J. B Priestley's Presentation Of The Inspector In An Inspector Calls

An Inspector Calls ‘An Inspector Calls' is written between 1912 and 1945. In this period of time, society was strictly divided into three classes, lower, middle and upper class. The play was first presented in Russia also know at the time as the Soviet Union in 1945. An Inspector Calls has many hidden messages about social and political problems. This essay will discuss how J.B Priestley portrays and presents the inspector throughout the play, and the tactics he uses to handle a situation.

The play starts off with the Birling family celebrating the engagement of Sheila and Gerald Croft. The doorbell rings, an Inspector by the name Goole enters, he is a formally dressed proletariat, in his fifties dressed in a plain darkish suit. The Inspector

‘One Eva Smith has gone but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us'. In this phrase, the inspector emphasises on the word ‘millions' the inspector is also trying to tell the Birling's that this was only one Eva Smith that you have killed but you cannot kill all of them.

Throughout the play, the inspector likes to antagonise Mr Birling this is because he is a capitalist. Priestley is a broad socialist he tries to express his views of socialism by making the inspector appear as socialist in the play. Even though he does not explicitly mention this in his speech. He believes that people must look after one another, the opposite of what Mr Birling believes.

"We don't live alone. We are all members of one body. We are responsible for each other". (Act three). These three short sentences create tension and a sense of urgency, to know more about what the inspector is going to say. It makes the Birling's feel anxious. This phrase also implies how people should look out for one another and work together. This is also an idea of socialism. The inspector uses the words "we are," he does this to make sure that the Birling family are listening