How Priestly Makes Pages 40-42 Dramatic in An Inspector Calls

How Priestly Makes Pages 40-42 Dramatic in An Inspector Calls

Introduction

In our English lesson we have been studying the play script 'An

Inspector Calls'. The play is about a family called the Birlings. They

are enjoying a family celebration of Sheila's (daughter of Mr and Mrs.

Birling) engagement with Gerald Croft. Into the happy scene intrudes a

harsh figure of a police Inspector investigating the suicide of a

young working-class woman. Under the pressure of his interrogation,

every member of the family turns out to have a shameful secret which

links them with her death. In the end the family realizes that the

Inspector was a fake. They then get a phone call saying that a girl

has just died in the infirmary and an Inspector is coming over to ask

questions. This shows that the first Inspector was a ghost!

Mrs. Birling

Mrs. Birling is dramatic in many ways. However, reading this extract

there's one thing that I found out, and that is that Mrs. Birling does

not like to be answered back to. The quote shows proof:

"I beg your pardon"

In this quote Mrs. Birling is being snobby and acting like she's above

everyone else. She's trying to say that no-one can speak to her in

such a manner that they are being rude or shouting. The audience may

feel disgusted towards this quote because they get the picture in

their head that Mrs. Birling is nothing but a snobby person and all

she wants is an easy life, but she's making it hard for herself. In

the quote:

"You have a photograph of this girl?"

Mrs. Birling starts to get a bit more afraid of this whole situation

and starts to loose her words a bit. She says this quote in a way that

she's getting a lot more scared now because she now knows that she has

to tell the truth one way or another. So basically she knows that

there's no way out of the whole situation! When the Inspector shows

her the picture she looks hard at it.