Firstly I’m going to talk about the interaction the inspector has with the other characters. In the play he uses a photograph quite a lot but he never shows it to more than one person at a time. When he shows the photo to Shelia in act one she “looks at it closely, recognizes it with a little cry” this tells you that she recognizes the person in the picture, this will get the audience thinking that she has something to do with the suicide. She obviously feels bad about what has happened to the girl. The inspector is very impatient and cuts in a lot when other characters are talking. The inspector puts them all in place and he takes over the house. The reason he does this is to make them admit to the errors of their ways and make them feel guilty.
He does this by telling the characters that they should stay in the room or go for instance when Eric says he wants to go to be alone because he’s got a headache, the inspectors says “and I think you’d better stay here”. He also asks direct question to all the characters through out the play.
In this part of the essay I am going to talk about the inspector’s use of language during the whole of the play. Right at the beginning of the play the inspector speaks quite nicely to Mr Birling, so he’s putting the family at ease. He says thank you when he is asked a question. Then he slowly gets more demanding and forceful with his words. In act one he says “are you sure you don’t know?” he says this to the younger generation Eric, Sheila and Gerald. He says this slowly so it seems he’s scaring the family. After this the inspector is talking to Sheila, he gets straight to the point about Eva Smith working at milwards. Then after he explains to Sheila a bit about her working there, he goes straight into the direct questions he then twists the story so that Sheila admits her part of the story he does this by talking about her losing her job and saying that a customer had complained, at this point he shows Sheila the photograph. Later in the play when the inspector says the name “Daisy Renton” Gerald instantly reacts to the name by saying “what”, this means that maybe Gerald has something to he has been hiding from Sheila and the rest of the family. In act two the inspector has become nastier. He puts Mr Birling in his place when Mr Birling says “now look here inspector”, the inspector totally cuts him off by saying “he must wait his turn” then the inspector turns to Mrs Birling and carries on having a conversation. After this he becomes really nasty about Eva Smith/Daisy Renton. He starts to become harsher. He seems to talk about the girl as if she’s not real and doesn’t matter. Through out the play the audience can tell the inspector’s mood by the tone of his voice. The inspector is the voice of Priestley, so the questions and he’s forcing them to admit what they have done wrong. His language shows you how it rubs off on other characters, like Sheila and Eric for example, because at the end of the play they have learn something and want to change their ways, where ad Mr and Mrs Birling don't.
Now I’m going to talk about the creation of mystery suspense. At first everyone is happy because of the news of Sheila and Gerald's engagement. Then when Edna walks in at the door. Suddenly all of the characters mood changes. When the inspector comes into the Birling household he gets straight to the point, by saying “I’d like sonic information if you don't mind.” Then he tells the family about the dead girl. The inspector seems to show no emotion towards the dead girl, it’s as if she’s not human. The photo that the inspector keeps using creates mystery because nobody knows if he is showing them all the same photo, it also creates suspense because the audience is waiting to see if the characters he is showing it to recognizes the person in the photo .Its a mystery because nobody actually knows who Eva Smith/Daisy Renton is, because the audience never sees the photograph of her. In the play as soon as someone admits their part of the story it uncovers more evidence of someone else's story.
The audience wants to hear everyone’s story so that they can choose who they think started it off. In Act 3 there is mystery about the character Eric, because everyone has told their stories and he is the only one who hasn’t. His story plays a big part because it brings the whole story together. As Eric is telling his story there is a lot of suspense because everyone has been waiting for this, so that they can make their choices. By this time everyone knows who has done it. In Act 3 the story changes as Gerald come back to tell the family that the inspector wasn't a police inspector at all. This creates mystery because everyone is known wondering whom he is and what’s going to happen now that they have all confessed. Then suddenly near the end of the play the phone rings and it turns out to be the police saying that and police inspector is coming round to ask some questions about a girl who has just died from drinking some disinfectant. Everyone is really shocked because they can’t believe it. Everyone is trying to work out if the inspector was a ghost or not, or if they have just seen into the future.
Finally I’m going to talk about the audience response. After the inspector’s final speech, Eric and Sheila will admit their ways to forget it. As they slowly work out that the inspector isn’t a real police officer the guilt is lifted off Mr and Mrs Birling. In the final speech, he pulls the upper-class people down. Priestley is trying to say be guilty and change you ways, like being nice to poor people and don’t look down on them. Eric and Sheila echo the inspector by saying that they should be guilty even if it’s all no real. The family are really shocked when they get the phone call at the end of the play, but Eric and Sheila aren't really that shocked. In the beginning of the play the audience would look up to the Birling’s and as they admit to what they are doing wrong, the audience slowly feels guiltier and then hopefully when the play has ended they might think about changing their ways.
