An Inspector Calls | JB Priestly

An Inspector Calls | JB Priestly What is the genre of An Inspector Calls and how does it fulfil its purpose? How would the audiences attention be sustained during the performance? An Inspector Calls is a play written by J.B. Priestly, first performed in 1945 in the Soviet Union, and set in 1912. It is considered to be one of Priestleys best known works for the stage and one of the classics of mid-twentieth century English theatre. The play is a three-act drama, which takes place on a single night in 1912, and focuses on the wealthy middle-class Birling family, who live in a comfortable home in Brumley and each of member of the family symbolises at least one of the seven deadly sins. The family is visited by a man calling himself Inspector Goole, who questions the family about the suicide of a young working-class woman, Eva Smith. The style of An Inspector Calls is based on old Morality Plays. It is a bit like a detective story or a whodunnit. Morality plays were religious plays written in the late middle ages. They tended to involve the seven deadly sins and tried to teach people how they should behave. They werent really plays for entertainment; they were war nings against the perils of temptation. An Inspector Calls follows the same idea as these morality plays; its quite blunt in pointing out everyones sins, and tries to get them to confess and repent, but not all the characters do though. An Inspector Calls is a morality play without religion and doesnt follow Christian ideas about confession and forgiveness. The moral judge isnt God, it is a police inspector. Priestley changes the religious background of the morality play and makes it secular. Priestly fought in the trenches in World War One when he was twenty. Priestley was already famous when he wrote the play, An Inspector Calls was written in one week in the final months of World War Two. By this time Priestley was already famous as a writer of plays and novels. The characters language shows their social attitudes. The Birlings and Crofts see themselves as respectable citizens; of the right social class. Men are referred to as chaps, but Gerald calls Birling Sir. They use Euphemisms to talk about certain matters, for example it is said that Eva/Daisy went on the streets where she led another kind of life and became a woman of the town. These are all euphemisms for became a prostitute. Inspector Goole uses language differently, he doesnt mess around, he just speaks his mind, and he doesnt waffle; he describes Eva/Daisys death as having burnt her inside out. This contrasts with Birlings long waffly speeches at the beginning of act one. Sheilas language changes during the play; at the start of the play she uses simple, playful and quite childish language. Sheila says, Im sorry Daddy, to Arthur when she has been admiring her ring, instead of listening to him. By the end of the play she is confident and assertive, using simple, plain and blunt En glish, just like the inspector; Between us we drove that girl to commit suicide. Sheila doesnt show any doubt, and is happy to pass judgement on herself and the rest of her family. Arthur Birling is the head of the family. He is rich and irritable. He is also very stuffy and traditional. Arthur doesnt care about anyone else unless they are making him rich or look good, he is also wrong. Arthur Birling represents four out of the seven deadly sins; Mr Birling represents Gluttony because in the play he is described as a heavy-looking, rather portentous man. He also represents Covetousness because he desires more power than he has got, in the play he says, Just a knighthood. Covetousness is like lust and gluttony, a sin of pursuit of wealth, status and power. Arthur represents Envy in An Inspector Calls, because he envies Gerald croft and wants to be like him, in the play he says, feels you may have done better for yourself socially. Pride is considered the most original and most serious out of the seven deadly sins, and indeed the ultimate source from which the others arise. Mr Birling represents Pride in the play because he is overly proud of what they have got a nd he is ashamed of Eric, his son. Sybil Birling is obsessed with etiquette and her status in society. She is stubborn and is the most cold-hearted character in the play. Mrs Birling represents two out of the seven deadly sins; Mrs Birling symbolises Wrath because she is always telling Sheila to be quiet; be quiet Sheila! Pride is showed through what she says, Feels like you could have done better for yourself socially. Sheila Birling is in her mid-twenties, is quite attractive and rather spoilt. Shes quite lonely and excitable. This means that tends to cry a lot. Mrs Birling is the most moral one of the family though. Sheila Birling symbolises two out of the seven deadly sins; she represents Sloth because she doesnt really do anything and has no job; thats something this public school and varsity doesnt teach you. Miss Birling also represents envy because she was envious of Eva Smith. Eric Birling is an alcoholic. He is a raging alcoholic who is rather nervous and paranoid. He doesnt like his parents, and they dont seem to love him much either. Eric Birling represents three