The Presentation of the Inspector in J.B. Priestley's an Inspector Calls

The Inspector keeps himself to himself and this helps him conceal his identity so that the reader is left in ignorance of who he really is. When he asks his questions he jumps straight to the point, "I think you know Eva Smith now don't you Mr Birling?" (p13, Act 1). The Inspector obviously knows that he knows Eva in the first place. "Then she stopped being Eva Smith, looking for a job and became Daisy Renton" (p33, Act2). How did the inspector know this? He only had two hours before he arrived at the Birling residence so how did he find out all the information? Priestley makes the inspector omniscient so he expects the answer that is coming. Then he can ask the right questions and this helps him disguise the fact that he is not an inspector at all. If he did not know everything beforehand how did he know about the name change? Or did the inspector have contact with Eva before the incident? At this point the audience would be in deep thought wondering why and how he knew all the information. He has a large dramatic impact on the characters and audience. The Inspector creates shock at the very beginning of the play. Just after he enters he drops in the point that "she'd swallowed a lot of strong disinfectant" (p11, Act1). This shocks the audience and characters as you can tell by Eric's expression "My God" (p11, Act1) immediately afterwards. This demonstrates the impact on the Birling family and the audience would have the same feelings. Priestley put this in at the beginning to make everyone feel shocked by what had happened. Mr and Mrs Birling don't get affected very much by the inspector. As far as they are concerned they didn't play a part in the death. Mrs Birling puts the point across very strongly "I've done nothing wrong-and you know it" (p44, Act2) "I accept no blame for it at all" (p47, Act2). As far as Mr Birling is concerned he has no connections with Eva "She'd left us nearly two years ago" (p13, Act1). This suggested that he hadn't seen her for such a long time that he had nothing to do with the girl's death. On the other hand, Sheila had been affected quite a lot she broke the engagement between her and Gerald, she realised things about herself for instance she is jealous and that her actions can affect other people. She learnt a lot from the evening "I remember how he looked, and what he made me feel. Fire and blood and anguish" (p71, Act3). This shows how he frightened Sheila and how he made her feel. She will never forget this night and she will think more carefully. The inspector made Eric learn a lot about himself, he also revealed some of Eric's problems. Mr Birling also got told about the money Eric stole from the office. "Whoever that chap was, the fact remains that I did what I did" (p64, Act3). This shows that Eric has realised about his problems. Gerald did not get affected very much all that really happened to him was his engagement got broken up, as far as he was concerned he had no part to play in the death. He even thinks he gave her a happy part in her life "she told me she'd been happier than ever before" (p39, Act2). The Inspector has various effects on the audience. The Inspector created suspense at the very start "two hours ago a young woman died in the infirmary" (p11 Act1) just this sentence would make the audience want to listen and find out more about the incident. When he leaves the play the audience will realise that he was not a real inspector and they will leave the theatre in deep thought about who he really is. There are many possibilities of who he really is, his name (Goole) suggests that he could be supernatural. As Priestley set the play just before the First World War the inspector could have been a spy getting information on the family especially Mr Birling as he is on the bench and may have information that they want. The inspector leaves the play with a powerful speech and expresses some important points. "We are members of one body" which symbolises Priestley's socialist views on society. "If men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught in fire, blood and anguish" this conveys the message that if people don't co-operate then there will be another war and many will die and this point will go to the audience and make them take home that point as the play was first performed just after World War Two. In conclusion, the inspector played a big part in people’s lives and that the play has many messages to it. For example, one message of the play could be "don't judge the book by its cover" as everyone in the play thought the inspector was real and they released information but the fact is he was a fake and they didn't find out until Gerald came back and told them. Another message could be "careless actions can affect people’s lives" as Sheila got Eva fired from her job because she was in a bad mood this impacted Eva's life and was the beginning of her life falling apart. Priestley was a socialist and thought that everyone should be equal so he could have made the play to symbolise what happens when people are not equal and that people’s lives get ruined when they are not as well-off as others.