Lighting is another major part of the setting, as in many plays light can represent dozens of things, it is often seen as heavenly and right, but cast in the right way across a person or object it can create menacing shadows which indicate dark characters. Different coloured lighting can also indicate different themes and moods; in this play the lighting is “pink and intimate” before the inspector enters, showing the close family bond. But once the inspector enters the Birling residence, the lighting is “brighter and harder”; this shows how the Inspector will cast some light across certain events; it also gives the impression of a spotlight used for interrogation purposes, which is exactly what the Inspector intends to do. Other props that are used in the staging are all mainly there to portray the family’s social status; “decanter of port, cigar box and cigarettes”, these along with the fine furniture that can be seen in the performances.
Birling is described as a “heavy-looking, rather portentous man in his middle fifties with fairly easy manners but rather provincial in his speech.” As is later seen in the play Birling is quite an arrogant man and regards himself as much more important than he actually is. Mrs Birling is “about fifty, a rather cold woman and her husband's social superior.” Just as Birling knows his superiors include Sir George Croft, Mrs Birling is one too. She is clearly a snob and is always defending her family honour and their status. Both Mr and Mrs Birling suffer from being overly proud of their family, and because of this their anger towards the inspector causes them to blurt out incidents that further open up the story. Sheila is described in the beginning as “A pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited”; once the inspector arrives we see how Sheila is quite emotional and concerned about Eva, and then she is then horrified to find out that Eva was the girl who she was so jealous of at the department store. Sheila becomes quite angry with her parents and Gerald as the story unravels, showing how she is much more considerate than other family members. Gerald and Eric, although quite different in many ways, both have a sexual desire. Gerald, described as “an attractive chap about thirty, rather too manly to be a dandy but very much the easy well-bred man-about-town”, is considerably higher class than the Birlings, so they treat him with a large amount of respect. Because Gerald is also quite arrogant and proud, by the end of the play he has gained no sense of moral for the loss of Eva Smith. Eric on the other hand is aware of his responsibility although in the beginning he seems quite lazy (sloth) and immature.
With all the characters and their traits there is some relation to the seven sins: Pride, envy, gluttony, sloth, anger, lust and greed. This is a theme in the play that plays on the audience’s mind, much like other themes; this trait sticks with the character and later on the audience can see these more and more. However Sheila and Eric seem to lose these traits, showing their separation between Mr and Mrs Birling and Eric. This is because of Eric and Sheila’s social responsibilities, and their realisation that what they did was wrong.
The exit of Eric brings about an opportunity for Birling to talk to Gerald ‘man-to-man’ where he brings up the possibility of him being on “the next Honours List”, which seems to impress Gerald. This, to Birling, is a very big occasion and even though it is not definite he feels he must tell Gerald, as his father is also a ‘Sir’. This information is only exchanged with Gerald, as Birling is barely confident that he will receive a knighthood, he just wants to boast in front of his future son-in-law. When Eric re-enters Gerald and Birling are laughing but they do not share the joke with Eric, “Eric: What’s the joke? Started telling stories?
Birling: No.”, they feel he is not man enough to be brought into the conversation they are having. This exit signifies how Eric is seemingly not mature enough to be in a man-to-man conversation, even though later we find Eric to be much more responsible than he was initially thought, as he ‘borrows’ money from his father to support Eva and her baby. The other example of Eric seemingly being immature is when there is talk about ‘not knowing what the young ones get up to these days’, this shows just how the family single out the youngest, ageism, and believe him to be doing bad things just because of his age. In some ways the family is right because Eric has done some bad things but the fact they stereotype and think badly of the young shows their narrow mindedness.
In the opening Birling begins talk about his business and his aspirations to join with Crofts Ltd. As he talks about his own business he refers to himself, on three separate occasions, as a hard-headed business man”. Clearly showing his pride and how vain he is, this description reflects Birling’s self image and shows the audience his characteristics. But the reference is also made three times and for many people ‘3’ is an unlucky number. Birling continues with his speech and goes on to talk about war: “And I say there isn’t a chance of war”. Bearing in mind that this play is set in 1912 World War One began only two years later, so this contradicts everything that Birling has just said. The audience at this time may have had to live through this war, and when Birling makes these comments they trust and believe him less and less as they know his predictions are rubbish. This establishes a message that is being directed at the audience; that the family talk nonsense and make grave mistakes. The Second World War then reinforces that the family do not learn from their mistakes, as did the countries that fought in these wars. Birling proceeds to talk about the voyage of the Titanic and says how it is “unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable” which the audience again know is false.
The Titanic is quite an important reference in the play as it has layers of meaning that reflect facts about the Birling family. The meal that the Birling family are set to enjoy starts as a celebration with joyful conversation and talks of many happy things, much like the voyage of the Titanic. The ship was a thing of great importance; it was a huge solid structure that supposedly could not be broken, the Birlings also had this impression of themselves (solid and respectable). This shows how they thought they were better than most people simply because of their social status. Although as the play carries on events unfold that unearth very unpleasant things about the characters, and the family slowly falls apart, and sinks- exactly like the Titanic. Eric and Sheila can also be seen as survivors of the wreckage, as they seem to be the only ones who can and have been rescued from the awful family affair. Whereas the Birling parents could not be saved and didn’t heed any warnings before the problem arose, much like the Titanic and its crew.
The timing of the Inspectors entrance is crucial as it is immediately after Birling has finished his speech to Gerald and Eric about business and his predictions. In fact the final sentence before there is a ring at the door is “a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own” this ultimately sums up his feelings about others, below his social status and in his community which is exactly how his reactions are when he discovers Eva Smith has died. This is again reflected when he is more concerned about the Inspector’s arrival rather than the poor girl’s death; “ Yes yes horrid business but I don’t understand why you came here Inspector?” As soon as the Inspector enters he takes control of the scene and the people around him, he is described as creating “an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness”. This instantly creates an intimidating and authoritative figure, even though we already know he’s an Inspector. Just before the Inspector enters Birling also asks for “more light”, as is directed in the stage directions before Act One by Priestley. The relevance of light can mean many things, as it can represent something holy and glorious, or it can be seen as a revelation in a serious of events. In this play the Inspector is mainly there to spread light over the past events and reveal the truth, however he can be seen as a supernatural power: deus ex machine. This phrase completely describes the Inspector’s role in the play as he is dropped into the play and completely changes the mood and tone. This great figure then brings up the question, is he a real person? The name Goole reminds us of a ghost, as in ghoul, and the phrase dues ex machine means god out of a machine, maybe the Inspector is the voice of God or that of Priestley. Either way the inspector comes in to completely change current events and disrupt the family to reveal their true selves. The foreshadowing and irony that the inspector brings to the play is also greatly relevant, when he says: “you seem to be a nice respectable family”. The audience already know to some extent and later totally discover how untrue this is, another example of the unreliability of the family.
The opening of the play aims to establish character and setting. It does this by simply describing each character we also discover how Birling is very arrogant and very narrow minded which is shown through his ridiculous assumptions. The Inspector is established as a very powerful and dominating character the reference to him and ‘the light’ is also in the opening. The major themes are also introduced, such as the class and gender division and the moral and social responsibilities that are also linked with the age of the characters. Priestley makes the opening of ‘An Inspector Calls’ very dramatic towards the end to draw and entice the audience to watch more. Priestley explores quite controversial issues of the time, and these issues make the audience interpret the character differently, showing how he uses the audience’s personal experiences to influence their feelings towards the play.