An Inspector Calls Essay

The play An Inspector Calls was written by John Boynton Priestly, it was set in 1912 and the play begins in the Birling household. An Inspector Calls is about a murder mystery for a young woman named Eva Smith. There is an Inspector, who is named Inspector Goole who plays a vital part in the play and has caused intrigue for many audiences.

The Inspector has a dramatic function that he creates with the plot and the way he questions the other characters; “And so you used the power you had, as a daughter of a good customer and also of a man well known in the town, to punish the girl just because she made you feel like that?” The verb ‘used’ depicts how the inspector doesn’t feel bad for shaming the Birlings when interrogating them, and he doesn’t

He does this by using a didactic style whilst talking to the Birlings; “You’re offering money at the wrong time, Mr Birling.” The word ‘wrong’ suggests to the audience that there was a correct time to be offering money, for instance when Eva Smith was protesting for a higher salary when working for Mr Birling. However this quote also shows us that the Inspector isn’t looking to punish the Birlings in a typical legal way, like how they expected, but in a moral way where they have to think about what they have done. Another way we can see the Inspector moral role is how he feels sympathetic towards Eva Smith; “a young woman, just out of her teens, pretty, and

The main role of the inspector throughout the play is to teach the Birlings and the audience about the importance of social responsibility and that whoever disagrees will be punished; “if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish” In this quote Priestley repeats the word ‘and’ using a technique called syndetic listing, the repeated ‘and’ suggests prolonged consequences to the Birlings selfish actions and it also creates a ‘drawn out’ effect, showing there drawn out eternal punishments if they don’t change. The words ‘fire’, ‘blood’ and ‘anguish’ imply that the Inspector is talking about hell, this would’ve been impactful for the Birlings as the Inspector can be symbolised as God. This is because of his omniscience and this may have worried the Birlings as a God-like person is talking to them about hell. This also reinforces that the eternal punishment is inevitable for the Birlings if they do not recognise their immorality, and the Inspector role is to make them want to change for the better. During the Inspectors final speech Priestly also wants to make the audience feel affected by what is said; “we are members of one body. We are responsible for eachother.” The repeated pronoun ‘we’ tells us that priestly is including the audience in this speech as well as the Birlings this is because Priestly uses the Inspector as his mouth piece, and everything