His questions often lead and trap the character in a place where it is impossible to retort or otherwise argue. For example, at the beginning of the second act, when the inspector is at an advanced stage in his questioning he asks in reply to Gerald’s comment:
“It’s bound to be unpleasant and disturbing”,
By saying
“And you think young women ought to be protected against unpleasant and disturbing things?”,
And after seeking confirmation:
“Well, we know one young woman who wasn’t, don’t we?”
Referring to Eva Smith.
The Inspector’s surname, “Goole” is further evidence to this point, a pun on the word “ghoul” which is something from another world; and is used to describe a person with a morbid fascination with death, suggesting perhaps that the Inspector has made it his duty to look in great detail at Eva’s life and subsequent death.
The inspector also has - at all times - control over the progression of the questioning and, indeed, over the momentum, of the entire play.
In the space of a few lines, with very subtle prompting from himself, he leads Mrs Birling to condemn the father of Eva’s unborn child, saying that it is the Inspectors duty to :
“Make sure that he’s compelled to confess in public his responsibility”
The Inspector’s retort to this is:
“Don’t worry Mrs Birling, I shall do my duty.”
he then looks at his watch, and here he shows his supernatural dimension, as he knows that Eric is about to come in, and is ensuring that the evenings events are proceeding to schedule. At the end of Act Two, as he raises his hand, the front door knocks, and it is Priestly’s intention that this is not interpreted by the Audience as a coincidence.
The action is taken forward by this questioning, in turn, of each character. The inspector, remains solid and unmoving throughout, similar to the way that the scene never changes and that the play is performed in real-time. The Inspector is calm throughout, even when others are becoming agitated or upset which is most apparent in his parting words to the Birling household:
“You can’t even say ‘I’m sorry, Eva Smith.’”
Sheila interjects, “crying quietly”; “That’s the worst of it”
The inspector ignores this to continue to deliver his final lines which are a direct contradiction to Birling’s sentiments in the play’s opening :
“a man has to mind his own business and look after himself”
contrasted with the Inspector’s lines :
“We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other”
Here, the inspector sums up the moral aspect of the investigation and leaves without pursuing any charges, suggesting that the inspector is more concerned with right and wrong than legal minutiae. His parting words are more akin to those of a preacher leaving a pulpit than those of an inspector concluding his investigation.
He has a mysterious quality and it becomes apparent during the play that he is no ordinary police inspector. The Inspector appears omniscient, emphasised at the end of act one in the raising of his status with the use of the single word interrogative “well?”. It gives the impression that rather than asking so that he may be enlightened, he is asking in order to unnerve the character by making them realise themselves the enormity of the consequences of their actions.
In one example, when it appears that Gerald may confess the things he’s “Ashamed of”, the inspector cuts in saying:
“Never mind about that. You can settle that between you afterwards”
when presumably he has every intention of revealing Gerald’s affairs, here taking control of the proceedings of the evening. Throughout the
The impressionability of the youth is Preistley’s hope that the young people born out of the second world war may become the children of a socialist revolution. And this is another of the inspectors roles and whilst essential, not heavily used by Priestley until the very end of the play, at the Inspectors exist when he gives a speech describing an apocalyptic time when
“If men will not learn that lesson, [that we are responsible for each other] then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.”
Furthermore, earlier in the play, the inspector responds to Birling’s distaste of revolution by saying :
“Better to ask for the earth than to take it”
and it is here, that Priestly warns of real socialist revolution if the capitalists are unwilling to negotiate. It is important to remember how England has never had a revolution although other countries had had several.
His final role then is one of a messenger, bringing promise of a time soon to come, and giving warning of what to do to prevent it.
Priestly considers Birling and his generation to be set in their ways, and entirely blind to their own imperfections :
“He was prejudiced from the start. Probably a socialist or some sort of crank – he talked like one.”
and I feel this single phrase epitomises Priestley’s message. For in this single comment, Birling the capitalist has revealed himself as a total hypocrite. Showing not only his prejudice to those of other political beliefs but proving himself to be prejudice by showing how he judges people on how they talk “He talked like one”.
The contrast of the impressionability of the youth (e.g. Sheila) against the stalwart-valued generation above them (Birling) is further akin to Preistley’s interpretation of the political unrest occurring at the time, and it is evident that part of the reason for him setting the book in 1912 is so that he can highlight how the generation which Sheila belongs to is now grown up, this construct is compelled by Birling’s speech very early on in act one: “…in 1940 – your son or daughter might be getting engaged and I tell you … they’ll have forgotten all these labour versus capital agitations…” Priestly here uses dramatic irony, as the audience know that the in 1940 there was a World War in progress.
So, to Priestley’s audience who may have been able to connect to this speech given by Birling, as one they themselves received this is a call to arms! The beginning of a socialist revolution, which Priestley is howling for with the inspectors’ message that this essay described (“They will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish”)
In conclusion, the Inspector’s role in the play is crucial. Despite us never truly finding out who or what “Inspector” Goole is, it is evident that it is he who gives the play momentum. Through Goole, Priestly shows how one persons actions affect another, and that we cannot exist as individuals in society. Priestly uses him to portray his own views of the class system and his disgust of capitalism.
The audience’s, and indeed, the Birling’s preconceptions of an Inspector’s role of a law enforcer are altered as they are presented with an Inspector more interested in the moral ethics of the situation. Perhaps he is unusual in his approach as a Police Inspector, nonetheless he is certainly effective in his role as a medium through which Priestly can display his societal views.