out of the seven deadly sins; he symbolises Sloth because he doesnt really do anything, just like his sister, Sheila. He is always drunk, more drinks? and I thought this time it wasnt so bad. Eric also represents Lust because he went to the palace bar which was where he met Eva. Gerald Croft is thirty, attractive, really rich and engaged to Sheila. Gerald is self-satisfied and he agrees with Mr Birling about business. He is very successful, but hes a liar, and he has been unfaithful to Sheila. Gerald represents one of the deadly sins, Lust because he met Daisy at the palace bar; he used her, and paid for her flat, to help her. The audience dont know much about Eva Smith/Daisy Renton because we never meet her. We are not sure if they are the same person, or a completely different people. She might not even be dead! Inspector Goole is not a real police inspector. Unfortunately, thats as much as we do know. He is mysterious, purposeful and aggressive towards the family. Hes very moral and seems focused on getting them all to confess their sins. His name Goole, reminds the audience of ghoul, which is ghost. Edna is the maid. Her biggest line in the play is Please sir, an inspectors called. She answers the door a couple of times and thats it. Priestly has chosen to include several themes in his play, one being social class. The Birlings and the Crofts are high up socially. The Birlings are clearly middle class. Geralds family are seemed as superior to Arthurs because his family owns land which means they are of higher status than a city family who have made money out of business. Arthur was Lord Mayor two years previously and had been an Alderman for many years. Sybil Birling is a leading member of the Brumley Womens Charity Organisation. This is a group of wealthy middle class women who give money to desperate women. Small things matter when you are middle class in 1912. Arthur bought the same port as Geralds dad, hoping to impress him. It doesnt because Gerald doesnt recognise the port. Sybil disapproves of her husband saying what good food it was in front of Gerald. Playing golf with the Chief Inspector is something that Arthur thought would impress Inspector Goole. These little things matter to Mr and Mrs Birling beca use they show the world that you have a place in the social hierarchy; the more refined the ritual, the higher up you are. The middle class do a lot of hiding and repressing,  they dont speak about certain things, for example, prostitution; I see no point in mentioning the subject. The Birlings try to hid Erics serious drinking problem; Sheila had it worked it out but his parents didnt want to know. Sybil acts as if the working classes are a different species. She is obsessed with her social status, she refuses to believe that Eva/Daisy turned down Erics money because it was stolen, saying that a girl of that sort does not have fine feelings and scruples. Sybil is a cold person, and has probably repressed emotion all her life in the name of fitting into society and its not surprising she gets very distressed and collapses into a chair at the end. The class system of the early 1900s was wrong. This hierarchy of social class was based upon hypocrisy, lies and selfishness; it used an d abused those lower down, then threw them out if they became inconvenient and no longer useful, like Eva/Daisy. The Inspector warns that if they dont accept responsibility for each other, because they are all equal, it will all end in fire, blood, and anguish. Another theme Priestley chose to include in his play is Happy Families. They pretend to be happy, the mother and father are in control and the son and daughter mange light-hearted acceptable teasing. The meal finishes, so the ladies withdraw to the drawing room, to let the men talk. All the paranoid tension is in there, brewing, but is only shown in very subtle ways, for example, Sheila teases Gerald half playfully, but also half seriously, about last summer. Mrs Birling corrects her husbands social mistakes, for example, saying to Gerald that the food was nice. The family is left in a mess at the end of the play. Eric says he doesnt care whether he stays or leaves, he tells his mother that she doesnt understand anything and Eric calls his dad a bad father; youre not the kind of father a chap could go to. Shelia says she wants to get out of the family discussion because it frightens her, and she doesnt know whether she will every marry Gerald. The family is in a mess, and Sheila and Eric refuse to go on behaving just as we did. They dont want to pretend anymore and the parents no longer have any authority other their kids. The children end up thinking for themselves, the Inspector tries to make everyone equal, which destroys the family. Once Mr and Mrs Birling lose control, the family disintegrates. An Inspector Calls is set in 1912 and was written in 1945, The First World War would start in two years. Birlings optimistic view that there would not be a war is completely wrong, and The Second World War ended on 8th May 1945. People were recovering from nearly six years of warfare, danger and uncertainty. In 1912, there were strong distinctions between the upper and lower classes, and in 1945 class distin ctions had