One main point is the fact he is always in control. He tells the suspects what he wants to do and they will not get against this. For example, he only talks to one person at a time and also only lets one person at a time see the photograph of Eva. “The Inspector interposes himself between them and the photograph”. Furthermore he refuses a glass of port from Mr Birling. “No, thank you, Mr Birling. I’m on duty.” This shows he is very determined and confident and passionate about his job.
Furthermore the Inspector is very clever in the way he questions people. He isolates his suspects not allowing anyone to support or back them up. However sometimes he allows the suspects to talk between themselves. This creates friction between the characters such as where he allows Sheila and Gerald to converse with each other and this leads to an argument at the very end of the first act which ends with a climax. The Inspector then moves to question Gerald which creates excitement for the audience.
He also keeps talking about the horrific death of Eva to shock the characters. For Instance in Act 1 where Sheila enters he tells her “This afternoon a young woman drank some disinfectant and died, after several hours of agony, tonight in the Infirmary”. This has the effect of upsetting and disturbing the characters and putting them off guard. This also illustrates the characters real characters by the way they react to the news of the suicide. An example is Mr Birling – “(impatiently) Yes, yes. Horrid business”. This demonstrates that Birling doesn’t really care about other people and is more concerned with himself which proves that he is big-headed. Sheila reacts by “Oh – how horrible! Was it an accident?” Because Sheila is the character most like the audience, she reacts with shock like the spectators would. This means Sheila is very down to earth and thoughtful and cares about others.
Furthermore, the Inspector makes speedy replies to the suspect’s comments and is not scared of them or their class or power at all. For example Mr Birling says “I don’t like that tone” however the Inspector responds “I’m sorry. But you asked me a question.” This shows his responses are very clever and are likely to make the characters frustrated and angry with him. He wants this to happen as it is much easier to get information from them. His replies are really quite witty.
Finally he only makes a social comment when needed and this is very rarely. However whenever the Inspector says one it is very important as it refers to Priestley’s views and opinions. An example is “It’s better to ask for the earth than to take it”. This comment is very important as it reflects the situation in the play and also in the real world in Priestley’s time. This is a key part of the play and will be discussed in more detail later.
The time in which ‘An Inspector Calls’ is set is a world full of corruption. ‘An Inspector Calls’ demonstrates this by the way the Birlings and Gerald have everything while in contrast Eva Smith has nothing.
Priestley entwines Eva’s and the Birlings path throughout the play to emphasise this contrast between the privileged and the poor.
Priestley does this to show the misuse of power in the play and also in the real world. Throughout the play we have constant references to responsibilities and duties. For instance as soon as the Inspector enters the play we have quotes such as “Still, I can’t accept any responsibility” and also “It’s my duty to ask questions”. The Inspector plays a role in showing and revealing what they are for the characters.
Another message in ‘An Inspector Calls’ is about the different powers the characters have and how they misuse them.
Mr Birling has financial power, owning a factory and having lots of employees. In the play he misuses this power when it is his duty and responsibility not to. “She was one of my employees and I discharged her”. In this case, Birling can easily afford to pay her a small bit more just so she can live on it instead of not being able to afford basic necessaries such as food and shelter. However he doesn’t due to his greed because he is a capitalist which means he tries to make as much profit as he can and if he pays Eva a bit more his profits will go marginally down. This shows how greedy he is and Priestley also shows this through his choice of name for Mr Birling. The name Birling reminds us of the words bully and burly which means big and strong which implies that Birling throws his powers around and uses it against people. Priestley does this so we are all absolutely sure that Birling is big headed and not a liked or good character.
Mrs Birling has the power of being chairwoman of the Brumley Women’s Charity. This means she can give help to women that are struggling such as if they are pregnant. She refuses Eva’s case for no valid reason. “A lot of silly nonsense” and “First she called herself Mrs Birling”. These show she doesn’t give this desperate girl help because of here own pride. She also used her power to stop the other workers at the charity from giving her help.
Another example of the misuse of power is from Eric and Gerald who both have sexual power. Both Eric and Gerald have sex with Eva and Eric made her pregnant. “She told me she was going to have a baby”. Eric just sees Eva as an object, but Gerald loves her but he only really stays with Eva so he can get enjoyment from it “You were the wonderful Fairy Prince”.
Sheila has the power of her class and her family behind her and she uses it to sack Eva from the shop in which she was employed. “I went to the manager of Milwards and told him that if they didn’t get rid of that girl, I’d never go near the place again and I’d persuade mother to close out account with them”. In this case because of her own envy and anger she behaves like a spoilt brat and blackmails the shop so the girl gets sacked.
Priestley continually uses this ‘misuse of power’ and the seven deadly sins, which each character represents such as Birling with greed a lot, because this was happening in the real world and therefore included this in his play. Because his play is a morality play, Priestley hoped to affect people who watched the play and change what was happening in the world from corruption to fairness and equality.
In ‘An Inspector Calls’ another role of the Inspector is as a catalyst.
A catalyst in chemistry is something that causes or increases the speed of a chemical reaction, remaining unchanged at the end of the reaction. It is also any person or thing that causes or accelerates change.
In our case the Inspector causes the characters to find out each others weaknesses and their real characters and attitudes which probably would not have been revealed to the others if the Inspector wasn’t here. This in turn leads to conflict in this story such as the argument between Gerald and Sheila when their true natures are revealed.
