An Inspector Calls

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How does Priestley make Act 1 tense, dramatic and interesting?

J.B.Priestley’s play: ‘An Inspector Calls’ is extremely tense, dramatic and interesting. Priestley makes his play this good by using a very wide array of clever techniques.  These include: dramatic irony, snide comments and a true understanding of the people he has based the play on. During this piece of writing I shall be evaluating these techniques as well as giving a brief insight as to what actually happens in Act 1. It is hoped that by the end of this essay that the reader will have a better understanding of the wide variety of techniques Priestley uses and simply a better understanding of the Act in general. One example of these techniques is stage directions. Priestley uses them time and time again to a fantastic effect.  

The initial stage directions are critical to the play as without them the characters may have came out very different. For example they could turn out to have very different opinions on things such as Mrs.Birling liking Inspector Goole. Before the audience had even bought the tickets for their seats Priestley had given a huge amount of stage directions. He wanted each and every aspect of the play to be perfect, to be exactly how he wanted it. Priestley gets everything precisely how he wants it by not leaving anything to the imagination. One example of just how precise he wants everything is: ‘Edna, the parlourmaid, is just clearing the table, which has no cloth’. This is but one example of just how precise Priestley wanted everything in his play to be. These stage directions, however petty, do actually make a huge difference to the play. Without Priestley’s want of everything being so perfect ‘An Inspector Calls’ may not have turned out to be as fantastic a play as it was (and still is today). Despite this however the most important thing in the play is actually the dialogue. The dialogue is what lets the audience know what is actually going on and helps them to really connect with the characters. There is an excellent example of dialogue when the after dinner drinks are being shared.

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Whilst the Birlings are conversing after dinner we learn a great deal about them. They tend, to an intelligent ear, to giveaway a lot about themselves. I believe this was definitely intended by Priestley but he also allows the other audience members to ‘catch-up’ later on in the act when the characters are asked point blank by the inspector. We get to know Arthur Birling very well when he makes his speech. He gives himself away as quite a fool as he gives his opinion on things which have already happened for the audience. This is an excellent ...

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