Who is inspector Goole and what is his function in the play? How may his role be shown in a performance of the play?

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Mohammed Shuaib – 11NGO – Sapphire House                                             < 20th Century Drama Coursework >

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Who is inspector Goole and what is his function in the play?

How may his role be shown in a performance of the play?

J.B Priestley wrote the celebrated play ‘An Inspector Calls’ at the height of his powers as a playwright. Although the play was written at the end of WW2 in 1945 it is set in a spring evening in 1912, 2 years before WW1.

Edwardian society at that time (1912) was strictly divided into social classes and over two-thirds of the nation’s wealth was in the hands of less than 1% of the population. Edwardian society was distinctively divided into Upper, Middle (doctors and merchants, shop workers and clerks), and lower classes. (The ordinary workers and the poor, many of whom lived below the poverty level). It was a time when sexual repression was coming to an end as the Suffragettes movement ran through the era in which the play was set and it was at its most violent and bitter stage. This movement was operated by educated middle and upper class women who had the time, money and social opportunities to devote to the cause. The years 1910 to 1912 were years of great industrial unrest, relations between employers and workers deteriorated. Prices were rising but wages were not. This caused workers to become more efficient and better organised causing strikes to become more frequent.

At the time in which the play was set there was no social security provided by the government. People, who fell on hard times would have to fend for themselves, turn to their families or seek charity. Around the country there were many charities set up by the wives of businessmen and professionals. Some of them did a great deal of good and were extremely well run. Many of them, however were organised by people with no real interest or knowledge of the lives lived by those who they were supposed to be helping. The poor would often have to prove in a humiliating interview, that they were worthy applicants. Often a request for help would be turned down because the applicant was judged for some reason not to be qualified for receiving charity.

 Priestley was a socialist and was writing this play for the war-weary middle class audience of that time (1945) and was showing sympathy for the working class by showing how the Birlings and Gerald Croft were all involved in making a young working class girl’s life a misery. Priestly wanted to show us that we have an obligation to others to act fairly and without prejudice and that we do not live in Isolation. Our actions affect others. Priestley does so through the characters in the play. He uses the Inspector to dramatise his own socialist and moralist’s thoughts and the Birlings are Priestley’s audience within the play.

Priestley wrote the play just after the Second World War because it was a time when people were meant to be unifying and sharing the very little resources left. He was telling his audience of 1945 (mostly upper class citizens because only they could afford to watch a play at a time of poverty) that the desire for infallibility caused the “fire blood and anguish” of the two World Wars.

He was showing us that the governments were depriving people of their money and instead of spending it on society they invested it on wars and weapons (i.e. Nuclear Bombs). In the process the rich got richer with their firms making contracts to supply goods to the government and the poor got poorer being treated as mere possessions existing only to serve. This is the idea behind social stratification in society. This way the elite (the rich) stayed at the top of the social ladder and the poor had only dreams of becoming one of the elite.

Priestley portrays each character in the play as a stereotypical representation of a certain social class and certain generation. Mrs Birling is described as a cold unsympathetic upper class woman who is the chairwomen of the “Brumley Woman’s charity Organisation” and yet she doesn’t seem to care about the lower class, as can be seen from this example:

Birling: Well, well – this is a very nice. Very nice. Good dinner too, Sybil. Tell cook for me.

Mrs B: (reproachfully) Arthur, you’re not supposed to say such things.

This shows that Mr Birling (middle class) recognises the fact that the cook (lower class) has done/cooked something good. But Mrs Birling (upper class) thinks that the poor should never be congratulated and never be validated for their work. According to Mrs Birling the poor are nothing more than the dirt on the bottom of her shoes.

Mr Birling is described as the middle class man who speaks in a pompous manner, owns a factory and does paperwork. He is sexist in his attitudes in dealing with people and he tends to preach at his family. Because he had said that he fired Eva smith only because she wanted a pay rise. He later goes on to say that

 “Well it’s my duty to keep labour cost down, and if…”

Which means he kept the girls at his factory only to serve as cheap labour and nothing else. He was defining the meaning of Human rights.

Eva Smith is the lower class woman who has been neglected, abandoned and tortured with the fear of having no money to support her unborn baby.

Mr Birling had her dismissed from his factory for demanding a small increase in wages; Sheila ordered her to be dismissed from her job in a shop simply because of jealousy; Gerald Croft kept her as his mistress before suddenly leaving her; Eric Birling also had an affair with the girl and stole money to keep her living and Mrs Birling used her influence to deny help to Eva Smith when she needed it most, driving her to suicide. “A chain of events”

Eric, Gerald and Sheila are the young upper class generation who unlike Mr and Mrs Birling (their parents) have a social conscience.

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 In the play a number of themes are explored:

Lies: The characters in the play lie to each other, to the Inspector and to themselves. For example Mr Birling denies ever having met Eva Smith

Love: Several kinds of love are depicted in the play, for example the husband and wife love shown by the Birlings.

Pride and status: The play also shows how true it is that pride comes before a fall. Especially the false pride shown by some of the characters.

Responsibility: The play points out the need for a sense of ...

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