Furthermore, the Inspector tries to teach the characters and the audience that all our lives are linked together in one way or another. This is mentioned in his last speech where he states that there is no higher or lower class, that we are all members of one family. The Inspector says that we are “all intertwined with our lives and what we think and say and do…” In addition to this, the Inspector encourages not only the characters but also the audience to learn from their past mistakes and change in order to achieve a better future. When Sheila feels terrible about her misdeed and vows to never do it again in the future, she proclaims “…and I’ll never do it again”, the audience is able to almost empathise with her.
At a Symbolic level, the Inspector helps Priestley to convey a moral and social message to the characters and to the audience. Priestley also uses the Inspector as a theatrical device. The Inspector controls speech and movement on the stage, he is stern and takes over each character as he is handling them. For example, he always cuts a character midway between their speech or action to help them keep on track of the situation:
“Gerald: I don’t see why-
Inspector: (cutting in massively) You heard what I said before Mr. Croft.”
In addition, the Inspector keeps the audience entertained, he does this by revealing dramatic secrets at moments when the audience least expects it, at the end of each act Priestley creates a cliff-hanger which contributes to moments of tension and intrigue. He captures the reader's attention and keeps them gripped to the play, using the Inspector to unveil secrets at times when least expected.
Another major role the Inspector has as a dramatic is to introduce themes and morals to the play; this not only keeps the audience involved in the play but also might affect them personally. The themes of this play might be responsibility, mystery, horror, morality, class, equality, gender and age. Like themes in this play, there are many morals to be discovered also. For example, one major moral of this play might be ‘be sure your sins will find you out' meaning that you will be caught for each of your lies one day or another. The Inspector constantly reminds characters and audience about the importance of the theme of Responsibility. He highlights this greatly in his last speech where he states that "we are all responsible for each other" and that our careless actions could lead to grave accidents.
Priestly has given the inspector a very mysterious character, making the audience question who the Inspector was and how he knew so much information. There have been many interpretations mysterious to the identity of the Inspector. The Inspector states that his name was Goole, which may have been derived from the word ‘ghoul’ meaning ghostly and spirit-like. Also, the name Inspector can be seen as ‘In-spectre’ where ‘spectre’ means a ghost, an apparition. This idea can be supported by the text, where Mr.Birling says “I would have seen right through him”, hinting that he is a ghost or a spirit of some sort. Other interpretations may disagree with this idea; some may say that the Inspector was just a conscience, a part of the mind making them aware of their actions. However, there are also versions where Inspector Goole is seen as a God, as he tries to correct the mistakes of others and predicts the future, (he says a girl is dead which then actually comes true). All these ideas relate back to the creating theme of mystery which, as mentioned is very big job of the Inspector. The Inspector creates a lot of mystery not only to the characters but also the audience, causing them to ponder about it after the play has ended.
Acting as a vehicle for Priestley’s moral message is the most important function the Inspector has. Priestley was a socialist and believed in a political system that aimed to create a society with no class system. During this time, Britain was a capitalist country where wealthy families owned many businesses that they took advantage of. They were the upper class and treated anyone lower to them in a different way. Therefore, Priestley used the Inspector as a gadget to voice his proposition. In Act 3, the Inspector teaches the characters and the audience about equality and how “we are all members of one body”; he encourages the audience to see that capitalism can have many losses, which can lead to egotism in a person, resulting in annihilation of not only the person, but the society also. Most of Priestley’s views can be seen through the Inspectors final speech. Here, Priestley uses contrastive pairs, giving the audience an outlook of the future, the Inspector states, “But just remember this, one Eva Smith has gone but there are millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us." Also he uses memorable words and phrases to make his speech standout such as "With their lives, their hopes and fears", this makes even more of a political speech. He talks positively about us' or we' helping the audience identify with what is being said, "all intertwined with our lives, with what we think and say and do." Also, the Inspector appears to be quite intimidating, he strikes fear into the characters so they will learn their lesson, "And I tell you the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught...", he states as if he is giving a warning to the future's outcome. The Inspector states more phrases in bold that are quite memorable, the phrase "fire and blood and anguish" could be thought of as a prophecy of the two World Wars still to come as Priestley wrote this play to make a political point. In addition, this can make the play more mysterious if the Inspector is thought of as a time traveller.
In my opinion, the Inspector is quite successful in conveying Priestley’s message; I believe that he reaches into many minds of the audience, but has a bigger effect on the characters. This is clearly visible on Sheila’s and Eric’s reactions:
“Eric: The money’s not the important thing. It’s what happened to the girl and what we all did to her that matters…
Sheila: And Eric’s absolutely right.”
They are very regretful of what they have done; they completely accept their responsibility and have understood the Inspector’s (Priestley’s) message. However, the rest of the family do not feel the same. Mr and Mrs. Birling feel that nothing has happened and they can go back to how they were. This is also the same with Gerald. Nevertheless, I think the Inspector still taught them a lesson, and by looking at the end of the story, I think most of the household members have accepted their responsibility towards their faults. This is also a function of the Inspector’s.
The Inspector influences the characters to quite an extent; providing the audience with a hope of improvements in the world. The audience might see that this play can affect a person, even if it is not greatly. As a member of the audience, the play affected me quite a lot, regardless of the fact that I already had similar beliefs as Priestley’s. The Inspector’s speeches raised many ideas into my mind however the final message that I received from this play was that selfishness can cause a small mistake that could affect a society hugely. I believe the main function of the Inspector was to metaphorically be a character of Priestley’s beliefs, and to share these beliefs with the rest of the world.
English Coursework English Literature