Kelso High School English Department

‘An Inspector Calls’

Learning Intentions – Act One  Plot / Key incidents  Setting  Characterisation – The Birling Family / Arthur Birling / Sybil Birling / / Sheila Birling / Eric Birling / Gerald Croft / Eva Smith (Daisy Renton) / Inspector Goole  Dramatic Techniques : Tension / Entrances / Exits / Dramatic Irony  Structure : Opening  Stagecraft : One set / Lighting  Themes : Social Class / Social Responsibility / Remorse and Guilt / Reality versus Illusion

Summarising Act one  Bullet point the main points of the plot of Act 1.  Write three bullet points for each of the following characters explaining what you learn about them: Arthur, Sybil, Sheila, Eric,Gerald  From what you’ve read, explain what you think the main themes are and back up your answers with reference to the play.  What do we know about the character of Inspector Goole and what he’s like at this point?

Characterisation: Arthur Birling

Characterisation: Arthur Birling – Act One  Portrayed as a successful and ambitious businessman.  Treats his daughter’s marriage as a business deal  Considers himself to be successful, “ a practical man of business”.  He is positive about the future, “ I say there isn’t a chance of war”. This shows how shortsighted he is.

Characterisation: Arthur Birling – Act One  He likes to be respected. He is well known in Brumley and likes to tell people he used to be the Lord Mayor,  He desperately wants Gerald’s family to like him.  He is used to being in charge.  He does not care about other people. He doesn’t believe in “community and all that nonsense”. He sees working class people as “cheap labour”.  He would rather forget about Eva and protect his reputation than face up to what he had done,

Characterisation: Sybil Birling

 She is very traditional and stuck in her ways about her social class.  She is unfeeling  She thinks that social position is very important  She is Arthur Birling’s “ social superior ”.

Characterisation: Sheila Birling

 Portrayed as child-like and selfish  Her initial treatment of Eva / Daisy could be because she is immature.  Selfish as she used her social position to get Eva / Daisy fired from the shop.  She does appear to have morals: “But these girls aren’t cheap labour – they’re people”.

Characterisation: Eric Birling

 When Gerald jokes that the Inspector might be calling because “Eric’s been up to something ”, Eric acts suspiciously.  This suggests that he is feeling guilty about something, even though we don’t know what he has done until much later.  Uses Eric’s strange behaviour to hint that he is hiding secrets that will damage the Birling family’s reputation.

Characterisation: Gerald Croft

 He is portrayed as respectable  He is portrayed as upper class.  He is socially superior to the Birlings.  He is a younger version of Arthur Birling:  He agrees with Mr Birling about politics, women and laughs at his jokes.  He is also a liar as he had an affair with Eva Smith, but told Sheila he was just busy with work.

Characterisation: Eva Smith

 Silent character  She represents all ordinary, working class women who need help.  The Birlings take away her earnings: Sacked for speaking out. Sacked out of jealousy.

Characterisation: Inspector Goole  He is in charge  He is not bothered about impressing the Birlings so is not worried about how he treats them.  He is a strong character  He is responsible for making the audience feel sorry for Eva. He takes her side.  He controls the play’s actions dealing with one character at a time

Dramatic Techniques - Tension  The Inspector increases the tension by only releasing information bit by bit  Act One ends with the Inspector asking, “Well?” which suggests that he knows Gerald has something to confess.

Dramatic Techniques – Exits  When the characters exit they are usually escaping someone or something – e.g. Sheila runs off the stage when she realises that getting Eva / Daisy sacked might have led to her suicide  Or it’s used to get more information. Inspector leaves Sheila and Gerald so they can talk about what happened.

Dramatic Techniques – Dramatic Irony  When the audience know something that the characters on stage don’t.  Birling thinks the future is bright: 1. He says the problems between workers and bosses aren’t serious, BUT there was a General Strike in He says that the Titanic is “unsinkable”, BUT it sank on its first journey. 3. He says that there definitely won’t be a war with Germany, BUT World War One was about to start.

 PRIESTLEY USES DRAMATIC IRONY TO MAKE THE AUDIENCE THINK THAT ARTHUR MIGHT BE WRONG ABOUT LOTS OF OTHER THINGS.

Structure - Opening Exposition – introduces us to: 1.Characters 2.Background 3.Themes

Structure: Opening  Idea that even before the Inspector arrives it is clear that there are problems.  The way Sheila speaks to Gerald shows she might already have doubts about him.  It hints Eric has a drinking problem.

Stagecraft - Set  The set is cramped (one room) which increases the tension and makes the whole atmosphere of the play seem more intense.

Theme: Social Class  Birling is a rich businessman, but the Crofts are socially “superior” because they inherited land and money.  Eva Smith lost both her jobs because she was abused by more powerful people. They felt more important than Eva because of their social class.  Priestley thinks the class system is unfair for working class people – Eva Smith could represent any working class member of society.

Theme: Social Responsibility  Arthur Birling believes that looking after himself and his family is all that matters.  He wants to pay his workers as little as possible. He doesn’t care about them – he just wants to make more money.  He refuses to take responsibility for the impact he had on Eva’s life.  Shelia realises that getting Eva sacked wasn’t very responsible, but she didn’t do anything about it at the time.

Theme: Guilt  Sheila begins to feel bad about what she did when she realises the effect it had.  Sybil and Arthur stand by what they did and don’t feel guilt as they think they’re superior

Theme Social class Social responsibility Guilt