Whereas before Sheila was going to marry Gerald, brushing of the suspicions she had about him, the Inspector causes the couple to find out that Gerald had an affair with Eva and that Sheila is very arrogant and spoilt. This causes a break up and they have to get to know each other again. “We’d have to start all over again”. If the Inspector had not questioned them both, they would have married and the secrets may not have been revealed. The Inspector’s role as a catalyst also exposes Eric’s gluttony with drink and his lust for women. The Inspector also uncovers that Eric has been stealing money from his father and his close business friends. “(Miserably) I got it – from the office – “. Previously his parents thought of him as a
The catalyst further reveals that Birling is very annoyed with the news that Eric has stolen from him, yet completely unaffected about he partly caused Eva’s suicide. This shows how selfish and arrogant he is to just be concerned with his status and money. The way he says “If that had been a real police Inspector and he’d heard you confess –“ shows that he’s not bothered about Eva at all and just worried about it coming into the open. This is Priestley again showing this is not a likeable person as he wanted this sort of person out of the world and by showing him as detestable in the play, Priestley might make viewers to change their ways.
More undisclosed truths are shown by the Inspector which leaves the family in turmoil at the end of the play.
A further role of the Inspector is to provide a supernatural element to the play.
One first indication of this is the Inspectors actual name: Goole. This makes us think of the word ‘ghoul’ which is a ghost. We then see that he has a mysterious nature about him. We learn this right at the beginning of the play, “He says his name’s Inspector Goole”. Knowing this we then can consider his character and learn more about him and his strange manner as the play develops.
The audience also notice that he seems to be omniscient – he knows everything – including the future. This amazing characteristic provides us with tension and excitement and we are like the character Sheila – we have to keep working the situation and its significance. This is shown when Sheila says the Gerald right at the end of Act 1, “Why – you fool – he knows. Of course he knows. And I hate to think how much he knows that we don’t know yet. You’ll see. You’ll see”. Sheila seems to be the only character to notice this and she is curious about this strange person throughout the play.
The Inspector seems even more supernatural and mysterious when it is revealed at the end of the play, that he is not a real Inspector. Questions immediately start flying from the audience – who is he? Why was he here? – And it seems we don’t get clear answers to these and the character remains shrouded in mystery.
Tension builds up further when Mr Birling rings up the Infirmary and there apparently has been no suicide or woman named Eva Smith.
The characters relax but the final climax is revealed – “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 here – to ask some – questions. As the curtain falls, the audience are left in suspense, excitement and shock and left to consider the character of the Inspector.
The final, most important role of the Inspector is as Priestley’s mouthpiece. Priestley who was “tunnelling through a mountain of humbug and hypocrisy” because of all the corruption which he hated, needed to get his message into his play. Priestley, a socialist who wanted the world to be a fairer, equal, better place with justice and community used the Inspector to have his thoughts and feeling put into ‘An Inspector Calls’.
This is apparent in the final speech of the Inspector before he mysteriously disappears – “the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish” which is a reference to war and that people need to change their ways as soon as possible or another war could happen. This is also seen in the Inspectors speeches at the start of the play.
He wanted people to see that these workers shouldn’t be treated worse than anyone else because they are poorer or lower class than others. Sheila seems to get this message right at the start when she says “But these girls aren’t cheap labour, they’re real people”. Priestley makes Sheila say this because she can lead an example to others throughout the play. The Inspector agrees to this “I’ve had that notion myself from time to time” which further confirms to the audience that this is the right opinion to have.
Furthermore these “Eva Smiths and John Smiths” are actually better than the Birlings. Eva refuses to take stolen money, even when she is desperately poor. Priestley shows this yet again using the Inspector – “It is better to ask for the earth than to take it” which means that the poor people are better than the rich because they are asking for things, yet the rich are just taking things such as how Birling is taking away his profits and taking away his workers hopes of survival by not paying them enough.
Priestley didn’t want the world to continue as it was going; he wanted a change because he didn’t like this form of living and wanted socialism and community because he was a socialist. He wanted a new generation who could improve this world and change the old ways. Because of this Priestley only makes the youngest characters realise their mistakes and the consequences at the end of the play. “We often do on the younger ones. They’re more impressionable”. This means the older characters such as Birling are left to look like idiots because they are in denial of doing anything at all.
‘An Inspector Calls’ is all about the attitudes and actions of people and how they affect others. The Inspector shows how wrong people are behaving which Priestley hoped would affect the audience and make them learn.
Priestley and the Inspector both point out that Birling is wrong by using dramatic irony. Such as when Birling makes a long speech about how war is impossible “And to that I say – fiddlesticks!” Eric, the youngest doesn’t agree – “Yes, I know – but still – “.
Here the Capitalist is deliberately shown to be completely and obviously wrong when the young Eric is right. If Birling is wrong about this, then what else could he be wrong about? Now when he says “a man has to look after his own business and look after himself…” We suspect he is wrong.
Now at the end Priestley uses the Inspector to show his view – “we are responsible for each other.” Because of this, we believe this is the correct view and now we can see how Priestley manages to achieve his goal of having socialism in the world, in the play.
In ‘An Inspector Calls’ the Inspector plays a number of major roles. He is used to create the excitement and tension in the play through his interrogation techniques. He also shows the misuse of power in the world and furthermore is used as a catalyst. He finally helps achieve Priestley’s aims by putting his message that we should be a community in the play.
He plays each one adeptly and manages to successfully keep the interests of the audience and make it a good play. He conveys Priestley’s message well and is an example to everyone, in the play or audience.
In my opinion the Inspector is key in the play and plays his roles successfully, because it reminds us all that we need to look after each other and share. Without him perhaps the world would still be the world of corruption in Priestley’s and the plays time.
