The Inspector has many functions in the play. Discuss what some of these are. Then explain how the Inspector affects one member of the household throughout his visit.

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The Inspector has many functions in the play. Discuss what some of these are. Then explain how the Inspector affects one member of the household throughout his visit.

The Inspector arrives at the Birlings house. He arrives just as they are celebrating Sheila and Gerald’s engagement. The family’s happy mood soon changes when he starts asking questions.

Near enough everything in the play centres on the Inspector.

The Inspector seems strange from the start even though the other characters and us the audience all believe he is real. His name is one of the first things that make us wonder because ‘Goole’ makes us wonder whether he is actually real because it sounds ghostly. Goole is also a small seaport town, which represents fishing so maybe the Inspector is fishing for information.

Another quality the Inspector has is the way he manages to get all the characters to spill everything. The strange this is he already seems to know the answers. It’s as if he knows everything about the family and is just playing with their minds because at the end of the play he has heard everything he wants to. How did the Inspector get all of this information? That’s one thing I thought maybe he had an inside accomplice like the maid or maybe the family just weren’t as strong as they were made out to be at the beginning.

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Throughout the play I felt the Inspector was real. I was shocked when I found out that he wasn’t. I think I did have some doubts about him. The things that triggered them off were the fact he would only allow one person at a time view the photograph at a time and how did he know so much about the family not even their own family members now.

Out of the whole family only Sheila seems to be the only one to realise how much the Inspector is getting at them. She discovers that he does not need the ...

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