An Inspector Calls.

Rajvir Grewal Inspector calls.

An Inspector Calls.

This play ‘An Inspector Calls,’ was written by J.B Priestly in 1945. John Boynton Priestly was a socialist, he thought that whether or not we understood that we live in a community, we have responsibility to look after others and not see any difference between classes. To portray his thoughts he wrote "An Inspector Calls" so that we would understand there is no difference between the upper and lower class and that we share the community. At the time the play was written World War 2 had just finished and reconstruction was starting to take place in Britain. The play ‘An Inspector Calls’ was based around the time of 1912, when Britain was portrayed as a mighty empire. At the time when this play was set there was a big division between the rich and the poor. The rich had a life of luxury and a better upbringing, whereas the poor had to live in appalling conditions and fight for survival. This play portrays a vital message that we should all live in a world were we can help ‘we are responsible for each other,’ and this is shown by an inspector investigating the suicide of a lower class woman.

At the beginning of Act one, J.B Priestly has situated the family around the table. Priestley uses this image to symbolize the family united around the table. This shows the dramatic contrast because at the beginning of the play the family is united but at the end of the play they are all divided in class.

The Birling residence is described as a ‘fairly large suburban house,’ with ‘good solid furniture,’ creating the impression that the Birlings are middle-class family. We are informed that the ‘general effect is substantial and heavily comfortable but not cosy and homelike.’ The furniture in the Birling’s living room can be described as very aristocratic and this reflects the Birling’s lifestyle and suggests that the Birlings home is not homely or warm. This un-homelike atmosphere suggests to the audience that the members of the Birling family do not share a close relationship with one another.

At the start of the play, the audience is introduced to the members of the Birling family (including Gerald Croft) whom ‘are seated at the table.’ The champagne glasses, evening dresses worn by the women and the tails and white ties worn by the men imply that a celebration is taking place. This celebration is taking place because Sheila Birling is getting engaged to Gerald Croft.

Arthur Birling, ‘the prosperous manufacturer’ is portrayed as ‘a heavy-looking, rather portentous man in his middle fifties with fairly easy manners but rather provincial in his speech.’ He is the first character to speak as the play opens, ‘Giving us the port, Edna?’ Birling is perhaps speaking in commanding tone, creating the impression that he is the dominant character and speaker. This shows how Arthur Birling and his family lead a comfortable life with many luxuries. This is already showing the life of a prosperous middle class family and how there life styles are.

The whole play ‘An Inspector Calls,’ is set in the Birlings living room where the tension builds up and is never released as the characters leave the room but the audience does not. Throughout the play, J.B.Priestly adds to the dramatic effect as Eva Smith is a mystery. She never appears on stage and the audience never gets to see her picture, as inspector Goole only shows it to Gerald, Sheila and Mr. and Mrs. Birling separately. The play is centered on the two years which caused Eva Smith distress and caused the build up to her death. There are no subplots to the play ‘An Inspector calls,’ it is solely centered on how the Birling family made this poor and defenseless working class lady commit suicide. This gives ‘An Inspector Calls,’ a certain quality that means the audiences are never sidetracked from the main storyline and issue of responsibility.

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We learn a great deal about the Birling family before the inspector arrives. Arthur Birling is shown to impress Gerald by providing him with the same quality drink he is given by his own father. Birling may also be subconsciously suggesting that he shares similarities with Gerald’s father and therefore would make a worthy father-in-law therefore, the audience can relate Arthur Birling as being arrogant, and this is further reinforced when Birling proclaims that Gerald is ’the kind son-in-law I always wanted… though Crofts Limited are both older and bigger than Birling and Company…now you’ve bought us together, and perhaps we may look forward to the time when Crofts and Birlings are no longer competing but are working together-for lower costs and higher prices.’ The audience becomes aware that Birling has not included Sheila’s happiness in this relationship, but has viewed this marriage as a chance to increase his material profit. This encourages the audience to believe that Birling possesses a capitalist attitude and selfish nature. Also Birling is very gullible and thinks he is always right. This is shown in his ironic comments, ‘The titanic unsinkable absolutely unsinkable.’ Arthur Birling was also wrong when he proclaims that ‘No war, the Germans don’t want war.’ This makes the audience laugh and mock Arthur Birling as they all no that the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage and there was a war between England and Germany, as the play was written after these events took place. Such ironic comments show we should not share this mans view.

