When the Inspector interviews one of the family, he’ll ask a question which triggers emotions for the character and then he waits for them to talk. This method exposes their more venerable side, for example the inspector mentions Eva Smith he gets an immediate and obvious response from Eric. To each ‘line of enquiry’ the Inspector showed one person one photograph, except to Gerrold as he recognised the name strait away. The fact that the Inspector insisted only the person he was interviewing should see the photo raised suspicions within the audience of whether or not it was the same photo.
Throughout the play the inspector seems to present the evidence in more of a moral and philosophical way then a civic legal way mentioning the way the girl died several times to conjure emotions. ‘That’s more or less what I was thinking in the infirmary looking at what was left of Eva Smith. A nice little promising life there, I thought and a nasty mess someone’s made of it.’
Within the play the characters reactions reflect there value’s and morals as it is clear that Mr Birling has his job and place among the community at steak which is what matters to him the most. Sheila Birling however is more concerned for the girl as she may be able to relate and upon discovering she may have been partly responsible shows obvious signs of guilt and concern. ‘I’ve told my father – he didn’t think it amounted to much- but I felt rotten about it at the time and now I feel a lot worse. Did it make much difference to her?’
Inspector Goole has the most influential and diverse role as he shows traits of being a prophet as well as a judge and jury. The inspector uses his opinion as much as fact which is unusual and unprofessional for a policeman. ‘No she wanted to end her life. She felt she couldn’t go on any longer’, Inspector Goole uses this comment flippantly having never spoken to the girl and having little evidence except a vague diary, he makes a moral personal presumption.
Before the Inspector arrives at the Birlings house he already knows a bit about each character, where as none of them know a thing about him, this gives him an air of mystery. Mr Birling mentions at the start of the play that he has never herd of an Inspector Goole before. ‘I was alderman for years – and Lord Mayer two years ago - and I know the Brumbley officers pretty well – and I thought I’d never seen you before.’ This shows Mr Birling could be feeling apprehensive as to him the Inspector is a stranger. A sense of power prevails in the Inspector when questioned by Mr Birling, ‘And you asked me a question before that, a quite unnecessary question too’, to which the Inspector takes the moral high ground with his reply, ‘It’s my duty to ask questions.’
At the start of the play, before the Inspector arrives Mr Birling makes a speech about how a man should take care of himself and his family. ‘A man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own’ the view later gets contradicted by the Inspector. ‘Because what happened to her afterwards, and what happened to her afterwards may have driven her to suicide. A chain of events.’ What the Inspector is trying to get across is that everything a person does however big or small can have a direct influence on someone else’s life and would not be so soon disregarded if people understood and appreciated the impact their actions could have, and in this most extreme case drove a young girl to suicide.
The writer J.B Priestly in his play is trying to get across to his audience is a strong moral message which shows we are all responsible through our own actions for each other. The play show strong political references and views which the audience of the time could relate to, this makes it more personal and makes the audience think more and get more involved.