been greatly reduced as a result of two world wars. In 1912, women were subservient to men. All a well off woman could do was get married; a poor woman was seen as cheap labour and in 1945 as a result of the wards, women had earned a more valued place in society. Finally, in 1912, the ruling classes saw no need to change the status quo, and in 1945, there was a great desire for social change. Immediately after The Second World War, Clement Attlees Labour Party won a landslide victory over Winston Churchill and the Conservatives. The detective genre was popular in 1945; Priestley needed to create a play that held the interest of the audience. The typical detective play elements are all contained but cleverly described. The play is structured so that the audiences attention is maintained by talking about one character at a time and giving out little bits of information at a time, the time to read the play is the time that all the events in it happen. Priestley opens the play in the middle of a conversation, which engages the audience immediately because they want to figure out what is going on. When Inspector Goole arrives, the atmosphere becomes tenser and at first, the family seem happy to help, but then a few minutes later, everything changes. Arthur wants the Inspector to leave weve been modestly celebrating†¦ Geralds †¦engagement to my daughter, Sheila. We see intervals at the end of each act, and at the end of each act, Inspector Goole either says something, or does something and each act ends on a cliff-hanger which is done to create tension at the end of an act. The end of the play is the biggest cliff-hanger though, when Arthur answers the phone to find out that a second Inspector is on his way and that they thought was just a hoax was in fact true. Ending the play on a cliff-hanger makes the audience want to watch more and enable them to find out what happens next, and they are left thinking about the play and its meaning afterwards. The cliff-hanger technique is continued to keep the play focused and concentrated on one subject, it also draws in the attention of the audience and raises the tension. Only one setting is used throughout the duration of An Inspector Calls, the Birlings dining room which is where all the action takes place. The effect this has is that it is quite claustrophobic in there and the tension mounts up easily. They are all confined, and confess the sins they have committed in the outside world. Men do all the prestigious work; they own companies (for example, Birling and Company and Crofts Limited). Sheila and Geralds engagement may lead at some stage to a business merger; Mr Birling hints at this. Throughout the play the audience is interested in character development. Arthur Birling likes to be in control, but as the play continues, it becomes clear that he isnt. At the beginning of the play, Arthur is in charge of everything, even the port they are drinking! He is a public figure in Brumley and is obsessed with his status in the community. Birlings family is falling apart, and he can do nothing about it. Sybil stays loyal to him at the end and stands by him. An Inspector comes in uninvited and asks blunt and insulting questions. Eric turns out to be disloyal both as a son and an employee. Eric stole money from the company to solve his problem and says, youre not the kind of father a chap could go to when hes in trouble. By the end of the play Sheila is also no longer his obedient child; she learns and matures and is disgusted by her fathers refusal to accept responsibility for his actions. When the Inspector is in Birlings dining room, there is a battle going on between them . Arthur wants the Inspector to behave according to the rules of his own narrow world. He tries desperately to win the Inspector over, for example, Arthur offers him a glass of port. The Inspector refuses. Arthur says he plays golf with the Chief Inspector. Inspector Goole simply says, I dont play golf. Furthermore, Arthur tries to impress the Inspector with his record in public office (Lord Mayor Etc.). Inspector Goole says nothing. The Inspector does not share Birlings middle class values, Arthur proudly introduces Gerald Croft of Crofts Limited; the Inspector seems unimpressed. Arthur says to Sheila that the Inspector is going to leave. The Inspector contradicts him by saying Im afraid not. Mr Birling gets angry when Inspector Goole says Sybil is not telling the truth. Arthur is a very shallow man, he is obsessed with how things appear to people and his main concern is how his public image is going to be affected. He doesnt want the story to come out and ruin him for good. Birlin g is prepared to pass off Gooles visit as a hoax, which means nothing has changed for him. He is selfish and self-centred; he cant see why his children cant go on living as they were before. As a wife, Sybil is rather successful; she is loyal to Arthur, despite telling him off now and again. As a mother, she is something of a failure because she doesnt notice Erics alcoholism or any of the other problems until it is too late. Sybil Birling is stubborn and hard-hearted; she is a complainer and is very negative. She refuses to help Eva/Daisy because she uses the Birling name. She