Who is the inspector

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Who is the Inspector

1) The inspector could be seen as the mouthpiece for Priestley, and many of the points that the inspector makes throughout the play are ideas that Priestley himself strongly believes in, like the idea that everyone is partly responsible for each other’s actions. Priestly is also a very firm socialist and did not agree with capitalism at all, this point of view is echoed by the inspector by the way he takes on Mr Birlings business ethics and how manages to actually convert the younger generation (Sheila and Eric) throughout the play so that they too begin to harbour socialist ideas.

2) The inspector can be seen to be God himself through a few things. The Inspector seems to possess omniscient powers from the way he knows exactly what each character has done even before questioning them, although the Inspector claims to have read Eva Smith diary we get the feeling that he knows more than he’s letting onto. The Inspector also has the ability to force out information from even the most stubborn characters such as Mr and Mrs Birling. Although you could argue that’s what a good, professional inspector should be able to do. The characters themselves soon come to realise the inspectors fearsome powers from when Sheila says ‘Don’t you see, he knows everything’ and later Mrs Birling is also left in awe when she realises just how much information the inspector has managed to extract from her.  Finally we can see how the inspector may be God from how he judges from a moral standpoint rather than from the rules of the land. This is like God because God judges man on not only how he worships but how they conduct themselves every day and their attitude towards other people.

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3) The inspector can be seen as the voice of the social conscience; to have a social conscience you must possess an attitude of sensitivity toward and sense of responsibility regarding injustice and problems in society. This seems to sum up everything the inspector tries instilling into the Birlings. He constantly questions the reasons for their actions to tries to make them question their own actions. He wants them to realise that they have acted selfishly and shown no collective responsibilities. He is able to do this to all of them and manages to actually make Eric and Sheila show ...

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