Sybil Birling is introduced to the audience to the audience as ‘a rather cold woman and her husband’s social superior.’ This statement is supported by the objective tone she uses to address her husband, ‘Now, Arthur, I don’t think you ought to talk business on an occasion like this.’ Mrs. Birling refers to her daughter as ‘Shelia darling.’ At the beginning of the play, we came to the assumption that the Birlings were not a close family, and therefore (as Mrs. Birling is considered to be cold woman) we presume that she does not really care for her children, but is putting on a ‘false’ attitude.

Sheila Birling is introduced to the audience as ‘a pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited.’ We hear Mrs. Birling supporting Gerald, ‘men with important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time and energy on business’ when Shelia proclaims that Gerald ‘all last summer…never came near me.’ We are under the impression that perhaps Sheila did not share a very close relationship with her mother, and therefore this suggest that Mrs. Birling may only have taken an interest in Sheila since her engagement to Gerald Croft. Mrs. Birling comes across as a powerful woman, overlooking the fact that Gerald may have deceived Sheila’s trust when ‘he never came near her.’ In actual fact, we are soon informed by the Inspector that the reason Gerald ‘never came near’ Sheila in the summer was because he was having an affair with the young woman Daisy Renton, otherwise known as Eva Smith. This suggests that Gerald and Shelia do not share a close relationship because Gerald should have confessed to Sheila about his affair with young Daisy Renton, and if Gerald was loyal to Sheila; Gerald would never have thought to deceive Sheila.

The timescale of the play is realistic as the audience is set to have the same time as the characters. This is very unusual as most plays have time jumps like the next day, or week or even year; this makes ‘An Inspector Calls,’ unique in comparison with other plays as the time doesn’t skip.

The play has a quick pace as the inspector moves from interrogating each member of the Birling family quickly. The inspector therefore creates a sense of speed and urgency and this raises the question about the inspector and why he is such a rush to leave. The audience throughout are engaged in the play as it does not start allow them to get bored. It also creates a sense of suspense as the audience wonders what they are going to hear about each of the members of the Birling family.

Before Edna announces the arrival of the inspector, Birling had been saying “A man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own – and-” However, Birling does not have the chance to complete his sentence as “the sharp ring of a front door” is heard and “Birling stops to listen.” This creates suspense within the audience when we learn that the inspector has come to explain that the Birlings and Gerald Croft all played a part in making this young woman feel that she needed to take her own life. This ironic comment by Birling therefore creates a strong impact on the audience, and uncertainty within the play.

As the inspector enters the Birling residence, he immediately creates “an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness.” This image of the inspector reflects his role as a police officer and implies he has arrived to carry out his duty for a specific purpose. His clothes “a plain darkish suit” contrasts with the Birlings who are dressed for a celebration. This difference in clothing separates Inspector Goole from the Birlings and Gerald Croft, creating an uneasy atmosphere within the household and suspense within play. Inspector Goole’s “disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person he addresses before actually speaking” adds a degree of nervousness and also reflects the Inspectors role as a police officer.

The first victim that the inspector questing is Mr.Birling, as this is the first member of the Birling family to have corresponded with Eva Smith. This is one of many events which took place in Eva Smith’s life. The inspector is very polite to Mr.Birling at the start by always addressing him by ‘Mr.Birling,’ due course of the play the inspector proclaims ‘don’t stammer and yammer at me again, man. I’m losing all patience with you people.’ This indicates that the inspector starts to get frustrated at Mr.Birling as he is consistently trying to defend his family against the accusations of the inspector, ‘I really must protest-.‘ The inspector also starts getting more and more impatient towards the Birlings as Mr. and Mrs.Birling still are not sympathetic and admitting to what they have done. This creates a very apprehensive atmosphere between the Birlings and the Inspector as the Birlings as well as the audience as we wonder what other surprises the inspector will unearth. Mr.Birling gets very annoyed when the inspector starts to speak with him in an objective tone. ‘Look here, I’m not going to have this, Inspector. You’ll apologize at once.’ This shows that Birling is trying to get his dominant figure back; as he feels that the inspector is in control of the situation. Mr.Birling tries to intimidate the inspector when he says ‘perhaps I ought to warn you that he’s an old friend of mine, and that I see him fairly frequently.’ This suggests that Mr.Birling is trying to scare the inspector and hint at the fact that he has the power to ruin the inspector’s reputation. This doesn’t work as the inspector just says ‘I don’t play golf.’ The dramatic effect is that the inspector is now in charge of the situation. The overall main effect the inspector has on Mr.Birling is that he proves Mr.Birling wrong. At the start of the play Mr.Birling is extremely arrogant and doesn’t seem to like being proved wrong, ‘you’ve a lot to learn yet.’ The dramatic effect of this is that it is the Inspector who proves Mr.Birling wrong when they find out that a girl has really died from a telephone call from the police at the end of the play, “a girl has just died-on her way to the infirmary-after swallowing some disinfectant. And a police inspector is on his way-here-to ask some-questions-.”

