The Inspector in An Inspector Calls Essay

Priestly uses the role of the inspector to create tension on and off the screen. What have the characters and audience members been forced to question about life though this mysterious man. Refer to numerous stage techniques.?

The play An Inspector Calls is a complex play using the inspector to create tension and question life and many things about the morals and ethics of society and the role of the upper class society. Playwright John Priestly has used various stage techniques to demonstrate a point and teach the audience about relationships, responsibility and social conscience and society and status and through these lessons he has altered the audiences perception of life and made them question right and wrong in society today.?

Throughout the play the inspectors tense interrogation bring out the harsh truths of the relationships within the Biriling family, these realizations make audience members question their own relationships within society. The Biriling family is structured on a crumbling base of false relationships. Each person has built up walls in order to hide things from one another and make their appearance to others seem cleaner. However when the inspector calls and one by one breaks down the barriers surrounding the friendships and relationships in the family, the audience questions what should drive a friendship and what you should and shouldnt hide. The relationship of Gerald Croft and Sheila Biriling, is on the surface a happy and strong relationship. They are recently engaged and have a promising future. However we see by the end of the play the affairs and secrets that have surrounded the relationship cause it to crumble under pressure teaching the audience that secrets will never help a relationship and when the secrets come out it will be all the harder to bear. This point is reflected in the wall motif commonly referred to throughout the play. Priestly compares built up secrets to be as strong as a wall. Thats what I meant when I talked about building up a wall thats sure to be knocked flat. It makes it all the harder to bear In this quote Shelia is referring to the two truths of hiding secrets in relationships. The more that you try to build up a wall the more it hurts when it come crumbling down. Also if we look at the inspector as a 'moral guide' we could see that perhaps it is inevitable for your conscious or morals to come in the way of your wall eventually in order for a real relationship to form. This technique of the extended metaphor throughout the play gives built up lies and secrets a face and makes them seen as more of a reality in the play. Also the staging technique that the play was all set in one room regards the metaphor. It is because in this room all of the walls are broken and all of the truths are told there is no longer walls separating everyone they are finally all together on the same side.? Another question bought up during the play is what motivates a relationship, and is it right to use someone who is a friend. Two examples of this are when Mrs Biriling alludes to the fact that she had to deal with her husbands discrepancies during their marriage and he had an affair. This is expressed in her quote youll have to get used to that, just as I had here she is comparing her relationship with her husband to that of shelia and gerald. To many this begs the question why would you stay in a relationship with someone who is hurting you, is it simply to use them. Is it right to use an empty friendship in order to only benefit your self. These questions were alluded to by the inspector and often questioned in the tensions he created on and off the stage between the characters. Overall Priestly has used the Inspector to expose the truths about relationships in upper class societies and the barrier that lies and secrets create, also questioning the use of a friendship, the audience has left the play with much to ponder about friendship and question about their own personal relationships.

Perhaps the most important message that people take from this story is of responsibility and social conscious. So many times in society people often forget what they do will almost always affect someone else, and thought-out this play the audience comes to a realization that it is never morally right to forget about the others whose lives you influence, and you should always remember that actions have consequence. Every character in the play was connected to the death of Eva Smith in a negative way. Weather they had cheated, lied, or unrightfully turned her away the audience realizes that one thing that can be so small to one person can have a life changing effect on someone elses. Priestly uses the inspector, this mysterious and somewhat otherworldly character to draw the truth out of people and make them realize what they have done. He lectures them on ethics and morals uses these speeches to not only influence the characters, but to also influence the audiences perceptions on society. We see from the reactions of the characters in the play, a spectrum of different reactions that will often parallel to that of the attitudes in upper class societies of the time. These notions of a community being interconnected and the effect of responsibility are commonly reflected in powerful lessons taught by the inspector. These statements include We do not live alone We are responsible for each other. Also in this play the idea of responsibility is often questioned. Typically the role of a parent is to raise their children with the right moral and ethical values. However in the play it becomes highly ironic in the end that the children are the ones teaching the adults about responsibility. Shown in Sheilas quotes its you two who are being childish- trying not to face the facts and the point is, you dont seem to have learnt anything. These end truths that come out make the audience question age vs wisdom. And does it necessarily mean that if you are older you are wiser. The inspector alludes to the fact that the older generation is more hesitant to change that questions many things on how the audience treats the old community of the society. Finally another point was raised about the idea of a social conscious and what this means. It has often been suggested that the inspector is merely a projection of there minds meant to represent their conscious. This is why when he gives the quote if you easy with me, im easy with you, This quote has been dissected in a number of ways but if you look at it as if the inspector is moral conscious it can reflect someones relationship with there conscious. For example if you are easy throughout life and you live your life well you will succeed and have a good strong life with a clear conscious. However ever if you do bad things throughout your life your conscious will be marked making it harder to get thought life. however it also implies that if you have done wrong but then admit it and take responsibility for your actions you can still redeem yourself because you will have learnt your lesson. When leaving the play the audience and characters have questioned a lot about responsibility and social conscious through the intense questioning and tensions brought about by the mysterious inspector.

Finally thought out the play the audience questions the benefits and negativities associated with social status, and how it is easy to abuse your position in society without even thinking about it. It is these questions that audience is left questioning about life after the inspector has left the stage. Social status is a highly sought after concept in this modern day world, a good job, wealth and family are transformed into the image of a perfect life. However many people forget that this achievement and position comes with responsibility and you should never forget that every one is human and no matter there wealth or race you have to treat them fairly with respect. This is a harsh reality the Biriling should have realized before they led a girl to her suicide. Each person in the family had abused their position in society and somehow used it to corrupt this young girls mind into making her feel worthless and depressed. The inspector taught the family yet another lesson on what they should do. When he said, public men have responsibility as well as hit this quote was the powerful statement that led many people to originally question how much being affluent affects you and what responsibility comes with. It was originally suggested in the stage directions say the dining room of a fairly large suburban house, belonging to a prosperous manufacturer, and then continued with the arrogant attitudes of the parents in the Biriling family. Not until nearer the end of the play during the inspectors last address he says We dont live alone. We are members of one body. We are all responsible for each other. In this quote he has reflected though a metaphor how like a human body we need to work together to stay alive and live the best way possible and although some parts of the body are viewed as more important without one another the system the body would simply not work, it is a difficult truth that the Biriling family had to face. The Biriling family often let their social status blind them in regards to how they viewed the lower class of society. This is shown especially in the older generations of the family. For example when Mrs Biriling didnt believe her story about not want to take money, and because of this she turned her out on the street feeling no remorse for her actions. It is these kinds of people and their attitudes towards lower class society that can have detrimental affects, and this is the point that the inspector is trying to make in his final speech. He expresses to the audience that we all need to look after each other life a really community and everyone is should be treated equal in order to attain balance in a community. Itwas his wise words and the subsequent tension that he created on and off the screen that left the audience questioning how they treated people in their society and perhaps made them feel as if they should be more open and forgiving in the future.

The main message of this play is not who or what the inspector is, it is more the life lessons and the questions that come from the play. Priestly has used the inspector and the setting to convey to us there is no convient time to be inspected for what you have done and at the end of the day it is yourself you have to live with. Therefore Preistly has used the inspector and many techniques merely as tools to show us the larger truths about relationships, respondisibliy and social conscious and society and social status, and he has left the audience forced into questioning and pondering the truths of their society and their lives and this is the most powerful message of all.