What is the Inspectors role in the play, 'An Inspector Calls'
The role of the Inspector, in the play 'An Inspector calls' is perplexing his role or roles are thought provoking and very fascinating, of course his most obvious role is that he is an Inspector, however this very title is questioned in the latter stages of the play, more over, we see him used as a substitute for the author J.B Priestley, used to put across his own socialist views against capitalism "We are members of one body", furthermore the Inspector is a catalyst in the splitting up of the Birling family, the older generation of Mr Birling, Mrs Birling and Gerold Croft vs Shiela and Eric Birling. Finally, the Inspector is the controlling force within the play, his questioning introduces new story lines, and changes the play, he makes the Birlings and Mr Croft question themselves and examine their lives and responsibilities in the world they live in.
The play starts off; The Birling family are seated in the dining room, celebrating the engagement of their daughter, Shiela to Gerold Croft, also present. They appear to be a very high class, rich and well respected family, it is very important that the reader knows that the play is set in 1912 but was written in 1947, because what happens next in the seen as dramatic irony, Mr Birling starts to make a speech about his view on the world he lives in, he believes that there will be no war "You'll hear some people say War is inevitable. And to that I say - Fiddlesticks!" of course the audience knows there was a war, a world war. likewise Mr Birling also mentions the titanic,
“Why a friend of mine went over his new liner last week- The Titanic- she sails next week-forty-six thousand eight hundred tons-forty-six thousand eight hundred tons-New York in five days-and every luxury-and unsinkable.”
Yet the audience who are viewing the play after 1947 know the Titanic did in fact sink, so everything Mr Birling has said turns out to be the opposite. I believe the author uses these ironic references to post 1912 build up the tension towards the pending arrival of the Inspector.
The Inspector arrives, interrupting the speech of Arthur Birling; in which Birling’s capitalists views are first seen, Birling believes that “A man should look out for himself, and his family if he has one” the Inspector steps into the room, while not being a particularly big man, the plays says he fills up the room with his "massiveness, solidity and purposefulness." The inspector arrives on the pre-text that he is investigating the death of a young woman, named Eva Smith, who died a few hours prior to his visit after "swallowing a large amount of disinfectant" at first to the audience, the story looks to be based around Eva Smith, and not so much the Birlings, it seems to be a simple 'who did it' play, where the eventual killer is revealed at the end of the play. However, this isn't the case, the main aim of the play is to voice Priestley's opinions on the inequality of capitalist society, The Birlings are happy to answer the questions of the Inspector, because at this moment in time, in their eyes they have done nothing lawfully wrong, this is true, however in the Inspector's eyes, morally they have done many horrible things, and consequently he starts to question them, the inspector's method of questioning is rather unique - "One line of questioning at a time" in other words, the Birlings are not questioned as a whole, they're questioned one by one, this is very important to the play, as this method opens up new aspects of Eva Smith's life. Each new aspect of Eva Smith's life is introduced in chronological order, this builds up tension, and changes the plots of the play, it is almost like the Inspector already knows how the Birlings will react to his questions, and he already knows how their answers will change the course of the play, Shiela very much agrees with this (when talking to Gerald);
"Why-you fool-he knows, of course he knows. And I hate to think how much he knows that we don’t know yet, you’ll see, you’ll see.”