is slow to see that Gerald took Eva/Daisy as his mistress and she shows no remorse; I did nothing Im ashamed of. Furthermore, Sybil is a complete snob; she dismisses Eva/Daisy as just another girl of that class. Mrs Birling doesnt believe that a girl can have fine feelings and scruples. She cannot believe that a girl of that sort would ever refuse money. Basically, she thinks that the working/lower class are morally inferior. Mrs Birling is uncooperative with Inspector Goole; she sees him as an intruder and finds him rude and assertive. She tries to make him feel inferior, of course my husband was Lord Mayor only two years ago. She finds him impertinent for taking Sheilas side against her; Sheila tries to warn her mum about building up walls between herself and Eva/Daisy, and the Inspector agrees, making Mrs Birling look stupid. When the Inspector is interrogating her she denies that she recognises the photo and the Inspector accuses her of lying. At first she answers reluctantly. He asks her if there was a committee meeting two weeks previously; I dare say there was, she replies. Mrs Birling doesnt change at all throughout the play. She wants to challenge the Inspector and his views to suit hers. Sybil notices that Eric and Sheila have changed their views, but she still sides with Mr Birling. Miss Birling seems to be the perfect daughter in act one. The stage directions say she is very pleased with life and rather excited. She uses slang expressions like squiffy and says, dont be an ass which her mother disapproves of, (but its all quite light-hearted because its such a happy occasion). Miss Birling is excited about her engagement; she adores her ring and is distracted by it. At the start of Act One, she behaves appropriately, gets lots of attention and seems happy. Sheila was jealous and vain in Milwards, she loves shopping, especially at Milwards, it is her favourite shop and both she and her mother have accounts there. But last January, something happened that made her behave in a terrible manner. Sheila, for some reason was in a bad temper and says it was my own fault. She tried a particular dress on, although her mother and the assistant said it wouldnt suit her. Eva Smith held the dress up against herself to illustrate a point, and she looked very attractive in it; the dress really suited Eva, but it didnt suit Sheila. Miss Birling saw Eva smiling at the assistant, and interpreted this as doesnt she (meaning Sheila) look awful. Sheila reported Eva to the manager and threatened to withdraw her account if the girl wasnt sacked. Back then, the big customers, like Sheila were always right, and Eva was sacked straight away. Throughout the play, she doesnt act childish like she did at Milwards, getting Eva back was a bitchy thing to do, just for the sake of one random smile. Sheila is rich and she has got power, so she used it, but; she regrets her behaviour and she says its the only time that sort of thing has happened; Sheila seems genuinely remorseful and seems to have learnt a lesson. Miss Birling is different from the other, she is totally appalled by the death of the girl and when she realises her part in the tragedy (when she recognises the photograph) she runs out of the dining room crying. The Inspectors revelations change her for good, bef ore Gerald leaves to take some air, she hands back the engagement ring, saying that they are changed people; you and I arent the same people who sat down to dinner here. After the Inspector leaves, however, her parents want everything to return the way it was. Sheila is the only one who truly understands what has happened, and sees they all have to change. Sheila becomes a bit like the Inspector herself, she adopts some of the Inspectors techniques, she asks Gerald as many questions as the Inspector himself does, she reveals Erics drinking problem to her mother and at different times contradicts or puts down her mother, her father and Gerald, like the Inspector does. Overall, Sheila is a wise woman. There are clues that Eric isnt quite right, the first hint comes from Priestleys stage directions. We are told that Eric is not quite at ease. He is apparently half shy and half assertive. He finds things his family says funny, even when there is no joke; this shows he is out of place, or drunk. He has guilty secrets; firstly he is a drinker, a heavy drinker. He got a prostitute pregnant, and has stolen money from his fathers business to support her. Eric doesnt seem to be loved very much by the others, his father still sees him as a boy. Arthur wishes Eric was more like Gerald. Sheila seems to care about him, but mostly seems to pity him because he is in a mess. She doesnt try to help him, she just says, I dont want to get poor Eric into trouble†¦ but†¦ In going to the stalls Bar, Eric is only doing what all middle class men with money are expected to do. Eric is the villain and the victim, he doesnt have many friends; people who would stick up for him. He feels isolated a nd unsupported. He has had a neglected childhood and has had to find comfort elsewhere. The audience generally forgives Eric, he accuses the others of pretending nothings happened, you lot may be letting yourselves out nicely. Most importantly, Eric