The Inspector is a very complicated man He has a soft side, for the death of Eva Smith, he also has a furious dark side on which he uses to find how Eva Smith died. When the inspector was first introduced he seemed specious because everyone around him was quiet but very worried. “The inspector need not be a big man but he creates at once an impression of massiveness. He is a man in his fifties dressed in a plain darkish suit of the period. He speaks carefully, weightily and has a habit of look hard at the person he address before acutely speaking” Throughout the play the inspector gets more aggressive.
The time the inspector arrives at the Birlings is just after Mr Birling is talking to Eric and Gerald about looking after yourself and your own. Entwined in the irony, the inspector enters and starts to tell what has happened. “A girl has died in an infermanery tonight” The inspector believes that a chain of events starts everything that has happened to this girl. This is just after Mr Birling was say that “If we were responsible for everything we done it would be a bit awkward” He is trying to challenge the inspector as the inspector has taken all power away from him. He has also taken everything Mr Birling said “A man has to make his own way – has to look after himself and his family too, of course when he has one – and so long as he does he wont come to much harm”. When the inspector entered he proved to Mr Birling that this was not true.
Throughout the story the inspector uses intimidation and unorthodox ways of interviewing the Birlings. But with everyone he interviews, he shocks them first by saying “A girl died in the infirmary tonight” this gives the inspector a starting point, as the person being interview is still in shock and doesn’t know what they are saying. The two people who don’t fall for this at first are, Mr and Mrs Birling, they try to intimidate him “Now inspector, perhaps you and I had better go and talk this over quietly in a corner”. There is also the way he interviews one person at a time and also looks them directly in the eyes, its like sussing them out to see if they are lying.
I imagine the inspector to be tall with a very serious face, you can feel his presence as soon as he enters the room. He is wearing a suit and an overcoat, his eyes are deep set and he stares meaningfully at whoever he looks at. When the inspector first enters, the light shall be dark with a lamp, which makes just enough light so that you can see his face, this will show that the inspector is very serious and doesn’t take his work as a joke.
The music would show a dark feeling with a big chord at the end, when his face is finally revealed. When the inspector first enters the room and stars to speak, he has a deep voice with an echo to his tone. He speaks very well and pronounces each word properly.
From the beginning, when the reader first meets the inspector til the end, there is always some mystery about him. For instance his name Goole = Ghoul = Ghost. He is also very rude to the Birlings and does things differently to what they might expect from an inspector. Also, he knows too much about the involvement, which the Birlings had with Eva Smith. Towards the end he says, “I haven’t much time” as though he knows Gerald is about to return with news that he isn’t a real inspector.
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