By the end of the play the audience is unaware if the ‘inspector’ is real or not. Mr Birling, who doesn’t recognise the name, shows this firstly:
“I thought you must be [new]. I was an alderman for years –
and Lord Mayor two years ago – and I’m still on the Bench –
so I know the Brumley police officers pretty well – and I
thought I’d never seen you before.”
This was straight after meeting this inspector for the first time, and adds an immediate attitude of uncertainty towards Goole. Another example was in Act 1 when Birling asked Goole how he got on with their Chief Constable Colonel Roberts and all Goole responded with was: “I don’t see much of him”. That sounds like an excuse not to know much of the Chief Constable, and could be another way out of a situation if Chief Constable hadn’t heard of him. The namedropping by Mr Birling sounds like he could either be trying to impress the inspector, perhaps to stop him from inspecting the family further; or it may be meant as a warning to the inspector that Birling holds a high social standing and therefore couldn’t possibly be held responsible for the events being accused.
Throughout the play, a false identity is clearly linked with Goole, for example when Eric enters at the beginning of Act 3. This is where he is found out to be the “drunken young idler” who got Eva Smith pregnant. Eric asked if he could have a whisky before his trial with Goole, “No.” says Birling explosively. However the inspector firmly over-rules Birling’s answer and says “Yes”. This shows that he’s not at all intimidated by Mr Birling. It could also show that he may want the story to easily spill out of Eric, and this would be done using alcohol.
Another extremely important point is that the inspector is treating this investigation very seriously, as he should. But, the audience must remember that there is no official crime involved directly linked with Eva Smith. There is theft inside the family, but nothing related to Eva Smith. Strangely, Goole treats this suicide vitally, as if it was a murder, which is very strange even for today’s standards. It is very unusual that suicides are investigated this deeply, yet you hear about murders on trial all the time.
A strangely ironic point is that this supposed inspector is called ‘Goole’. When said allowed, ‘Goole’ sounds very close to ghoul. A ghoul is a spirit who takes fresh life from corpses, which is ironic since his existence in this play is a result from the girl’s death. His name gives him a mysterious, disturbing quality.
As well as the name being ghostly, he seems to know and understand an extraordinary amount. For example, he knows the history of Eva Smith and the Birling’s involvement in it, she died only hours ago. Sheila tells Gerald, “Of course he knows”. Again it is proven at the end of Act 2 when he says “I’m waiting… To do my duty” just before Eric’s return, as if he expected Eric to reappear at exactly that moment. In addition, the second before Eric walks in, the inspector “holds up his hand” as if to greet a visitor. Inspector Goole is very out of the ordinary and it would be too much of a coincidence if he happens to raise his hand just before Eric enters. Also, he is obviously in a great hurry towards the end of the play: he stresses “I haven’t much time.” As if he knows the real inspector will be calling shortly.
Inspector Goole seems to control what people say. Sheila says to Gerald, “somehow he makes you” and later on saying “He’s giving us rope – so that we’ll hang ourselves.” Although the family are reluctant to confessing the facts, or deny they did anything wrong, Goole manages to make to admit to everything and feel guilty, even just slightly.
As the play progresses, more and more is revealed about each of the characters and how their actions were supposedly connected with Eva Smith’s death. All the information was uncovered cunningly by the alleged inspector. However, nothing at all was exposed about the inspector; the family didn’t ask anything other that his name:
“What did you say your name was, Inspector?”
“Goole. G. double O-L-E.”
This makes the character, Goole, an vague image as we no nothing about his whereabouts, his history and he certainly didn’t show any identification or badge to prove his Police Inspector status, which is very peculiar.
A question on everyone’s lips by the end of the play is if the inspector is real. He could be a number of things: a clever impostor but nonetheless human, the personification of the social conscience that the characters lack, a supernatural God-like being; he seems to know everything already, or maybe the reproachful spirit of Eva Smith’s dead child.
A clever impostor is, like the rest, a likely theory. This presumption would be proved by the fact that he would only ever show the photograph to one person at any one time, thus keeping the appearance of this girl unknown to those who don’t see the photo. He backed this up by saying that she had changed her name a number of times and for each photograph.
Throughout the play Inspector Goole demonstrates how people are responsible for how they affect the lives of others; his views are summed up in his visionary and dramatic final speech: that “we are members of one body. We are responsible for each other”. This has absolutely nothing to do with the police enquiry, so it must be Priestley’s views summed up. Responsibility is one of the play's two key themes, and the Inspector is Priestley's means of expression for putting across his own views of this as a socialist. In this final speech, he is speaking as much to the audience as to the characters on stage. His words here are a warning to an audience in 1945 not to repeat the selfish mistakes that led to the “fire and blood and anguish” of two World Wars and the years between them.
