An Inspector Calls

An Inspector Calls
Written by	J. B. Priestley
Date premiered	1 October 1946
Original language	English
Subject	Wealth, Relationships & Morality
Genre	Drama
Setting	The dining-room of the Birlings' house in Brumley (April, 1912).

An Inspector Calls is a play written in 1944–1945 by the British dramatist J. B. Priestley. It shows the inter-connectedness of people in the drama of human existence, and reflects Priestley's socialist views whilst outlining the problems he saw with capitalism. However, it consistently advocates duty and individual conscience, and as such is not so much collectivist as individualist, focusing on the importance of individuals voluntarily helping others.

Characters of An Inspector Calls

Main Characters

Mrs Sybil Birling

Sybil Birling is the mother of Sheila and Eric Birling and, although they are both in their twenties, she describes and sees them as children and often patronizes them. She is astutely aware of the importance of social class at the time, and the varying ranks of the characters. She also is completely oblivious to what is happening to her family and to their feelings. She was the last of the characters to contribute towards the suicide of Eva Smith, after taking offence at the character's posing as a "Miss Birling". This, as the Inspector soon reveals, was merely because she had just finished a relationship with her son, Eric Birling. Mrs. Birling is the social superior of Mr.Birling.

Sheila Birling

Sheila is "a very pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited" with her engagement to Gerald, though she shows herself not to be wholly naïve with her suspicious attitude towards Gerald's extended absence the previous summer, during which time she suspects he might have been having an affair. She begins the play as a playful, self-centered girl who loves attention. She becomes the character who is most sympathetic to Eva's plight, showing remorse and guilt on hearing the news of her part in the girl's suicide. As the play progresses, Sheila becomes more rebellious towards her parents. hello people

Eric Birling

Eric is the child of the family, described as "not quite at ease, half-shy, half-assertive". He does not have an easy relationship with his father. He begins the play being cheerful, enjoying the family occasion although slightly drunk. his involvement with Eva Smith was that he took her home from the palace bar and made his way into to her house, they then made love and supposedly raping her making him the father of her unborn child who was also killed when Eva drank disinfectant to end her life. As well as Sheila, Eric is also sympathetic towards Eva Smith and states that he is "ashamed" of his parents, especially his mother.

Gerald Croft

Sheila's fiancé and son of rival business owner that competes with Arthur Birling's company, but which he hopes to complete a merger with. He is referred many times to be an honest man who does his job proudly. His responsibility in this mystery was that he housed, clothed, fed, and eventually made love to Eva, staying away from his fiancé for the whole summer, the revelation of which causes trouble in his relationship with Sheila.

Inspector Goole

Inspector Goole plays a very big part in this play as the detective investigating the suicide of a girl. The Inspector seems omniscient, and controlling – he often tells the characters "to settle things afterwards" in order to make sure that the conversation is going in the direction he wants and at the speed necessary to enable his well timed departure.

A major part of Inspector Goole's character is that he is an enigma and the reality of the Inspector's character is debated by the characters and literature fanatics alike. However, it is generally interpreted that:

• The inspector may be a figment of the Birlings' drunken imagination, or he simply doesn't exist.

• He might be a ghost hence the name Goole ("ghoul").

• He must have been real, because everything he says is correct.

• He uses the technique of divide and conquer.

Also:

• By the end of the play the Birlings discover that there is in fact no Inspector Goole on the force, so the validity of Goole's claims are diminished massively. However, this does not diminish his words; he is still right, as Eric and Sheila realize.

• The Birlings also realize that due to the arrangement of the photographs he showed each of them, the girl they thought was Eva Smith could have been different girls. Therefore it is unlikely that any one of them actually is dead. But either way, they were still in the wrong for doing these things.

• The play closes as Arthur Birling is called by the local police and finds that there has in fact been a girl that had committed suicide in exactly the way the Inspector describes. However, as she has only died in the prior few moments, the inspector couldn't have possibly known this.

An important part of the play, perhaps intended to stir up emotion among the mainly upper-middle class audience, was the inspector's final speech. The Inspector says that there are many more Eva and John Smiths out there and if people don't learn to look after each other then they will learn in fire and blood and anguish. (This is a dramatically ironic reference to the coming war.)

ALSO: Priestly portrays what a left wing is through the Inspector, and what he thinks a right wing is through Mr. Birling.

Other characters

Inspector Goole: Goole is the name of a seaport town and could suggest that the Inspector is going to "fish" for information: he does this very succesfully be revealing very little to the characters, never showing more that one character the photograph at once and giving them enough "rope" to hang themselves. The Inspector allows the characters to interrogate themselves.

Eva Smith

Eva Smith is the unseen suicide victim whose death is the motivating factor for the entire play. She is portrayed as a moral and kind person.During the play she is given various names under which various of the other characters have known her as well as at least one photograph of her being shown to her acquaintances. This leads some of the characters to believe that she is in fact various women stitched together by the Inspector. Eva's name also represents her class in society; for example, Smith is a very common name: Priestley possibly wanted to convey to the audience that she is representative of all the working class in society.

Notably, Eva doesn't accept stolen money from Eric and asks for money from Brumley Women's Charitable Fund instead. Eva however is also Eric's child's mother.

Edna

Edna is the Birling's maid and appears sparingly in the play. She is used as a device to illustrate the Birlings' attitude to the lower classes and announces the Inspector's arrival.

Alderman Meggarty

Joe Meggarty is high profile character only mentioned by Gerald Croft. He is said to have been in the Palace Bar, a favourite "haunt of the girls of the town", forcing himself upon Eva Smith. Gerald Croft tells Meggarty that there is a telephone call for him in an attempt to get him away.

