How Does Priestley Create Tension In An Inspector Calls

‘An Inspector Calls’ by Priestley was written in the 1940's, a little after the end of the Second World War, and it was first performed in 1946, in Russia, then later in England. In this play a tremendous amount of tension was built. J.B Priestley creates these tensions by using stage directions that influence the audience in the way he wanted, he also uses conflict between characters and dramatic irony. The author’s point of view of the history and society is also shown.

J.B. Priestley describes the setting of the scene in full detail to show the atmosphere at the beginning of the play. He carries on with describing the lighting of the play and says that it should be “pink and intimate” which shows the warm and welcoming ambience in the

Priestley uses sound to create silence and control the tension and suspense in the audience and on the stage. In the exposition of the play, while the Birlings are enjoying the celebration of their daughter Sheila’s marriage with one of Mr Birling’s business rival Sir George Croft: “It’s one of the happiest nights of my life… You’re just the kind of son in law I always wanted” suddenly the “sharp ring of the front door bell” makes Birling “stop(s) to listen”. The audience and the characters on stage immediately become quiet and the dramatic silence starts to build up the tension and the suspense. The word “sharp” can symbolise that the Inspector’s entrance is a shock and is the turning point of the play. Another example is the sound effect of the door when Eric leaves and enters the house. This causes even more suspense because the door could be Gerald or it could be Eric, this adds on with the tension of the Inspector interrogating with Mrs. Birling. Dramatic irony is used here because the audience now know that there is no escape for Mrs. Birling

In the end of Act II, he used a cliffhanger to end the act. J.B. Priestley drops clues that Eric is the father of the child. Earlier in the play, Priestley gave Sheila a line that said “No, he’s giving us the rope - so that we’ll hang ourselves” makes a lot of sense now because after the Inspector asked Mrs. Birling ut Eva Smith, her answers can be concluded that it was mainly the father of the child (who she didn’t know that it was her son) to blame. However, she realised later that she had been hanging herself all along and there was no escape now. Again, the silence when she stops and exchanged a frightened glance with her husband. It gradually builds up as they wait, looking towards the door and Eric enters. The curtains then fall “quickly, quick actions leaves the audience still feeling shocked because it cuts off in the middle of an action. J.B. Priestley decided to cut off at this point because it has been very intense over the past few parts of the act and if the tension lasts too long, the audience will start to get used to it and the excitement will no longer be as exciting as it should