The director chose to set the play in Edwardian times and have the characters all appropriately dressed. The scenery also looked Edwardian, but Priestley cleverly gave the play a different slant and made it known that it was written in the 2nd World War by putting subtle bits of scenery around the stage. There was rubble on the ground, air raid sirens, air raid wardens, bombs dropping, a wireless and other things like that.
The scenery in the play was very unusual. It was set in a conventional Edwardian dining room. The Birlings’ house set was on stilts above the stage showing their superior higher class. Their maid Edna spent the whole play at lower level showing her social class compared to theirs. The producer brought lots of children and people poorly dressed on stage to show them as the lower class, as a reminder that the poor are always with us. The Inspector never goes up into the dining room but the characters always come down to him, this is because the Inspector never wants to be like them, on their level. At the beginning there is a little boy who can’t get through the main curtain. The curtain is symbolising the class divide – how people cannot move themselves from one class to another. At the end the curtain comes halfway down and Mr and Mrs Birling are on one side of it while Sheila and Eric are on the other side. Mr and Mrs Birling are on the house side showing they haven’t learnt anything from the visit and showing no remorse for what happened. Sheila and Eric are stood on the other side showing they have learnt something and are sorry for what they’ve done.
All the characters are dressed in dinner jackets and beautiful dresses at the beginning of the play, showing how wealthy they are. Mr. Birling, Eric and Gerald are all well dressed and well-groomed with neat, black dinner jackets and trousers. They have white shirts and bow ties and Gerald has a red rose in his left buttonhole and Mr. Birling has a gold pocket watch. Mrs. Birling wears a beautiful red dress with expensive black jewellery and her hair carefully tied up. Sheila wears a beautiful white dress with expensive jewellery and her hair tied up with fancy clips. The Inspector wears a grey trench coat, a black suit, waistcoat and tie, a pocket watch and is well groomed. Edna wears a black skirt and white pinafore with her hair tied back and a little white hat. All the men and women who appear on stage are wearing dark grubby clothes and head scarves. Sheila starts the play off in her pristine white dress and Eric in his smart suit, but throughout the play they get dirtier and dirtier showing sympathies moving towards the working class. Mrs. Birling, Mr. Birling and Gerald look the same at the end as they did at the beginning showing how none of it has affected them.
Sheila was a very nervous and jumpy person who instantly wanted to know what was going on and felt guilty when she found out, “It’s the only time I’ve ever done anything like that, and I’ll never, never do it again to anybody.” She was a very impressionable character who seemed a little naïve in that she didn’t really understand the full extent of everyone’s actions. I found her a little over acted, as she was very dramatic and almost false. I think she did play the part well because she gave the impression of a hysterical young girl but she seemed a little irritating at the beginning of the play.
Gerald was a very nice young man who appeared to be trying to charm Sheila’s mother and father, “You seem to be a nice well-behaved family.” He was very protective of Sheila and didn’t want her to find out about the affair he had been having with Daisy Renton the previous summer, “I was awfully busy at the works all that time.” I think he was convincing as his part and played it very well. He wasn’t really affected by what happened but not in the same way that Mr and Mrs Birling should have been. They had direct roles in upsetting the girl who died yet Gerald was probably the only good thing that happened to her. I think he is portrayed wrongly and as not caring when in reality he wasn’t as much to blame as the others were.
Each of the characters knows what they have done wrong, but not all of the characters accept responsibility for their actions. We know that Sheila realised what she did was wrong and has learnt from it. We know that Eric realised what he did wrong and has also learnt from it, “My God - I’m not likely to forget”. Gerald feels bad about what happened to the girl, but he doesn’t feel it is his fault she died, he just wishes he could have done more for her, “Though at least he had some affection for her and made her happy for a time.” Mr. Birling knows what he has done but refuses to believe that he had anything to do with the death of this girl, “Well, don’t tell me that’s because I discharged her from my employment nearly two years ago.” Mrs. Birling didn’t even think she’d done anything wrong by not helping the girl out, “I’m very sorry. But I think she had only herself to blame.”
The most important message about class and society was in a dramatic moment when the house collapsed as though their lives collapsed and as though the class divide was collapsing. Unfortunately it put itself right by showing the Birlings’ life returning to normal as they hadn’t learnt anything.
I think that J.B Priestley got his point across very well and very successfully. Although some of the points were harder to pick up than others because they were more well hidden. The message was still put across well and sympathy was evoked for the working class because the play brought to light just how badly they really were treated.
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