With the war nearly ending, Priestley felt there was an urgent need of responsibility for ourselves and for one another.
Priestley keeps the audience’s interest and attention in many ways. One way is the use of dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is used well in this play with Mr Birling’s illusions of the war and the Titanic.
“BIRLING: Germans don’t want war. Nobody wants war except some half—civilized folks in the Balkans. And why? There’s too much at stake these days. Everything to loose and nothing to gain by war.”
The audience is well aware of not only the First World War but also the Second World War, they would see Mr Birling as very blinkered, he lives in his own little world and fails to see what is going on around him. Mr Birling thinks that the world is so civilised and developed, “it’ll make war impossible”. Mr Birling goes on to mention how his friend sets sail on a wonderful liner.
“BIRLING: …the Titanic she sails next week — forty six thousand tons — New York in five days and every luxury — and unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable.”
Still in the same speech, there is yet another example of dramatic irony. The audience would again be aware of the Titanic sinking after it set sail. Mr Bilring tells Sheila and Gerald that in 1940 they will be living in a nicer world.
“BIRLING: …by that time you’ll be living in a world that’ll have forgotten all these Capital versus Labour agitations and all these silly little war scares. There’ll be peace and prosperity and rapid progress everywhere…”
The audience knows that Mr Birling’s whole speech is completely wrong. They know that First World War is just around the corner, that the Titanic sinks because of people’s wrong beliefs that it is unsinkable and that in 1940 Sheila and Gerald will be in the middle of The Second World War. The dramatic irony shown by Mr Birling shows his refusal to understand or question the consequences of their actions.
Another way of keeping an audience interest is through the use of irony. The first example of irony in the play is when Mr Birling says to Gerald about his knighthood.
“BIRLING: So — well — I gather there’s a very good chance of a knighthood — so long as we behave ourselves, don’t get into the police court or start a scandal — eh?”
They are about to meet a police Inspector who is going to ask questions lot them over the death of a young girl. It involves every Birling member and Gerald Croft too. Neither Mr Birling nor the audience are aware of this at the time of him saying it.
Another example of irony within the play is when Mrs Birling says that the father of the girl’s baby is entirely responsible for why she took her own life.
“MRS B: “And he ought to be dealt with very severely.”
The father, unaware to her and to the audience at the time is her son. Sheila realised this from the beginning and begged her mother to stop talking.
“SHEILA: (with sudden alarm) Mother – stop – stop!
MRS B.: Be quiet Sheila!
SHEILA: But don’t you see —”
Mrs Birling has just told the Inspector, without realising, that her own son should be punished and is entirely to blame. When she realises what she has done, she is horrified.
“MRS B.: (understanding now) But surely . . . I mean . . . it’s ridiculous . . .”
The plot twists and the ‘cliff-hanger’ endings within the play help to sustain the audience’s attention. The plot twist in the play is that everyone helps to cause the death of the girl, but whether it is the same girl is unknown. They are all shown photographs individually so they are not able to conclude positively that the photographs are of the same person. Inspector Goole told them that it was the way he liked to do it, and Mr Birling saw it as quite reasonable.
“INSPECTOR: It’s the way I like to go to work. One person and one line of enquiry at a time. Otherwise, there’s a muddle.
BIRLING: I see. Sensible really.”
They were all either separately shown photographs or told the name of the girl which she had changed. When the Inspector left, they realised that the photograph shown to them may not have been the same.
The other plot twists in "An Inspector Calls" are about the Inspector and the body of the girl. The Inspector was thought of as a real police inspector at first but after the Inspector left, they were a bit suspicious. After phoning up to check, there was not Inspector Goole on the force. At the end of the play, there was a phone call to say that there was a police inspector on his way to ask some questions about a girl who died. This is what happened with the girl. At first there appeared to be a girl, then it was proved there wasn’t a girl but at the end of the play it seemed that there was again.
At the end of each act, there is a ‘cliff-hanger ending. This helps sustain the audience’s attention. At the end of the first act, Gerald and Sheila talk alone. Gerald is determined not to tell the Inspector anything but Sheila knows that Inspector Goole knows everything they do. The audience are waiting to see how Gerald knows the girl but they have to wait until well into Act Two to find out.
At the end of the second act, Mrs Birling has just blamed the entire death of the girl on her son without even realising. When she finally does realise, she is horrified. Inspector Goole is waiting for Eric to return and he does at the end of act two with everyone staring at him. The audience’s attention is definitely held as they await the next scene.
“SHEILA: Mother – I begged you and begged you to stop—
INSPECTOR holds up a hand. We hear the front door. They wait, looking towards door. ERIC enters, looking extremely pale and distressed. He meets their inquiring stares.
Curtain falls quickly.”
The family seem quite happy and all appear to get along well together. This illusion is shattered when the Inspector reveals things about the characters that were previously unknown to each other. Sheila appears to be the obedient daughter who pleases her parents. We discover that she has been very selfish and childish by demanding she got her own way, which was that Eva Smith was fired. She speaks to her mother when the inspector is here in a tone that her mother is not used to and she fully grasps the importance of the situation, instructing her mother how to behave. Her mother is not used to this.
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Gerald has come into the family and Mr Birling considers him a bit above their family when it is revealed that he knew Eva.
QUOTE – Page 8
Sheila breaks off her engagement to him as he lied to her. She feels as if she doesn’t know him now and he wasn’t the same man that she had just got engaged to.
QUOTE – page 40
Because Sheila’s character has got stronger during the play and Gerald was honest when talking to the inspector they will manage to get back together. They have both changed and hopefully they have both learnt from the experience.
Sheila is very sarcastic to Gerald when he confesses to his affair with Eva. This is a side of her which Gerald hasn’t seen before.
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He also realises that she has a temper.
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Mrs Birling was completely unaware of what her son was really like. This again shows that she is blinkered with what is going on around her. When she was talking about the boy who was responsible for getting Eva pregnant it didn’t occur to her it could be her son.
QUOTE – page 48
Mrs Birling does charity work to help the poor and deserving. She is very discriminating in her opinion of poor and dismisses Eva as she wasn’t a good case
QUOTE – page 44 – “she seemed…”
Mr Birling is proud of his position in the community and feels it makes him a better person but sacking a girl because she wants to earn a bit more money isn’t just. He cannot see he is wrong and he is worried because of the scandal which may be caused because of the involvement of them all in this girl’s death. The family realise that he is more worried about losing his knighthood.
QUOTE – page 57
Inspector Goole, the name of the inspector sounds like ghoul of ghost, someone with an interest in death. Eva has died and he is investigating the morbid details of her death, probing into the Birling lives.
He has a purpose, to expose the Birling family and make them reveal things about themselves that the others didn’t know and make them look immoral.
He controls the play and if any of the characters move off the point, he brings them back. It has to be done the way he wants it. As we are told be Mr birling, he does not behave like a real policeman.
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He questions them on the way they acted towards the girl, probing their conscience rather than concentrating on the crime.
Towards the end of the play he becomes rude when he questions Mrs Birling.
QUOTE – page 41 – “You mean you don’t…”
The play ends on another ‘cliff-hanger’ ending but this time there are no answers waiting in the next scene. This keeps the audience guessing and keeps them thinking about "An Inspector Calls". It is cunningly written to ‘grab’ the audience’s attention.
I think that overall this play works excellently in entertaining as well as informing the audience. Despite it being enjoyable, it does contain many, hidden, serious messages which Priestley wanted people to be aware of. "An Inspector Calls" entertained me a lot and I enjoyed working on it. It is cleverly written and original.