Production and Release

Stage

An Inspector Calls was first performed in 1945 in two Moscow theatres (as no London theatres were available), then, in 1946, at the New Theatre in London with Ralph Richardson as Inspector Goole, Harry Andrews as Gerald Croft, Margaret Leighton as "Sheila Birling", Julian Mitchell as Arthur Birling, Marian Spencer as Sybil Birling and Alec Guinness as Eric Birling.

The first Broadway production opened at the Booth Theatre on October 21, 1947 and ran until January 10, 1948. The production was staged by Cedric Hardwicke.

Tom Baker played "Inspector Goole" in a 1987 production directed by Peter Dews and designed by Daphne Dare that opened at the Theatr Clwyd on April 14 then transferred to London's Westminster Theatre on May 13, 1987. The cast included Pauline Jameson as "Sybil Birling", Peter Baldwin as "Arthur Birling", Charlotte Attenborough as "Sheila Birling", Simon Shepherd as "Gerald Croft" and Adam Godley as "Eric Birling".

In 1992 the play was successfully revived by Stephen Daldry for the National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre on September 11, 1992 in a production influenced by expressionism and later transferred to the Aldwych Theatre on August 25, 1993 and then to the Garrick Theatre on October 24, 1995; the production starred Kenneth Cranham as "Inspector Goole" (later played by Barry Foster and Philip Whitchurch), Richard Pasco as "Arthur Birling" (later played by Julian Glover, Edward Peel and William Gaunt), Barbara Leigh Hunt as "Sybil Birling" (later played by Judy Parfitt, Margaret Tyzack and Marjorie Yates), Diana Kent as "Sheila Birling" (later played by Sylvestra Le Touzel) and Louis Hillyer as "Gerald Croft". Daldrey's production was transferred to Broadway in 1994, where it ran at New York City's Royale Theatre from April 27 to May 28, 1995. Kenneth Cranham recreated his role as "Inspector Goole" with Philip Bosco as "Arthur Birling" and Rosemary Harris (later Sian Phillips) as "Sybil Birling".

Film

To date, the only film version An Inspector Calls (1954 film) was released in Great Britain by Watergate Productions Ltd with a screenplay adapted from the play by Desmond Davis and directed by Guy Hamilton. Alastair Sim starred as Inspector Goole (called Poole), and the cast included Jane Wenham as Eva Smith, Eileen Moore as Sheila Birling, Arthur Young as Arthur Birling, Brian Worth as Gerald Croft, Olga Lindo as Sybil Birling and Bryan Forbes as Eric Birling.

Television

A three-part television mini-series of An Inspector Calls was produced on the BBC in 1982, directed by Michael Simpson. Bernard Hepton starred as Inspector Goole", and the cast included Sarah Berger as Sheila Birling, Nigel Davenport as Arthur Birling, Simon Ward as Gerald Croft, Margaret Tyzack as Sybil Birling and David Sibley as Eric Birling.

Radio

On July 14, 2007 BBC Radio 7 broadcast an adaptation by John Foley originally aired on the BBC World Service, starring Bob Peck as Inspector Goole, John Woodvine as Arthur Birling and Maggie Steed as Sybil Birling. The production was directed by Rosalyn Ward.

CD

A full-cast unabridged audio adaptation and comprehensive analysis was released on audio CD and MP3-CD in the United Kingdom by SmartPass in 2004 as part of their "Audio Education Study Guides" series. It won the following awards:

• Spoken Word Awards for Best Drama 2004
• Best Original Audio 2005
• Publishing Initiative 2005

The cast of the audio adaptation included:

• David Thorpe as Inspector Goole
• Terrence Hardinman as Arthur Birling
• Pat Gallimore as Sybil Birling
• Sara Bowes as Sheila Birling
• Peter Lindford as Gerald Croft
• Christopher Kelham as Eric Birling

• The PassMaster (the guide to both the play and the analysis) was played by Joan Walker
• The accompanying student was played by Will Hanksworth
• J.B. Priestley's voice and quotes in the analysis were performed by Ben Crowe

Dramatic presentation

• The play is set in the dining room of a fairly large suburban house and revolves around the questioning of a family by Inspector Goole about the suicide of a young woman that the family knew.
• Many events which happen after the play are thought not to be able to happen by Arthur Birling (such as the Titanic being unsinkable and World War II would never happen). These are examples of dramatic irony.
• The play takes place in one set (the dining-room of the Birlings' house), in real time. This is a dramatic device that keeps the audience's attention on the dialogue as well as the timing of the entrances and exits. This conforms to the Aristotlean principles of time, place and action. Foreshadowing is also a large part throughout the play.
• Another dramatic technique is how J. B. Priestley ends his acts. Each time, near the end of the act, the inspector drops a bombshell of information that we are 'forced' to think about in the time we have after the acts. He makes us ponder over all that happened in that act.

Dramatic devices

• the telephone
• the photo
• cliffhanger endings
• doorbell
• lighting
• positions of the family

Use in Education

An Inspector Calls is studied by GCSE English Literature students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and by Standard Grade/Intermediate 2 level English students in Scotland.

Following its first performances, the play received criticism due mainly to the fact that the title character can be interpreted in so many ways, as can the ending.

See also

• Capitalism
• Individualism
• Ethics
• Trade Unions

References

• "GCSE Bitesize English Literature: An Inspector Calls". BBC Schools Online. 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-09.