings, Birling answers then spins around and says ‘That was the police, a girl has died… after swallowing some disinfectant. A police inspector is on his way – to ask some questions.’
