The Inspector does not ever have to use physical force against any other character; he just stays tranquil throughout the play, ‘Inspector (calmly)’ because if he lost his composure he would start becoming irrational and mix up his facts, which would make him lose his power over the other characters. The Inspector only uses short sentence structure which make his statements clear and easy to understand, ‘Inspector do you remember her?’ and ‘Inspector and was it the girl’s fault?’ The audience would see the other characters become agitated, and the Inspector still staying calm throughout the interrogation; this would lead the audience into thinking that the Inspector is unaffected by the stress of what he is being put through.
The Inspector plays an important part in the play, because he is the one who asks the questions to the Birling family, and makes them confess to their wrong actions. This earns the respect of the audience, because he is always totally in control and never falters. The mystical appearance of the Inspector when the Birling’s are having a celebration party, be founds Mr. Birling.
We are supposed to believe Mr. Birling is a respectful, pompous, self-righteous and forms opinions very quickly. He is not very concerned about the death of Eva Smith because he was only doing his job, ‘Birling I went down myself and told them to clear off.’ The audience would think that Mr. Birling was a cruel hearted person, just because Eva asked for ‘twenty-five shillings a week.’ They would now begin to grow a disliking of him and like it when the Inspector interrogated him, and put him under pressure to see how he would react.
Out of all this Mr. Birling is indirectly referring to his knighthood, ‘Birling (turning to Gerald) don’t say anything. It’s a bit early yet.’ When the Inspector places Mr. Birling under slight pressure which might make him lose his knighthood, ‘Birling listen Inspector, I’ll pay thousands – thousands!’ he has to try and do something which makes him still liable to get his knighthood; by this time the audience are thinking how arrogant he is because he should know by this time that he is not going to be able to bribe the Inspector.
The Inspector constantly refers back to the dismissal of Eva from Mr. Birling’s factory; because he wants to make sure that the audience and himself know that he exploits his workforce to make profit, ‘Birling lower costs, higher prices, that’s what I say.’ When the Inspector reveals this information about the exploitation of his workers the audience empathise for them, and start thinking how cruel Mr. Birling really is. This would create a tense atmosphere in the theatre, especially when Mr. Birling speaks.
Birling wasn’t brought up in an upper class family; he had to work his way from a working class employee to owning his own factory. You can suspect that he was brought up this way because he tries to act respectful and powerful, but he sometimes forgets that he is supposed to be an upper class social member in the hierarchy of the modern world, you can tell this by the way he speaks compared to the way Mrs. Birling speaks, who was brought up in a higher class family, ‘Birling I can’t think there can be of any great consequence.’ compared to ‘Mrs. B her story was that he had said something one night.’ As where Mr. Birling uses abbreviations of ‘can not’ Mrs. Birling says ‘he had’ instead of shortening it. This tells the audience that Mr. Birling is from a different social background to Mrs. Birling.
We are supposed to form an opinion of Mr. Birling very early in the play of wealth and respect, but as the play tells it’s story we are forced to change our opinion upon him, to a heartless and cruel person.
Mrs. Birling is similar to Mr. Birling, in the way that she is also arrogant and unhelpful to the Inspector, ‘Mrs. B Oh – she had some fancy reason.’ During her interrogation she evades from the truth, this is from, ‘Mrs. B Oh – a lot of silly nonsense!’ to ‘Mrs. b He’d stolen it.’ It takes ‘seven’ lines for Mrs. Birling to tell the truth to the Inspector; this tells the audience that she is unreliable because she doesn’t give a straight answer to the Inspector’s questions.
She was brought up in a high-class family, which makes her very judgemental to the social class below her. At the end of the play both Mr. and Mrs. Birling are relived that the Inspector has gone, ‘Birling (jovially) But the whole things different now’ and ‘Mrs. B They are over tired. In the morning they will be as amused as we are.’ This makes the audience feel even stronger against them. They are both very different compared to their daughter.
Sheila Birling is genuinely sorry for the actions that she committed, ‘Sheila I felt rotten about it at the time and now I feel a lot worse.’ When this information is revealed to the watching audience, they would feel deep empathy about the way Sheila reacted to Eva; and we are meant to think that Sheila also shows deep emotions for what she has done. The audience would think that Sheila was envious over Eva and would lose respect, for her behaviour towards Eva.
Sheila has strong stage directions, ‘(with feeling)’ and ‘(bitterly)’ the audience would think that she acts upon first impulses; they would also think that she is mentally strong because she is the only family member who stands up to her mother, ‘Sheila I begged you to stop! Sheila was courting Gerald Croft before the knowledge of Eva Smith’s death, but when she found out she terminated their relationship.
Gerald Croft, son of another wealthy business is successor to his father’s business and title; this is why Mr. Birling is so very fond of him. If his daughter becomes engaged and later gets married; he will inherit the title as well as Mrs. Birling. The audience is made to believe that Gerald was truly fond of Eva, and can trust every word that he states you can see this by the impulsive stage directions that he is given, ‘Gerald (surprised)’. ‘Sheila you were like a wonderful Fairy Prince.’ This is the opinion of Sheila’s, she would have said this because this is what she must feel for Gerald. The audience would like Sheila and Gerald to be together.
Gerald only uses basic syntax, ‘Gerald I see. Well, I was expecting this.’ This creates the image of simplicity and truth, and makes the audience associate with him; this forms an intermediate bond with each spectator.
Eric is the last person to be interrogated; but by this time we are sub consciously thinking that he is going to become involved, because it is pure logic that he should be the next one questioned.
Eric is the last person who was involved with Eva. At the beginning of the play Eric doesn’t say anything compared to the other characters. We are not informed of the departure of Eric; Priestley has deliberately done this to give a sense of suspicion, this keeps the audience guessing where he is, this would create an atmosphere of confusion.
Even though ‘An Inspector Calls’ is a very well made play Priestley tries to emphasise the importance of the care of others. Priestley was a socialist in his time, unlike most of the people around; they were only interested in exploiting people, like Mr. Birling. Priestley believed that everyone should share their wealth or at least help those in need.
Written By
Jonathon Giddings
