Mrs Birling is a good mood and is decent towards them all. She is a bit embarrassed that she doesn’t cook for them.
’Mr Birling: Lovely meal, tell cook from me.
Mrs Birling: Arthur you shouldn’t say such things!!!’
This suggests that she is embarrassed by the fact that she doesn’t play a very active role as a wife or mother as most women did in those times. She doesn’t want Gerald to find out as she thinks that he will think less of her if she doesn’t. This also shows, as she doesn’t do much, she isn’t a very attentive member. We found out later she is also a very cold woman even though now she seems quite nice.
We can tell that is set in April in 1912, as it is a week before the Titanic set sail on April 12th 1912 and Mr Birling says that it sets sail next week so therefore must be set on April 5th 1912. It is out in subtly as you don’t say the date in normal conversation, so it is referring to well known events so people will know when it is set without them telling.
We are shown social positioning of the time when it shows Mr Birling tell of Gerald and Eric about ‘how the world works’ he is telling them about the importance of class, and that a man needs to fend for himself and family. He also has a disagreement of the socialists as he thinks they are fools, and doesn’t agree you should look after other people. This shows his point of view and foreshadows the arrival of the inspector, who are perfect foils of each other. They are so different that together their personality traits are emphasised by comparison. The foreshadowing of this makes guilt, as you know something to happen that will go against his point of view.
The next point is dramatic entrances and exits, these add suspense as they have to fall in exactly the right time in order for it to add tension, They fall in clever timing in order for it to fit in with the story. This point leads straight on from the last one as the first entrance is that of the inspector, He arrives just as Mr Birling finishes telling Eric and Gerald about his own very capitalists viewpoint just as the inspector walks in, the very stereotype of a socialist, the very opposite of Mr Birling. He arrives at that exact point so it shows that they are perfect foils of each other. J. B. Priestly does this so we can understand the characters of Arthur Birling and the Inspector better.
The next exit that happens is when which again is perfectly timed is when the inspector leaves the room just after he announces that the new name of Eva Smith was Daisy Renton and it was very obvious that he knew her, very well. As he leaves it gives Sheila to confront Gerald about it as she has picked up on the fact that he knew her, and suspected that they may have been lovers, also at the time when last summer he ignored her and barely spoke to her. They are talking about it when the Inspector has another dramatic entrance; he walks in just as Sheila confined him to tell the inspector about Gerald and Daisy's affair.
(The inspector enters)
Inspector: Well?
It is purposely vague as it is a mystery how much of their convocation that the inspector actually heard as it is such ambitious answer. He may have heard everything they had said and decided that that was a good time to come in, or he may not have actually heard anything but just his entrance may just have been a coincidence. That was the reason it is so vague so that it leaves the audience thinking. His entrance was debatable and very successful, but his exit was a bit planned, it didn't seem realistic you would announce something like that and then just leave. This, although could be what Priestly was after as he does control all exits and entrances.
The obligatory scene, as I mention before is when a secret is revealed. These are vital as without it would be hard for a story to progress given if everything was shown at the beginning. There are many obligatory scenes throughout as there are many secrets that revealed during the play.
The first secret that we find out is that Mr. Birling had Eva Smith fired from his employment 2 years ago. The main point of the secret is that we find out that he is a heartless business man and the fact that Sheila is so shocked by this shows she has lived a very sheltered life.
The next main obligatory scene is when we find out Sheila had Eva Smith fired from Hamleys, a very posh dress shop, out of malice as she was jealous of her. This shows she isn't as childish and innocence as it is first seen to be. She was envious of her as she looked pretty, and the dress that she wanted which looked really unflattering on her when held against Eva Smith suited. She exaggerated Eva’s looks as offense that she counted as grounds to get her fired. This shows that although she was a lower glass girl Sheila was still jealous, I think this is the point that Priestly was trying to get across.
After this it was time to find out about Gerald, last summer he had an affair with Daisy Renton. Sheila is obviously upset about this but yet it doesn’t stop her from having the want to find out all about it. Gerald doesn’t want to tell the inspector at first. We also found out that Daisy Renton had turned to prostitution but Gerald stopped this by giving her a place to live and money that would keep her alive even though she wouldn’t take much. He gave her to live in the rooms that his friend lent to him to look after whilst he was in Canada.
The next person that we find out has being hiding something is Mrs. Birling. We find out that she runs a charity for women with problems, this isn’t the secret, but the fact that she turned down a woman that is pregnant with an outside of wedlock, with the father trying to give her what she suspects to be stolen money. She has no money of her own and she doesn’t want to take her money as she finds it morally wrong to be in the possession of stolen money. We also find out that Mrs. Birling is even more of a snob that previously expected as she refuses help to probably a women in a situation in most need of help.
Eric has many secrets that haven’t been let out before now. We learn he is a drunk and regally picks up prostitutes from the Palace and impregnated Eva Smith/Daisy Renton. After he himself founding this out he insisted on giving her money, we also find out that this money is stolen from Birling Co. he had stolen vast amounts of money to fund her for the baby.
The final and last secret that we find out is that the Inspector really isn’t an inspector, and is just playing a trick on the whole Birling family and Gerald Croft to try and show them that all their actions have repercussions on other people, and that everybody needs to keep and eye out and look after their fellow man. Also that no girl actually died and that it wasn’t even the same girl passing through each and everyone of there’s lives but completely unrelated people.
The fourth rule of a well-made play is the climatic curtain. This is carefully timed to fall at a precise moment of tension so throughout the break the audience would be itching to watch more. There are two climatic curtains throughout this play, in-between the three acts.
