He also creates tension from mystery. Not showing Eva Smith’s photograph creates mystery because the audience never know if the same photo is being shown. Not knowing the Inspector’s identity also creates mystery.
The Inspector also uses suspense to create tension. For example, at the end of Act 1 he ends with the word ‘Well’ and at the beginning of Act 2, he is said to ‘remain at the door for a few seconds looking at Sheila and Gerald’. This creates suspense within the audience and keeps them guessing about what will happen next.
The Inspector also presents Priestley’s central views. Priestley was a socialist, other wise know as a ‘cranks’ which is what Mr Birling saw the Inspector as. Priestley believed in equal rights and unity between people. Because the rich people were the ones making the Laws, Priestley believed that the rich would stay rich and the poor would stay poor because they had no one representing them. He wrote this play to get across his views through the Inspector to the rich people of that time as it would be them who could afford to see the play.
The Inspector also shows Priestley’s views in the speech he makes before he leaves the Birling household. The Inspector says ‘We are all responsible for one another’ (unity between people).
The Inspector moves the story forward through his questioning. He does this through changing the mood, telling Eva Smith’s story, involving time passing, changes in scenery and showing different events.
The Inspector helps to move the story along by changing the mood of the atmosphere when he arrives. Before the Inspector’s arrival, Gerald and the Birling members were said to be ‘very pleased with themselves’. The atmosphere was very relaxed and happy with Mr Birling and Gerald drinking together, Sheila excited about her engagement to Gerald and Mrs Birling and Eric celebrating the engagement as well. The arrival of the Inspector though has a dramatic effect on the mood. He changes the mood to that of a guilty, unhappy and defensive household. The Inspector changes Mr Birling’s mood from confident and laughing complacently to impatient - ‘Yes, yes. Horrid business…..’ and threatening - ‘Perhaps I ought to warn you....’ He also changes Gerald’s to ‘impatient’ and makes Sheila ‘distressed’ and ‘frightened’. The Inspector changes Mrs Birling’s mood into a defensive one - ‘I did nothing I’m ashamed of or that won’t bear investigation’, ‘I’ve done nothing wrong and - you know it’. Eric’s mood is said to be ‘miserable’ and ‘unhappy’.
If the Inspector had not arrived, the story would have been very dull. The atmosphere would have been happy and joyous with Mr Birling making speeches and telling Gerald of how he is sure to get a knighthood. The storyline would have been around the engagement, and there would be no surprise characters. It would have been set in the dining room and there would not have been a lot of action and no surprise characters.
The Inspector’s name in ‘An Inspector Calls’ is very ironic. Inspector sounds like ‘spectre’, and Goole sounds like ‘ghoul’. Priestley here has used dramatic irony because we as an audience see that he is some spirit or ghost but the characters in the play do not realise until the end of the play that Inspector Goole may never have been a real inspector.
Mrs Birling’s reason for thinking that he was a fake was because she thought he was ‘rude and assertive’ and she could not imagine a real inspector talking to her in the manner that he had.
Mr Birling also thought that he was a fake because of the way he spoke to him – ‘look at the way he spoke to me telling me to shut up…. They don’t talk like that’.
Sheila also suspected that he was a fake because he seemed ‘queer’ and not like an ‘ordinary police officer’.
Gerald suspected that the Inspector was a fraud and went to find out. Gerald found out that there was no one named Inspector Goole on the force and the came to tell the Birlings about his findings.
We never find out the real identity of the Inspector. There are a number of suggestions about who the Inspector is. One idea is that he is a time traveller from a spiritual dimension trying to warn the Birlings about their selfish actions and the consequences to theses actions. For example Sheila being jealous of Eva Smith and therefore getting her fired. This theory is like the idea of the spirits in ‘A Christmas Carol’. The Inspector shows the Birlings by showing them the past, present and future. The past is shown by making each of them tell us how they were related to Eva Smith. We are shown the present throughout the play because of the investigation that is taking place but this is also partly what will happen in the future. The future is shown through the death of Eva Smith because she is not dead until the end of the play when they receive a phone call from a ‘real Inspector’.
Another theory about the Inspector’s identity is that he Priestley’s voice. Priestley was using the Inspector to get across his socialist views.
He is also said to be God because he seems all knowing and omnipotent. This however is questionable because although he knows what’s going to happen, for example at the end of Act 2 he is said to be ‘waiting’ just before Eric comes in through the door, his knowledge is limited. You can see this because when he shows Sheila the photo and she becomes upset he professes that he does not know why she is upset and ‘that’s something he has to find out’.
I think that the Inspector’s identity is not important. I think it is his role as a dramatic device that is important. I think the Inspector’s role as a dramatic device that engages the audience, moves the story forward and presents Priestley’s views is what is most important and not his identity.
I think Priestley calling the Inspector ‘Goole’ makes the Inspector sound like he is extraordinary because it makes his sound like a ghoul and it also makes the Inspector seem superior because he is not of this world. He may have also called him ‘Goole’ to create dramatic irony because the characters do not realise the strangeness of his name until the end of the play.
I think Priestley has left his identity open because it has a larger impact on the audience because then there is an air of mystery of who this man was and it leaves the audience to decide for themselves who he was. I think if Priestley revealed the identity of the Inspector, the Inspector would not seem so important because he seems like a higher being and therefore his views are more respected then those of a ‘normal inspector’.
