An Inspector Calls Writing a LOT about a LITTLE

You have 45 minutes to respond to a question on ‘An Inspector Calls’. You will have a blank copy of the play in the exam. The last thing you want to do is to waste time looking for quotations. This play is great to write about in the exam as it has stage directions at the beginning that describe the setting and give information about each of the characters, so no matter what question you get, the stage directions are likely to have useful quotes for you to use.

ACT ONE The dining room is of a fairly large suburban house, belonging to a prosperous manufacturer. It has a good solid furniture of the period. The general effect is a substantial and heavily comfortable but not cosy and homelike. (if a realistic set is used, then it should be swung back, as it was in the production at the new theatre. By doing this, you can have the dining- table centre downstage during act one, when it is needed there, and then swinging back, can reveal the fireplace for act two, and then for act three can show a small table with a telephone on it, downstage of the fireplace; and by this time the dining-table and it chairs have moved well upstage. Producers who wish to avoid this tricky business, which involves two re-settings of the scene and some very accurate adjustments of the extra flats necessary would be well advised to dispense with an ordinary realistic set if only because the dining- table becomes a nuisance. The lighting should be pink and intimate until the INSPECTOR arrives and then it should be brighter and harder.)

At rise of curtain, the four Birling's and Gerald are seated at the table, with Arthur Birling at one end, his wife at the other, Eric downstage and Sheila and Gerald seated upstage. EDNA, the parlourmaid, is just clearing the table, which has no cloth, of the dessert plates and champagne glasses,etc, and then replacing them with decanter of port, cigar box and cigarettes. Port glasses are already on the table. All five are in evening dress of the period, the men in tails and white ties, not dinner-jackets. Arthur Birling is a heavy-looking, rather portentous man in this middle fifties with fairly easy manners but rather provincial in this speech. His wife is about fifty, a rather cold woman and her husband's social superior. Sheila is a pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited. Gerald croft is a attractive chap about thirty, rather too manly to be a dandy but very much the well-bred young man-about-town. Eric is in his early twenties, not quite at ease, half shy, half assertive. At the moment they have all had a good dinner, are celebrating a special occasion, and are pleased with themselves.

“the four Birling's and Gerald are seated at the table, with Arthur Birling at one end, his wife at the other” Comments on the status of women – Mrs Birling is not seated alongside Arthur – she is removed. She is referred to as ‘his wife’ – not by her name The two parents are controlling the family (one at each end), suggesting it’s the older generation vs. the younger there is a division in the marriage – Sybil later explains to Sheila that she will have to put up with Gerald being absent Shows clearly that the family are not all as one body – they are in separate units

The lighting should be pink and intimate until the INSPECTOR arrives and then it should be brighter and harder.) Feminine? Could suggest this is a play about women. Eva is the victim of men and other women. Shiela is the closest at the end to enlightenment Rose-tinted, shows that the Birlings are delusional: they think they are special, above the law, that they way they treat others doesn’t matter. The Inspector come to show them they are wrong. Hard and bright: optimistic in the future? Can we look forward to a better world at the end of the play. Light can symbolise truth – the inspector ‘sheds light’ on the characters and their flaws like in an interrogation room

The same can be said of the end of the play – this is where we see the impact the Inspector has made on each of the characters, and the author’s message comes through.

“As they stare guiltily and dumbfounded, the curtain falls.” They all feel guilty – the young and the old – evidence that they will change their behaviour? Does this suggest that society will have a more positive future? Or, will they hide their guilt so that the audience sees it, but the other characters don’t. This interpretation means that they may continue to behave the way they always have been The curtain falls – like a guillotine. The guillotine was an instrument used for chopping off the heads of the nobility. In this play, the upper classes could be seen to be taken down a notch as a revolution occurs and the working classes rise.

Priestly’s Purpose Priestly is a socialist (believes that a society should be organised so that we all help each other). When he wrote this play, there weren’t benefits, healthcare for all, etc. Is this a moral or Christian play? There are religious references in the inspector’s final speech. Many of Priestly’s audience would also have gone to church, He is speaking to them in a Christian language that they all understand. He is also a dramatist – he structures the play to build on surprises and irony (e.g. Dramatic irony when Sybil doesn’t see how her son is involved, use of props with the photographs, the change at the end)

A* idea! Advice from the examiner: Pupils write about the characters as if they are real people – they are constructs in order to show the audience a message. Use language that shows that you understand how he organises the drama What if the Inspector is a supernatural idea who has actually killled a girl in orde3r to teach the Birlings a lesson