The first climatic curtain in the play is after act one, we know that Gerald has played a part in her life, but we don’t really know how, and the audience really want to know how he is involved in her death as we assume he must. The inspector’s re-entrance just before the end shows indecision whether he knows or not what the audience does. It also is the start of the pattern of each of them having something to do with the suicide of Eva Smith.
The second climatic curtain is after act two, Eric walks in after he left the house and when they have all just realized that he is the father of Eva Smiths child.
Eric: You all know, don’t you?
This is when the curtain goes down. It shows suspense as they were just talking about him so when he walks in all focus is on him. The audience knows what he has down so we know that he is going to tell us his point of view of the story. As the curtain comes down the audience ponders how Mrs. Birling reacts with Eric there and if she tries to reconcile what she said before. It leaves us on a cliffhanger, in great anticipation of the next act. The curtain rises back up and it takes us straight back to where we were before. It is as if the interval never happened and was there purely to add suspense and anticipation.
Mistaken identity is when a character is believed to be someone or something else. All the characters before the end of the play always find out mistaken identity.
Of course, the main mistaken identity throughout is ‘Inspector’ Goose. We find out at the end of the play that he isn’t a real inspector. His identity was concealed by the Birlings' lack of questions, Mr. Birling only asks few questions but trusts him to be a real inspector as does not see a reason not do. The inspector was probably dressed in similar attire to a normal inspector so that caused even less suspicion. He conducted himself similarly and even addressed him self as an inspector so of course the Birling family didn’t even think to doubt it till after he was gone. We learn nothing of the person that pretends to be the inspector though. He just seems to play a model of moral and conscious, as would be shown in the medieval morality plays.
Eric is also a mistaken identity, but not in the same way as they all knew who he was but just certain aspects of his nature were concealed from them, like the fact that he was the father of Eva Smith’s baby. It was obvious that they were in the dark because of Mrs. Birling refusal of believing that Eric could do any thing wrong.
‘Mrs. Birling: No, it can’t be him, he isn’t like that’
She is in a state of shock that she blamed this girls death on him, and also that there was so much of her son that she didn’t know about through trying to block herself from that was blindingly obvious just because she didn’t want to know.
Another mistaken identity was of Mrs. Birling. At first she seems kind and pleasant and seems genuinely happy with the fact that her daughter is getting engaged and seems to be quite a nice person. Afterwards we find out she is a total and utter snob as we learn that she is incredible disregarding to the lower classes, to the extent of suggesting that they are not even of the same kind.
’And in any case I don’t suppose for a moment that we
can understand why the girl committed suicide.
Girls of that class…’
She shows her belief that different boundaries of class cover even the boundaries of thinking. It show that she is very shallow-minded and not a very nice person inside, which only started to show later on in the play.
On the surface it does seem that this is a ‘who dunnit’ but delve further and certain aspects prove wrong these allegations. For one not only one person is said to have driven her to suicide, but all of them, it also doesn’t have a conclusion at the end but ends rather openly.
The idea of the plot runs through a lot of ideas on rules playwrights should follow in order for their play to be a success. The main idea of plot is that only one storyline should follow throughout the story or otherwise it overcomplicates it. If there is more that one they can’t be explained well, or are rushed which will make them pointless, in a realistic drama it is best as there is no moving around of set.
An inspector calls does follow the rules of the Greek Unities which were set down by Greek philosopher Aristotle. Time, Space and Action are the three points that make it up.
Time means that the story should be set in real time. Not to have an hour play with months of time in it, not enough detail would be put in and it wouldn’t be realistic, set and costumes would have to be changed as things change over time, and you don’t always wear the same clothes all these time. An Inspector Calls follows these rules as the whole play is set on one evening.
Space is that it should only be set in one scene, that the audience shouldn’t have to imagine that you are anywhere else, and it also saves moving the scenery about, having only one place makes it stronger and more realistic. An Inspector calls is all set in the Birling household so this also follows this.
Action is that there should only be one story line, An Inspector Calls follows this even though it has little braches off it the all join up along the same storyline.
The Denouement is the final of the seven points. In a well-made play it is a time to see how much the characters have changed since the lessons that they have learnt during the play. It has to be plausible ending and not farfetched but let the viewers go home knowing exactly what happened. An Inspector Calls ending does not follow this rule, the ending is not plausible, and on the contrary it makes you think after.
The ending to and Inspector calls isn’t logical as to get a phone call at the end about a dead girl who drank some disinfectant just after someone had played a trick on them about that has a very small chance of actually happening.
Inspector Goole represents the socialist, as Mr. Birling is a big capitalist, I think the Inspector comes round to show him the right way to think. Goole is a symbol for what is right and almost shows up Mr. Birling’s views by using a dead girl who killed herself to show it.
The ending isn’t too far-fetched it is just confusing and also doesn’t follow the rules of the denouement. Most of the characters haven’t learnt anything by the end of the play have not learnt their lessons that they have had through the play. As soon as they find out it wasn’t real most of them completely forgot that what they did was wrong. Except Sheila and Eric who still feel great remorse for what they did, and are the only ones who actually learnt something from it.
At the very end guilt comes back to all when they hear of another girls death. The audience also feels guilt it the Inspector’s speech at the end before he leaves as he teaches that we must look out for other people.
In conclusion I feel I cannot actually say it is a well-made play as it does not fill the whole criteria needed, though I find it is a very close call. I think it is almost a category of its own, not quite fitting into any just about because of one little thing wrong. An Inspector Calls show originality and creativity and will still be regarded by many as a very well made play.
