Priestley has a large amount of messages in his play but his messages to the audience are the most important because he wants to get the directly involved. But his main message is to look after other people in society. This is echoed when the Birling’s find out they have all contributed to a death of a young girl. Eva Smith. Priestley wants the message to get across to the audience but he adds a dramatic twist to keep the audience involved; he does this by making and inspector come into the scene. Inspector Goole. The inspector is the one who brings the news of the Eva Smith’s death. The inspector tells them the how they all contributed to the death and the Birling’s don’t take much notice of what they’ve done. When they finally find out the inspector isn’t a real one there relived and aren’t that bothered about Eva Smith’s death, but when they think it’s all over, a real inspector calls them to tell them that a woman has just been found dead after swallowing poison which also adds irony. Priestley uses Inspector Goole to try and teach the Birlings a lesson to look after each other and people in society. When the Birlings don’t learn their lesson, Priestley uses the real inspector to tell the Birlings they’ve contributed to a real death. This is Priestley’s main lesson to the audience in the play and he really tries to drive it in so the audience can go away with a lesson from watching the play, like the medieval morality of plays where audiences would be presented with a morale message.
There are many characters in the play Mr. Birling, Mrs. Birling, Shelia, Eric, Gerald and Inspector Goole. But no character in the play is more important than Mr Birling. Mr Birling is the man of the family and he represents a capitalist follower and the leader of the house. Priestley uses this character to make fun of because Priestley doesn’t agree with capitalist views. “And I say there isn’t a chance of war”. This shows Priestley making fun out of Mr Birling with his wrong predictions. “Except of course in Russia, which will always be behind, naturally”. This shows Mr Birling’s capitalist views and what he thinks about communism and this also shows that he looks down upon communism and it will never catch up to capitalism.
Another Main character in the play is Mrs Birling. She is the woman of the family and appears quite kind at the beginning. She doesn’t always agree with her husband’s capitalist views. Also you can tell that she is a high class character by the way her stage directions include such things as “Reproachfully” to describe the way she is moving or talking. When her husband comments about Russia being behind naturally, she disagrees By the way she says “Arthur” with a commanding tone. This shows she disapproves of the comment because technology does move fast in Russia and capitalists are not always the correct ones. The audience would have reacted to this happily because this shows that Mrs. Birling isn’t like her husband and doesn’t always have to approve his comments.
Sheila also is a very in depth character that is shown in a different light to her parents. Sheila is the daughter of the Birling`s and also is engaged to be married to Gerald. She tries to be controlling over Gerald “Go on Gerald just you object! “Gaily, possessively” shows Shelia trying to take over Gerald`s opinions with mocking and aggression. Towards the end of the play Sheila learns her lesson and decides she needs a change of personality and should act differently in life. This of course is a very different action to what her parents continue with.
Eric who is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Birling and the brother of Sheila seems to have a very different roll in the family. He seems to be the irresponsible one and he is also an alcoholic. He also appears to be a very ignorant character as he interrupts his mother and other character s in the play on many occasions. “Women are potty about em.” Is just one of the stupid comments that Eric makes and the audience would have reacted to this because Eric would have been drunk when saying this and the way he would have projected this on stage it would have been very comical.
Gerald is engaged to Sheila and also a very similar character to her as throughout the play he begins regretting some of the things he has done in the past and the way he has acted. He has a big secret that he is cheating on Shelia; with”Eva Smith” also he agrees with everything that Mr. Birling says. “I believe your right sir”. This shows Gerald in a sense kissing up to Mr. Birling so that he may like him more.
Priestley shows us what the characters represent by the way they speak and act and the lighting that they are shown in. He tries to show this by using the stage directions to show how each characters represent themselves. “Reproachfully” Here Priestley uses stage directions to show that Mrs. Birling is a higher class in society. This helps show what she represents because of the way she can act out and sound out the line. Priestley also uses different speeches and phrases to show us what each character is like and their personality. “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”. Here Priestley shows Mr. Birling out to be a typical capitalist only thinking about money. Priestley shows us what Birling represents by the way he talks about raising prices and joining forces to make higher prices. This shows how Priestley uses different words and phrases to show us Mr.Birling being greedy once again and again this makes the capitalist society look bad. The audience would be happy about this because they would have a much better understanding of the characters because of the way the Priestley portrays them.
There are many feeling towards the Birling’s in the play but really the play is made to make us not like their opinions on life and their arrogance. This is mainly because they think they are above everyone else in society and also because Mr. Birling has very different views in society to everyone else in the audience. “And I say there isn’t a chance of war” This shows that Mr. Birling’s views are different to everybody else’s and are typical of a capitalist person and making wrong predictions. It is important that the play is set in the 1912’s and it was written in the 1940’s because this makes the predictions of Mr. Birling’s sound funny because they are wrong. I think that Priestley wants the audience not to like the Birling because of the way he portrays them. I think that he wants the audience not to like the Birling’s because of the way that they behave and act. He does this because he wants to show how the Birling’s change throughout the play when the inspector arrives and tells them the news.
In the play Scenery has a massive effect this is mainly because it sets the scene of the play and how the background of the scene will look. This helps the audience imagine the scene would look like if they are reading the book and not actually watching the play. Priestley does this to get his message across because he wants to get the audience involved. Also the scenery is helps the play move on because when there are different scenes there is a different background to help the play develop. Also there is a different picture or lighting to set the atmosphere of the scene, this helps the audience imagine and visualize how the play would be if it was live in front of them.
The lighting is also a big part in the play because this in effect helps towards the scenery, because different types of light can show the feeling of the play and actors. When the inspector comes into the play the lighting is “Bright and Hard” to show the mood of the characters have changed to quite a grim mood because of the inspector arriving into the scene to bring bad news. The scenery is described as “not cozy and homelike” showing that all they care about are appearances. The lighting can show the characters mood throughout the play and help the audience understand what the characters are feeling. The audience would have reacted to this the in the mood of the scene because they would have like the way that the lighting was showing the mood of the scene and the mood of the characters. This helps Priestley get his message across because if the scene is sad the lighting would change and if the scene was happy the lighting would be changed in a different way like brighter colors.
The Sound effects would not play as big a part as other dramatic devices in the book but would probably have a good effect if you saw the play live, The sound effects help show the mood of the play, if something bad is going to happen the sound effect would probably go a lot louder and deeper to show that something bad is going to happen. The sound effect plays a big part in the film of the play. The audience would like the sound effects because they would have like the way that if something bad was going the sound effects would tell them. This helps Priestley explain in further details his message that he is trying to show the audience because he can show the mood of the play through the sound effects. “The sharp ring of the front doorbell”. The word sharp indicates that the doorbell is interrupting them in a negative way. Also the doorbell interrupts Mr. Birling in the middle of his speech this is an important moment in the play as Mr. Birling is making wrong predictions about everything.
In Conclusion In my opinion I think that Priestley’s message was to look after everybody in society the way you would like to be treated. Also to not split our community into two different social groups of “rich” and “poor” but to come together and help the less privileged people because they are becoming victims of powerful people who are arrogant and believe they have it all. This is a fantastic message because it is still relevant in today’s society, this is because of the way people, especially young people, treat each other these days. If you treat people badly all the time then expect bad things to happen to you.