To what extent do you think that 'an inspector calls' is an interesting detective story that keeps you guessing?

ENGLISH COURSEWORK

AN INSPECTOR CALLS

BY JOHN PRIESTLY

To what extent do you think that 'an inspector calls' is an interesting detective story that keeps you guessing?

BY EDWARD SEMPRINI

FORM 5

To what extent do you think that ‘An inspector calls’ is an interesting detective story that keeps you guessing?

In 1945 John Priestly wrote the play called ‘An inspector calls’, it is in my opinion a thrilling mystery. The background of the main story is that a girl committed suicide and there is one family where each member of this family had something to do with her life and why she killed herself. An inspector arrives and questions each of them, trying to find out the full story with strange and weird actions happening in the play. The end is then a complete twist as a surprise earthquake ruins their house and it seems that there was no inspector; just it seems their conscience. I personally have read the book and seen the play and was kept very interested in both reading and watching. It kept me mostly guessing through the play and book that was actually responsible, but it seems as if my opinion would not be enough to prove this.

Detective stories in the last 200 years have mostly been made up of murder mysteries and a lot of others seem to have been related to treasure and artefact stealing. It is now hard nowadays to really define what a detective story is, the wide variety of detective stories proves that it a most popular type of title to read. A lot of the new detective books do not contain the old fashioned way of solving a crime they are mostly about using weapons and new techniques such as DNA sampling etc. An inspector calls is old fashioned and has that old-fashioned feeling to it, which in my opinion is a lot more exciting and it is also harder to try and understand the morals of the story and it also keeps you guessing till the end and not like other titles.

The main aspects that a good detective story should contain and do contain are that the detective has a mystery side to himself. In an inspector calls we don’t actually know anything about inspector Goole, we see him as a person that somehow knows a lot about the Eva’s life. He uses many ways of making each part of the family confess to the crime of damaging the dignity of a working class girl. The son, who has a weak heart, was broken by the use of anger by the inspector. This is a common way of cracking people to ...

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The main aspects that a good detective story should contain and do contain are that the detective has a mystery side to himself. In an inspector calls we don’t actually know anything about inspector Goole, we see him as a person that somehow knows a lot about the Eva’s life. He uses many ways of making each part of the family confess to the crime of damaging the dignity of a working class girl. The son, who has a weak heart, was broken by the use of anger by the inspector. This is a common way of cracking people to get them to confess and is used widely in detective stories. After using anger with the son, he gets him to carry on confessing by using a kind and sympathetic soft voice. The son had a relationship with Eva and the inspector knows this and uses this, which is also another very successful use of detective instinct and knowledge.

When it comes to the wife, who seems quite stuck up, but in mind and body is frail and weak, the inspector again uses the anger and shouting technique, which causes her to crack in the end. Then as he knows and realises that she is weak and frail, he is able to comfort her. This shows that the inspector is their conscience, which once it has made them confess it then comforts them, just as a conscience would appear to do in reality.

The inspector, like other inspectors in most of detective stories, is very intelligent and has many different ways of getting people to confess and give vital information, either using methods from the rulebook or by instinct. Again this is what makes a successful detective. For the inspector to be able get them to confess about how they were all linked to the death of the girl he insists that he talks to them one after each other so in private he can ascertain the personality of each individual and then he can see what technique would be best for getting them to talk.

The inspector seems to have this power over the family such as when Gerald croft asks if he can leave and not carry on, Inspector Goole tells him in a firm manner to stay and carry on, and Gerald does as he is told straight away, so he has a feeling of superiority over them, again just like one’s conscience.

Each one of the Family is viewed as a suspect, as they are all linked to her death but they are not as in most other detective stories, as they have not actually committed a crime, but they all contributed to her suicide by causing her pain and suffering during their time with her. At first they all seem to deny the fact that they know who she is or that they have never actually met her before and it takes a lot of persuasion and information to get them to say how and why they knew her.

A creation of tension is made very appreciable, as it is done so easily but is very effective, and example of this would be when the inspector is getting to a point where you are about find out what the certain person that he is interviewing something happens and so it creates the tension that you want to know what they are going to say. On top of this there is that permanent feeling of suspense running through your body for the whole of the book or play, as to find out who was responsible and who the inspector really is. This keeps you constantly guessing.

Cliffhangers are used in the play creating tension and suspense, for example when we find out that it is Eric who is the father of Eva’s baby. It creates a final sudden halt to the scene and leaves you thinking about many aspects of what will happen next and wondering if he is the reason why she killed herself because of his lack of support in her time of need.

This play was set in a pre-1914 period, and so the character’s will be slightly interesting with conversation about if they believe a war will start and the Father is always looking at the prospects of the future and it seems all he cares about is making profit from his company. We then find out about Eric’s life and the fact that the other family members had lives that no one else suspected of. This adds more suspense, making you continually guess about what happened.

As a final conclusion, I think that it is the tension and suspense effect that Priestly uses to make contrasts, to keep you guessing throughout the story, and yes, this book does fit into the category of a detective story.

Edward Semprini form 5 English coursework: An inspector calls /