From the lines and methods of enquiry that the socially important family of the Birling’s now face we can tell a great deal about the character of the inspector, through how he deals with such a headstrong and unforgiving family.
The first line of enquiry was given to the practically self titled great Arthur Birling, I think he feels under some pressure to show off as he hasn’t done for some time or more likely he assumes that the inspector may back off if he woos him with his achievements, the fourth line after meeting the inspector was: ‘I was an alderman for years - and Lord Mayor two years ago - I’m still on the bench - So I know the Brumley police officers pretty well.’ The inspector has already made a considerable effect upon the Birlings before his enquiries start, Mr Birling is trying to justify himself before he even knows what is to come.
These are some quotes taken from the Inspector's entrance and why he is central to the play (title included). He is extremely commanding and authoritave in his speech and in his personal presence, he has a solid larger than life presence. On his entrance he creates 'an impression of massiveness, solidity & purposefulness. He is a man in his fifties, dressed in a plain, darkish suit.... He speaks carefully, weightily and has a disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person before actually speaking.'' There have been many suggestions too of the Inspector’s real purpose, but the description above almost makes him timeless (making it easy for the play to be set in the future as the theatrical production did - 'darkish suit', they're still worn now, maybe some sort of warning on Preistley's behalf that we still have to watch our step even today) but with the age of the Inspector agreeably handing him experience and an age that comes with wisdom and that he's not to be ignored. The paragraph also tells a lot about the Inspector’s way of dealing with things, near the end of the play (if it has one) Mr and Mrs Birling are saying that they each shouldn’t have let the Inspector wriggle knowledge out of them, it could have been seen as bullying, but he got what he wanted didn't he through his 'careful, weighty, purposeful' questioning. I don’t think that the inspector did get what he had wanted though otherwise the Birlings would have been totally forgiving & like Sheila & Eric the other three - not forgetting Gerald would have been just as sorry & understanding of what they had done, rather than thinking they had got away with it. The Birlings had their morals in the wrong places I think another role of the Inspector was to try & mould them into the right places, and not just Inspector Goole, but for the audiences point of view Priestley had wanted them all as a whole to think of the thoughtless things that they could have done that could have seriously affected another future or not as the case may be.
It's been quite notably argued that the Inspector was only a mouthpiece for Priestley to talk through, Priestley was a socialist and firmly believed that 'we are all members of one body' etc. An Inspector calls is a didacted play with a clear moral and political message which Priestley wanted the audience to accept or at least think about. Priestley uses Goole to voice views that he held. Mr Birling says the inspector was 'Probably some sort of crank, he talked like one' maybe Priestley couldn’t claim the power that the inspector had, Mr & Mrs Birling were important people to the industrial town of Brumley and for some stranger to have such power over such powerful people, certainly didn’t allow him to blend into the crowd.
Another thing that clearly shows the immediate power of the Inspector is the instant effect he has upon the Birling ‘children’, emphasis on the word children, the fact that they were being more mature and forgiving to the situation than the parents were by a long shot. He wants to make the Birlings and Gerald admit their guilt and feel genuine remorse for their part in Eva Smith's death. He succeeds with Eric & Sheila ' I behaved badly too. I know I did. I'm ashamed of it' 'the money's not important. It’s what happened to the girl and what we did to her that matters' The others showed no remorse besides the young Birlings I think this is why the repetition of the Inspector calling occurs at the end, he's not really going to stop coming until they show that they are all genuinely sorry and have learned their lesson. Sheila talks in the play about their walls, I think another point of the play especially the ‘Royal National Theatre Production’s’ that they had kept their walls up and that they should have just let them go, at the end of the play it is dramatically shown through the aid of the huge set that both f their walls literally crumble or break down with the falling of the Birling’s house and their pride.
This is another part of the play in which the audience can identify with him as well as their pity for the unseen Eva Smith, he does this by making her 'very pretty' and if this necessarily follows vulnerable too. People watching now have a sympathetic bond for Eva & a degree of hostility for the Birlings. The inspector carries on to make the Birlings feel worse & appear more heartless than they already are by saying 'I think it would do us all a bit of good if sometimes we tried to put ourselves in the place of these young women counting their pennies in their dingy back bedrooms.' Goole is now a focal point for the audience's sympathy towards Eva as well as the moral & dramatic backbone of the play.
The Inspector's power has only been mentioned briefly, there was some debate whether the enquiry would have been handled how it was, with others listening in as usually you would have been interviewed one at a time, it was almost as though the Inspector wanted to humiliate them in front of the people closest to them maybe he thought that this would help them own up to their responsibilities.
If that last method didn't work the constant reminders that the Inspector gave certainly should have made them think about it a little more, he very cleverly used their own keenness against them 'and you think a young woman ought to be protected against unpleasant an disturbing things?' Gerald: 'if possible, yes' Inspector: 'Well, we all know one woman who wasn't, don't we?' Gerald’s suggestion of Sheila leaving the room so that she didn't have to hear his tale of his 'affair' with Eva (then daisy Renton) backfired somewhat.