accepts responsibility for what he did, the fact remains that I did what I did. Gerald is like a mini-Arthur, but not quite as bad, he agrees with Birling on politics and women and laughs at his joke about getting into trouble. Mr Croft supports Arthurs sacking of Eva Smith; you couldnt have done anything else. Gerald does have secrets though; he hasnt been honest with Sheila and thinks he can fob her off by saying, all right. I knew her. Lets leave it at that. Gerald thinks he fell in love and gets upset about Daisy. He is distressed when it suddenly hits him that she is dead. He says he didnt feel about her as she felt about me. Gerald helped Daisy, for six months. He says he took pity on her and helped her, but he didnt feel so selfless about it that he wasnt prepared to start sleeping with her after a while. It is hard to see Gerald as good or bad, the Inspector wasnt too harsh on him. He notes that at least Gerald had some affection for her and made her happy for a time. Eva Smith/Daisy Renton, her first name is a bit like Eve, the first woman according to the bible. Her second name, Smith, ordinary and very common. The Inspector says there are millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left and their chances of happiness are intertwined with our lives. The subject of the play is not Eva/Daisy; the focus of the attention is the five people sitting around the table at the beginning. Evas looks may have been her downfall; she had big dark eyes and soft brown hair. Arthur Birling remembers her as a lively good-looking girl. Sheila remembers her as very pretty. Gerald remembers in the Palace bar she looked young and fresh and charming. Eric remembers meeting her there too and that she wasnt the usual sort. Sybil Birling doesnt say anything about her looks; she probably thinks a working class girl has no right to be pretty, based on her other views. All of Eva/Daisys jobs got taken away from her. First, she was a factory worker at Birling and Company. A Shop assistant at Milwards, she worked there for a couple of months and Sheila got her sacked. She was a prostitute and then a mistress to Gerald. He rescued her from the life of a working prostitute and put her up in a flat, gave her money and slept with her. This made her happy, until Gerald dumped her. Eva/Daisy ended up back as a prostitute. The audience dont find out whether Eva Smith and Daisy Renton were in fact, the same person, so at the end of the play, this is what they are left thinking about. There are reasons why Gerald claims there were lots of different girls. Gerald says, there isnt any such inspector. Weve been had. Geralds key point is Weve no proof it was the same girl. He says, for all we know, the Inspector could have shown us all a completely different photograph. Eva/Daisy never sought revenge, so the Inspector did it for her. The Inspectors manner is deceptive, the stage directions tell us that he need not be a big man but he must create an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness. His authority strengthens his strong moral tone; he can cut into the dialogue with authority, as he does when he tells Birling that Eric can wait his turn. He speaks firmly when he contradicts Birling and allows Eric to have another drink. He gets more impatient and irritated as the night continues; just as the two parents show their own impatience and intolerance. Goole reveals new information that moves the play on, he starts it all off with a summary of the afternoons events, he moves Geralds account of events on by bluntly saying that Gerald decided to keep Daisy as his mistress. The inspector uses emotive language, he has come to stir things up. His descriptions of Eva/Daisy do this, he describes her as a pretty and lively girl who died in misery and agony; hating life. Goole says to Mrs Birling, that Eva/Dai sy was alone, friendless, almost penniless, desperate and all that she did was slammed the door in her face. The Inspector has an ally in Sheila; she does some of the Inspectors work for him by freely confessing her part in the Eva/Daisy story to everyone. She questions Gerald once she suspects, from his reaction, that he knew Daisy Renton. Sheila warns her mother not to go building up a wall, as the Inspector will knock it flat. Gerald reacts when Goole mentions the name Daisy Renton, then the inspector leaves the room. Gerald is left in shock, the genius of the inspectors exit is that it leaves Sheila alone with Gerald, and she then takes over the inspectors role and interrogates Gerald. His final exit is really dramatic; first he goes over all the nasty details for the final time and gives them a big lecture. Second, he makes them all feel guilty, and Mrs Birling collapses into a chair; his speech shows the full implications of what they did. Lastly, he tells them how their actio ns affect the whole world, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish. Good night. Then he just leaves, leaving them staring, subdued and wondering. The genre of An Inspector Calls is Drama. The play is very dramatic through many different ways. The audiences attention is sustained during the performance by releasing a bit of information at a time using one character at a time.