Scribd
Upload
92 views2 pages

Inspectors Role in Play

The character of Inspector Goole is important to the play in several ways: 1) He acts as a catalyst who questions the characters and forces them to confront their roles in Eva Smith's death, expressing the author's socialist views. 2) He treats each character in an unbiased way to expose their prejudices and shortcomings. 3) He controls the tension and pace of the play by systematically questioning each character separately with seemingly omniscient knowledge of events.

Uploaded by

Katherine Stevens
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
92 views2 pages

Inspectors Role in Play

The character of Inspector Goole is important to the play in several ways: 1) He acts as a catalyst who questions the characters and forces them to confront their roles in Eva Smith's death, expressing the author's socialist views. 2) He treats each character in an unbiased way to expose their prejudices and shortcomings. 3) He controls the tension and pace of the play by systematically questioning each character separately with seemingly omniscient knowledge of events.

Uploaded by

Katherine Stevens
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

How is the character of Inspector Goole

important to the play as a whole?


The character of inspector Goole acts as a monotonous catalyst throughout the play. He foreshadows events
to follow using his cunning psychology to portray Priestley’s political anthology. Although the inspector is
found to be false, somehow he still manages to leave an impression with the other characters, making them
admit to heart-wrenching crimes, questioning their own motifs and acting as a symbol of justice in all aspects
of the play.

Priestley uses the inspector to portray his views of the class system at the time and show his own
observations and views of the political unrest of the period. Written in 1945 but set in 1912, which was the
year of the sinking of the Titanic, "An Inspector Calls" gave Priestly a character through which to express his
socialist views and disrespect for capitalism. The sinking of the Titanic and the reference made to it in the play
is symbolic of capitalist shortcomings. During the questioning of the other characters for their influence in Eva
Smith’s death the inspector believes that everyone is equally to blame, this therefore connoting the theme of
socialism into the play. Another way which Priestley’s political views are addressed in the speech is when the
inspector makes the statement that, ‘one Eva Smith has gone…what we think and say and do.’ This sermon
states the fact that people must live together and sponge off each other’s wealth to help those in need.
Priestley’s view of the world is counteracted by Mr Birling’s complacent views on society and of whom
assumes that his view of the world is the only one that is correct, ‘still I can’t accept responsibility…it would be
very awkward.’ This addresses the fact that Mr Birling does not agree with the socialistic view that everyone
should be equal and be responsible for each other.

Another way in which the inspector becomes an important part of the play is in which he treats each
of the characters with un-biased viewpoints and a neutral mind. This is shown when he questions each
character addressing them each with the same photo and questions and then expanding his questions to suit
each character. He treats each character fairly and gives them a chance to redeem their actions and then uses
more aggressive questioning techniques. This therefore gives the impression that Priestley has used the
inspector as an unprejudiced comparison to the characters of the Birling family. When he questions Sheila he
listens while she admits to having got the girl fired from her employer but then speaks sternly’ to her to gain
an answer.

Following on from these points the inspector can also be referred to as catalyst acting on the plays
plot and script. He comes in between characters yet however joins people at the same time. When he
questions Gerald and Sheila he really gets in-between their close relationship so he can get the answer out of
Gerald; he does this by making sure Sheila is kept in the room during Gerald’s confession, which leads onto
Sheila’s sarcastic answers of, ‘you were the wonderful fairy prince…you must have enjoyed it.’ This leads us to
believe that the inspector has made crucial decisions during the play as to which routes to take with
questioning people. He also tries to keep Eric happy – obviously so he can questions him later – by persuading
Mr Birling to allow his son to have another drink, ‘ I know – he’s your son and this is your house…see him
through’.

The Inspector's role in questioning the characters is a very influential one. He makes the characters
confess their actions and reveal what he seems to already know for example, at the end of Act One, when
Gerald is discussing to Shelia about the time he spent with Daisy Renton last summer. He already knows that
Gerald has something to reveal and that it is just a matter of time: ‘The door opens and the Inspector walks in
looking steadily and searchingly at them. Inspector - Well?'’ He uses a brilliant technique of giving a small part
of the event to offer the character to continue the story. Therefore forcing the characters to open up using

1 Katherine Stevens 11SR


psychology. The inspector leads the characters to confront their own weaknesses; which makes them feel
shocked and guilty, getting them to put across their role in the story of Eva’s death. One major questioning of
Mrs Birling shows us how he set her up to give the answers he needed, as he asks leading questions, ‘was it or
was it not your influence’ he knows that as a respectable women she could not lie. This is also shown as he
uses his ‘research’ to his advantage when asking, ‘Mrs Birling, you’re a member – a…, aren’t you?’ this portrays
the fact that he uses the power of her social class position to his advantage when questioning her.

The Inspector himself adds drama: He controls the pace and tension by dealing with one line of


enquiry at a time. He does this by questioning each of the characters separately but vigorously. There is a lot of
tension as each member of the family is found to have played a part in Eva's death under the inspectors
systematically questioning. New pieces of information contribute to the story being constructed; His method is
to confront a suspect with a piece of information and then make them talk - or, as Sheila puts it, "he's giving us
the rope - so that we'll hang ourselves.", this therefore makes the audience interested in how each character
reacts to the revelations.
A final reason why the inspector plays a vital role in the play is that during the questioning he seems
to know and understand an extraordinary amount. This is shown by the fact that he knows the history of Eva
Smith and the Birling's involvement in it, even though she died only hours ago. Sheila tells Gerald, "Of course
he knows." Another way in which the inspector’s knowledge is shown is by the fact that he knows things are
going to happen - He says "I'm waiting... To do my duty" just before Eric's return; as if he expected Eric to
reappear at exactly that moment. Without this knowledge the play would not have a ‘centre thread’ to run
through.

Overall the inspector obviously plays an important role in the infrastructure of ‘An Inspector Calls’. The most
convincing factor is that he acts as Priestley’s voice because he is shown to portray very strong Socialist views
and in the final speech he fuses together all of Priestley’s ‘thoughts’ into one final rhetorical sermon; like he is
a politician. This also forebodes the war as it is like he is warning people of the result if people do not follow
this ‘way of life’.

2 Katherine Stevens 11SR

You might also like