With a few of the outbursts aside the Inspector seems to return to his calm self again, Priestley knows that to achieve what he wants means that everyone will have to be patient in order for it to work. His language from the Birling outbreak returns to the inspector speaking 'coolly' and 'imperturbably' His language is often blunt, but then sometimes deliberately harsh 'two hours ago a young woman died in the infirmary. She'd been taken there this afternoon because she'd swallowed a lot of disinfectant. Burnt her insides out, of course' Birling points out later in the play along with some more comments about the Inspector that 'Just repeating it shakes you a bit and that’s what he had to do. Shake us at once and then start questioning us until we didn't know where we were.'
Birling had spoken about how they had questioned them, but how they question him is another matter, but of course not to his face. Soon after the Inspector had left the contrasting household in which he had entered a few hours before they, the Birlings along with the audience start questioning who he had really been, and because they were Birlings and had the 'how dare they question me police officer or no police officer attitude' they had thought of several alternatives to what he could have been rather than what he was. There is a lot of questioning into the play as to what the Inspector really was. There just so happens to be almost an infinite number of who or even what the Inspector could be this is another dramatic device to leave the audience pondering about the inspector there fore dramatical. The inspector has been said to have been the socialistic voice of Priestley deliberately meant to shine through, the voice of their well hidden consciences, a ghost (Goole / ghoul connection) a time traveller to warn them as the girl isn't dead until they start doubting who the inspector is & they assure themselves that they are off the hook Gerald takes command at this point either because he still wants the senior Birlings to think that he's right for their daughter or because he doesn't want to believe it ' it's a hoax of some kind...he bluffs us into confessing that we've been mixed up in this girl's life in some way or another'
I chose the boring option that he was of the voice of Priestley purely because it has the most evidence to back it up, although some people like to think of him as Eva Smith and Eric’s baby but this whole play was to do with certain people wanting a world where the social ladder topples and makes everyone at the same Some people have said that he is the voice of God, but isn't there that thing of ‘God made us all equal’, so what's with society then?
In my personal view the Inspector was put in this very fitting play of the time just after everyone had come together after the second world war as part of a conscience, Sheila & Eric had to learn from the irresponsibilties, Sheila being in a 'furious temper' demanded to have a girl sacked without thinking of how that could change her life, Eric's irresponsible behaviour was his drunkenness or more to the point letting himself get that far gone in the first place. If it wasn't for Eric and his drunken activities then Eva wouldn't have found the need to go to the Women's charity for help, and if Mrs Birling hadn't have been so headstrong and proud as well as completely stubborn and unknowing her place to Brumley then I'm sure that the organisation could have helped Eva somehow. Even though Gerald isn't a Birling he was still caught up in this, but is probably the least responsible of being a purposefully mean person to Eva through his own heart. She was taken in by him knowing all too well that one day it would end, it was just another dose of her very bad luck that she fell in love with Gerald, and that he wasn't able to keep her forever. Mr Birling however had the biggest lesson to earn that tied in very well with the entrance of the Inspector, one of the inspector's speeches that was spoken towards the of the end of the play clearly showed yet another of Preistley's views on community and I think that it was deliberately aimed at Birling in particular and of course the audience 'their suffering and chance all intertwined in our lives' shows that we cannot ignore the pain that some unfortunate people go through and that we should try our very best not to cause it.
These words of wisdom from Priestley/ Inspector and myself lead ever so nicely to his final speech. ..
The inspector’s final speech is probably the key point and possibly the whole point of the play, this gives J.B Priestley his three solid minutes of well earned glory and brings forth the crunch on whether the audience will approve on this longwinded heart to heart with the somewhat heroic inspector.
For the dramatical effect needed for those who are seeing a free production of An Inspector Calls those same people that have felt that they could be contributing to some chores or helping out in another way Priestley grabs the attention by ‘but just remember this. One Eva Smith has gone-’ he then looks at the wider picture ‘but there are millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us’ Politicians such as Priestley should and did recognise that information is more clearly put out without boring the socks off someone but with the emphasis if it’s said as a trio, Priestley has used the collections of three similar adjectives / words / scenarios to give the Inspector a little more depth / intelligence / emphasis on his very last but certainly not least speech. He groups together : ‘their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering…what we think, say and do.’ The arguably most important part of the very important speech is about the magical lines in which the Inspector entered the Birlings once happy occasion, quite contrary to what Birling was rambling on about… ‘We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other’
This exit shows the effect that one man had upon a 'valued' family that was the Birlings, he walks straight out, leaving them staring, subdued and wondering SHEILA is still quietly crying. MRS BIRLING has collapsed into a chair, ERIC is still brooding desperately, BIRLING, the only active one ...stops looks gloomily at the other three...'
