Who the Inspector Is and How he Orchestrates the Drama in An Inspector Calls

Who the Inspector Is and How he Orchestrates the Drama in An Inspector Calls

The inspector arrives at the Birling’s house at the significant time

when Mr. Birling is making his purposeful speech, “ a man has to mind

his own business and look after himself and his own- and-,” as if he

is answering to what Mr. Birling was saying. The Birling’s family is

very wealthy as Mr. Birling is a “prosperous manufacturer”. In Stephen

Daldrey’s performance, their house is perhaps an Edwardian house on

stilts and slightly distorted, which shows us that their views are not

very straightforward and they are not to be trusted. Mr. Birling is

holding a family dinner party to celebrate the engagement of his

daughter Sheila and Gerald. They are dressed in 1912’s evening

dresses. The men are in tails and white ties which show their high

states and the women are in evening gowns as specified in the text.

The inspector is dressed in 1940’s clothe: a trench coat and a trilby

hat pulled down which is the typical clothes the detectives wore in

1940’s films. It is set in two different periods to help to bring

across the message of the play, as the people in 1940’s reminds us of

responsibilities and guilt because they showed us what had happened

when people did not learn their lesson. The inspector is the focus of

our attention as the lamp post on the cobbled street shines upon him

and casts a great shadow across the stage covering the Birling’s

house. This gives the impression of his “massiveness, solidity and

purposefulness” and also symbolizes the shadow about to cross the

Birlings’ lives. The lighting also changed from “pink and intimate” to

“brighter and har...

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...ce as he delivers us the important massage

“we are responsible for each other”. Priestley has fought in the First

World War and he wrote “An Inspector Calls” in 1944 when he was living

through the Second World War. He saw history repeats itself as people

did not learn their lessons and the heavy price they paid as millions

of innocent people sacrificed their lives. And he wants us to know

that a “chain of events” has long lasting terrible consequences. As

shown in the performance, the inspector stands in the centre of the

stage and talks directly to the audience to show that he is the

conductor of the play, telling us that we have to be responsible and

look after each other. The inspector is a collective conscience as he

brought the Birlings to the realization of their responsibilities and

guilt and also to us as well.