An inspector calls

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In his play ‘An Inspector Calls’ how does Priestley use dramatic devices and language to convey his concerns and sustain the interest of the audience?

Priestley wrote the play ‘An Inspector Calls’ in 1945. Priestley was a socialist and had the intention of using the play ‘An Inspector Calls’ to broadcast his socialist ideas. He wanted to eliminate the social hierarchy. He uses the Birling family to portray a capitalist family, which was common amongst the higher classes in 1912. A family who has no care for other people, and he shows that with the power of socialism, represented by the inspector. The uneasy lies put on by the Birling family to cover up their real flaws and how they have treated Eva smith, a woman who they considered to be lower class, show that they know they were wrong. The play is set in 1912, two years before World War 1 and was shown in theatres during World War II. This way the audience can relate to the time and would become involved. He wanted to get the audience to question their own morality.

The first device Priestley uses is his detailed stage directions at the opening of his play. The room is meant to have “The general effect of heavily comfortable but not cosy” which is trying to make the point that money cannot buy you happiness. Although the Birlings are rich enough to afford comfortable furniture, they have no sense of belonging to a family to make it cosy, like they have no sense of community. It also shows that the Birlings are quite a dysfunctional family. At the start of the play the stage lighting is meant to be pink and intimate to show that the family has to pretend to be close. However, when the Inspector comes, the light becomes harsh and white almost as if Socialism breaks apart the lies and pretences of the Capitalist world the Birling family have built for themselves to reveal the truth about what they have really done. There is a lot tension as each member of the family has played a part in Eva’s death. New pieces of information contribute to the story being constructed. The audience is interested in how each character reacts to the revelations.  

Priestley uses dramatic irony in his dialogue to ridicule Mr Birling with his speeches about the titanic as “unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable.” and how “there isn’t a chance of war” although the audience know that the titanic had sunk, that there had already been two wars and now they were emerging into the cold war. These show that the opinions of Mr Birling, a symbol of Capitalism, are nothing more than fantasies of how life could be. Priestley wanted the audience to have a low opinion of Mr Birling from the start because he was discouraging his Capitalist politics and was trying to show people like Mr Birling at fault. When Mr Birling makes his speech, he mentions several points which Priestley himself disagrees with, but Priestley uses the Inspector as a point to both the audience and Mr Birling that we shouldn’t all ‘Look out for our own’ as Mr Birling describes it. Although this never happens because people are ready to accept that everyone in this world are the same, no matter where they come from and that we work this out, the world will never develop far enough to stop the wars as Mr Birling was predicting. Whereas the Inspector who stated in his final speech that “they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish” indicating that there will be war, is elevated by the use of dramatic irony. This makes the audience believe the socialist views of the Inspector instead of the views of Mr Birling.

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Timings are also crucial in this play; the initial entrance of the Inspector is at the time when Mr Birling is making an extremely pompous and self inflated speech about how people should look after only themselves and disregard everyone else. This gives the Inspector a quality of omniscience, as if he is already aware if what is going on in the Birling family. He disrupts the celebrations to show just how many lies the family is based upon, as if Capitalists are never able to share their thoughts and doing freely without a feeling of shame. When Gerald ...

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