The Inspectors final words to the Birlings contain very clear and strong use of dramatic irony, as the play was set in 1912 and World War One began two years later. Ironically, with his left wing attitude, Priestley served during WW1 in the 10th battalion, amoungst the fire, blood and anguish that the Inspectr’s message really was.
The younger generation, Sheila and Eric are still disgusted by what the family are responsible for.
The families reaction is relief that there will be no “public scandal” even when adultery, abuse of power, ignorance and unawareness of peoples lives have taken place. This is one of the reasons why the play is still relevant to the present day: “hope is with the young”.
“Their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives”
Priestley’s strongest message was that people should act as a community. As one body. Rather than upper class people neglecting the needy. Every victim of Eva’s death apart from Eric seemed to have been involved in the crime scene through using their status and standard of living. Sheila used her fathers authority to get Eva fired, Gerald used his wealth to seduce her and Mrs Birling looked down on her, dismissed her and denied her help. Being set in 912, Priestley realistically shows the condition lower-class women received.
Mr Birling’s capitalist attitude is portrayed in many different ways throughout the play. His enthusiasm with his daughter marrying an upper-class, rich, self-dependant man and his man to man friendship with him shows how important it is to him for his family to hold up their reputation. Birling treats life as a competition, a race that he’s winning with his family.
“As if were all mixed up together like bees in a hive – community and all that nonsense”
Although Birling ultimately appears to be upright and in control, Priestley cleverly sneaks in Birlings signs of foolishness. He falls into a state of embarrassment and guilt for the first time in the play when the Inspector exits. However, this is quickly recovered. In a speech he makes near the beginning his blissful absentminded-ness is revealed to the audience when he mentions
“The world developing so fast that it’ll make war impossible”
Whilst trying to prove a point to his son Eric who is on the track on the subject (not in denial) and is debating the possibility of war,
Eric appears as a very quiet, yet dignified man. To me, this seems it is because he wants to follow in his father’s proud footsteps, but has been so often corrected and dismissed by his father that he’s lost a certain degree of argumentation.
Gerald seems to share Eric’s unexpressed nature, but perhaps based on him not wanting to aggravate or challenge Birling.
Mrs Birling and Sheila have a more boisterous and demanding way of dealing with things. Mrs Birling doesn’t speak as much as Sheila, but when she does speak, she’s defending herself, showing Mr Birling’s right wing enforcement on her. Sheila uses her mouth to raise a point, mainly in a desperate way of trying to make a point across to her family so they don’t end up saying something to land someone close to them in more trouble.
Every character adds their own personal touch to the story to keep the audience interested, but Priestley uses many other styles than focusing the audience’s interest on the Birling’s to make this a brilliant play.
Priestley uses many “dramatic devices” throughout the play, but most of them are located in Act three. This is because a lot of twists are created at the end of the play and this has a big impact on the audience as no twists are used up to this point.
The barricade of twists begins a few minutes after the Inspector’s departure. Birling and Gerald (whilst Sheila and Eric drown in guilt and Mrs Birling is speechless) begin to feel sceptical about the whole thing. Primarily – who was the Inspector?
“If you ask me, he behaved in a very peculiar and suspicious manner”
This is where the “three phone calls” fall into the story. The first is on the basis on “Is he a real Inspector?”
“He swore there wasn’t any Inspector Goole or anybody like him on the force”
So now Gerald and Birling’s sense of relaxation increases, but possibly they’re just trying to bury all the allegations that have been made by the Inspector? When Sheila tells Gerald that he hadn’t heard of their involvement in the crime scene he merely pushes it aside:
“That’s all right, I don’t want to know”
and when Gerald asks Birling what he takes out of the situation, Birling thinks it as a hoax.
This is where the second phone call is brought in. If the Inspector is fictional, what about the girl? Consideration on weather there was only one girl is taken up, as the Inspector shows the photo privately.
“Have you had a girl brought in this afternoon who committed suicide?”
Another hole in the case – no girl in the infirmary. However, Sheila and Eric are not apprehensive, as they know the crime that the Birlings have committed.
So what of the final phone call? Well this is where Priestley’s most famous technique is brought into practice: time travel.
“That was the police. A girl has just died – on her way to the infirmary – after swallowing some disinfectant. And a police inspector is on his way her – to ask some – questions-”
The play suddenly ends with Priestley’s most baffling line, and here the audience are left bewildered. Priestley’s techniques of taking the introduction of the Inspector and putting it as the last line of the play. This is a very effective technique as it leaves the audience to conjure their own conclusion of the play. Was he a semi-successful eye-opener for the Birlings? A conscience, a ghost, a spirit?
Priestley’s use of creating hatred, empathy and pity for the characters through the audience is very clever. He slid in essential clues that the audience start to pick up on once Birling and Gerald dissect all of the questionable parts of the evening. By the characters being so controversial, the story builds with disputes and disagreements that make a good play to watch. Ultimately “An Inspector Calls” is a vivacious thought-provoking murder mystery play.
