Author's Message in An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley

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Author's Message in An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley In this assignment I'm writing about the effect Inspector Goole has on the Birling's in the play 'An Inspector Calls' written by J. B. Priestley. Inspector Goole is a mystifying character he comes to the Birling's home without a notification, i.e. a phone call. He shows nothing to prove that he is an inspector, he just tells Edna his name, and we have no indication that he showed Edna any proof. He frequently repeats 'I haven't much time'. His name is clearly a pun on 'ghoul', (ghoul is a spirit or ghost). When Mr Birling starts to make polite conversation, the inspector cuts him off and gets straight down to the reason why he is there, regarding the suicide of Eva Smith/Daisy Renton. He plays different roles in the play. He's a narrator, he tells story of what happened to Eva (filling in the missing parts to Eva's life). He sometimes acts like a real policeman we get evidence of this in some quotes he say's 'One person and one line of enquiry at a time'. But as it seems, he already has things sorted in his mind like he already knows what had happened and he's just making them confess to themselves. The questions he asks are often frank, directly to the point and rude. He isn't afraid of Mr Birling's, as many policemen in those times would have been, because Mr Birling has such a high position. We don't know if the letter, diary, or name change is true or even if it is the same photo he shows to the other characters. He has a good hold over the family and they admit more than they need to. Priestly manipulates our sense of what we expect in a policeman/investigator as he makes Inspector Goole act as how we would expect and policeman/investigator to behave. The range of his question often surprise the others as he makes judgement about their characters which they feel or unusual about in the police inspector.

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