‘An inspector calls’ was written in the form of a detective story, at the time the play was written there was a high demand for detective stories, as they were very popular within the community. J.B.Priestly was different to different writers such as Agatha Christie as he had the inspector no the life of the girl who was murdered, whereas in stories as ‘who dunnit,’ there would several options on who the murderer would be.

The play ‘An inspector calls,’ was written to keep the audience in suspense as the characters try to hide certain facts about Eva Smith and her life. There are various cliffhangers at the end of each act as the audiences are left thinking whether the inspector will find out the truth or whether they can cover it up. This creates tension for the audience and builds anxiety to see what other truths about Eva smith are about to unravel.

When Gerald left the house he acted on his suspicion towards the inspector, and as a result he is the only one who begins the chain of events leading to the felling of certainty that inspector Goole had been an imposter. He confirmed his suspicion by asking the police if an inspector Goole had transferred into the police force. As the answer was no, this creates an atmosphere of excitement and suspense to the audience.

When the inspector leaves the Birling family is in panic, this is when we can tell that the younger generations excluding Gerald have recognized what they have done and are feeling very guilty. As Mr.Birling, Mr.Birling and Gerald croft remain untouched by the inspectors questioning, they refuse to see how their actions could have been responsible towards Eva Smiths death. They also try to act like nothing has gone wrong and so not feel any remorse to what they have done; all they care about is there reputation in society.

My most favorite character is the most powerful character of the play Inspector Goole, however the mystery of whom the inspector is, is one the play never answered, leaving it to the imagination of the audience. The other characters in the play are all believable and more realistic the audience are left wanting to now the identity of the inspector. The audiences are generally left with the questions; who is the inspector? Is he a real police officer? Is he a hoaxer?

Inspector Goole could have been a time traveller from the future warning the Birling family there would be war unless they can prevent it buy changing their arrogant and hypocritical behavior. The inspector could also be what his name implies. ‘Goole’ implies that the inspector could have been a ghoul (someone with a morbid interested in death).

When the inspector leaves we get a surprise, a phone call from a police man saying a police man is coming round as a girl has died, so the Birling family . The audiences are generally left with the questions; who is the inspector? Is he a real police officer? Is he a hoaxer?

In conclusion J.B.Priestly has tried to get his views across which has been portrayed by a powerful symbol Inspector Goole. At the beginning of the play we are introduced to the Birling family as rich and powerful, he uses them to symbolize how that society was. Upon persuasion Inspector Goole shows tells other how to accept reality that even if they are rich or poor, ‘We are members of one body,’ we share a common humanity and are all part of the same community. At the end of the Play J.B.Priestly shows his true feelings that if the community cannot learn from the Birlings mistakes then there would be ‘fire and blood and anguish.’ He had chosen to these words to be in the inspector’s final speech as it makes the audience think hard about it and stays in their mind for a long time. In my opinion J.B.Priestly uses the Inspector wisely and shows him as a powerful person to get rid of the difference of today’s society. As J.B. Priestly is a communist he decided to speak through the inspector about his belief on what should be a fair social community, where no difference is seen between the poor and rich. The aim of the poem is to get rid of such a society that still exists in today’s society. The play shows the consequences that if man kind couldn’t learn to look out for one another then there will be further problems and then they to will have to go through intense interrogation from the police. In terms of other lower class woman it is a lesson which shows that this is what happens if you mess around with middle class families and that they to will have to go through the same traumatic events as Eva Smith went through which and consequents that would follow. In my opinion J.B. Priestly has wrote the book as he was concerned for the society that he lived in and needed a powerful image to convey his thoughts. With his book being so popular his was able to easily get his views across and make people wonder whether they have the right to control someone’s life.