Dramatic Devices in An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley

Dramatic Devices in An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley

In 1945 J. B Priestly, a playwright and the author of ‘An inspector

calls’, a mystery set in 1912, set out to forward his message;

Societies need for change. Through his play he uses a number of

characters to represent the class structure of 1912, in which he wants

the audience to compare their lives of 1945 and after 2 world wars, to

before them. Priestly was a strong believer in socialism, a world with

no defiant classes and a society that stood up for each other and took

responsibility for their own actions. His idea was, due to the forever

widening gap between the classes, people are going to suffer as the

higher classes gained more power and took less responsibility for

their actions.

To get across his point he uses a specific character called ‘Inspector

Goole’. Priestly uses this character to point his finger at the way

the Birling’s are and in doing so is pointing his finger at society

it’s self. He shows the Birling’s that they have all done something to

provoke the death of the girl and must start to take responsibility

for their actions. In doing this, by using the death of the girl,

Priestly proves to the audience that the gap between the classes must

be narrowed and that they must take responsibility for their own

actions, after all, no man is an island. Mr. Birling, the island,

tries to cut himself off from the fact that he himself started the

downhill slope that lead to the girl’s death. The same applies to all

the other characters, with the exception of Sheila, who was the only

member of the family to admit to the fact she did wrong and is willing

to tak...

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across are also useful in steering the play, moving the plot forward

and adding to the audiences' interest. For the impact of Priestly

message to be convey successfully to the audience, the audience must

first take notice and become interested in the play. The dramatic

touches employed by priestly help to capture the audience's attention

and express his message more clearly, allowing it to be better

interpreted

From this play I have learnt a lot about the history of socialism and

a lot of arguments for and against it. I have found that I prefer the

way of socialism and the community. I can now see that things have

changed as more people now a day take responsibility for their

actions. I grew up being told by my parents to take responsibility for

my actions and have learnt to do so, unlike the children of 1912.