An Inspector Calls is a play written by J.B. Priestley in 1945, based before World War I, in 1912. The play is about a family, the majority of whom are aristocrats who live in a capitalist atmosphere; full of lies, pride and pure selfishness. Throughout the play a mystery inspector gradually reveals the characters' true identity, looking at how they all contributed to the suicide of Eva Smith. As the play progresses you begin to see that the characters start to understand their personalities, 'wrong-doings' and problems in a clearer light and each of them, despite differing degrees of transformation, move closer to being a socialist citizen.

Priestley's main concerns at the time of writing An Inspector Calls was the state of society and social inequality; there was a huge gap between the rich and the poor. Priestley was a socialist, whilst the characters that he was trying to convey to the audience were, in general, capitalist. Furthermore, Priestley's play is heavily influenced by his own experiences and emotions; he is attempting to convey the idea of social discrimination to his audience - a familiarity that Priestley knew all too well!

The whole play is based in the Birlings living room where they are celebrating the engagement of daughter Sheila, to her fiancée, Gerald Croft. They are having a dinner party with the Birling family and Gerald, put on not just to celebrate the engagement but because Mr Birling is looking to revolutionize his business to join with Gerald's father, in what Mr Birling sees as a great business opportunity. The atmosphere is very rosy and joyful until an Inspector arrives to question the family about the death of a young girl called Eva Smith. As the inspector discloses what each member of the dinner party did to contribute to Eva's suicide. Each character gets distressed and irate as the inspector turns to them to inform them of how they contributed to her death. Some of the characters are big enough to show remorse and take responsibility, whilst some cannot swallow their pride; are too scared to lose their status, and continue to lie. J.B. Priestley uses these themes to get across his concerns to his audience and the characters. He does this by using, what turns out to be an unofficial inspector.

Characters

The characters in the play are, despite not all been at one extreme end, are on the capitalist side of the spectrum. Mr Birling is the most severe. He is very proud, he is a liar and he refuses to take responsibility for his actions. A typical quote in the play which sums up Birling's personality is, 'all these silly little war scares. They'll be peace and prosperity and rapid progress everywhere'. This shows that Mr Birling is a patronising snob, it shows his naïvety and his inability to see outside his own cocoon.

Next, Mrs Birling. In act one, she gives the impression of been very protective of her children, showing love, which, is not something which comes too freely to Capitalist people. Despite the fact that you'd say Mrs Birling shows pride in the act one, it is not in the same context as her husband uses it. 'Yes, Gerald. Yes, Sheila darling. Our congratulations and very best wishes!' I believe that Mrs Birlings says this genuinely and is therefore showing love.

Sheila Birling is the couple's daughter and she is the girl getting married. Sheila is the most emotional character and the one closest to being Socialist. Unlike her father she is very sympathetic and open-minded. However, despite this, Sheila does show her youth through act one. 'You're squiffy' is a juvenile way of saying 'You're drunk' and 'Oh - it's wonderful! Look Mummy - isn't it a beauty? This shows a playful, joyful and slightly immature Sheila.

Eric, Sheila's brother, is a rather shy and even awkward young man. He is very close to being drunk through act one. Eric also comes across as being quite a strange a weird character, even! Eric randomly laughs, and when asked what he was laughing for, his prompt reply was, 'I don't know - really. Suddenly I felt I just had to laugh.' This shows both mountains of immaturity and influence of alcohol.

Sheila's new fiancée, Gerald Croft is a confident, generally calm, protective and generous young man. Especially towards the beginning of act one, Gerald seems to be very self-secure and elated to be marrying Sheila. However, Gerald does show that he has a lot of pride. He states, 'I insist upon being one of the family now.' This shows that Gerald likes to think of himself as having a lot of authority.

Finally, the character unrelated to the rest of the family - the inspector. Due to the fact that J.B. Priestley is trying to create the impression of Socialist members of society having the upper-edge in this play, the inspector obviously dominates all the characters, making each of them look very silly at times. 'I think you remember Eva Smith now, don't you, Mr Birling?' This shows that the Inspector dominates Mr Birling, making Mr Birling look and feel very small; and emotion that, as a proud man, he doesn't feel too often.

Dramatic Devices

Priestley uses dramatic devices very well throughout his play to convey his concerns and ideas to the audience. The dramatic devices he uses affect the play remarkably. Moreover, the dramatic devices relate to his concerns: lies, pride, love and responsibility. He creates an impression on the audience by using dramatic devices; different devices are used to create different impressions on the audience.

Firstly, a dramatic device that Priestley uses is lighting. The lighting used, changes throughout the play, depending on the situation and the atmosphere. Before the inspector arrives, when the atmosphere is light-hearted and joyful, the lighting is pink, warm and friendly, suggesting that everyone in the room is close together; there is no friction or tension amongst the characters. However, when the inspector arrives, the lighting becomes more intense and powerful, furthering the added impression of extra tension. This impression is backed up in the text, which states, 'Pink and intimate until the inspector arrives and then brighter and harder afterwards'. This shows that the inspector is a bringer of truth - he changes the tone and atmosphere from comfortable to awkward - unmasks the creations of wealth and privilege and exposes the ugly truths underneath society's veneer. The themes or concerns that this aspect of dramatic devices relate to here are lies and pride.

Another dramatic device that Priestley uses to show his impressions and concerns about capitalist people is the set that he has the family based in. Furthermore, the play takes places for the most part in the Birling's living room; a room that despite being vast and expensive, didn't give you the impression of a relaxed atmosphere; they were in a house, not a home. The living room was described in the text as, 'Substantial and heavily comfortable but not cosy and homelike'. Relating this to Priestley's themes, it is clear that this shows pride and wealth. Theses are shown to be meaningless by the end of the play and the events that follow - such as the war.

Next, the structure, or where the play takes place, is a dramatic device that Priestley uses in his play. The play takes place in a very realistic setting at the same time as events would unfold in real life. Due to the fact that Priestley's play was based on something which had already happened, rather than something which could potentially happen, but not be certain to do so in the future, he able to take his own experiences and relate them into his play.

Props are used by J.B Priestley as another dramatic device. He uses the props very well to add different types of tension and to show and relate back to some his different themes. Tension is involved when the prop of the doorbell is used. Edna says to Mr Birling, 'Please sir, an inspector's called'. This adds dramatic tension by providing a new character that is original to the characters and the audience. A way that props are also used in a similar way to this is where Gerald takes the telephone call, to be informed that an inspector will be arriving at the house, there is a large amount of dramatic tension. Showing the wealth and pride of the Birling family, the male members have glasses of port and smoke cigars; port is an expensive drink, typical of what capitalist people would drink and cigars are smoked by wealthy people. This gives the play a realist , naturalistic tone - shows that they have pride, which will eventually bring them down.

Priestley uses stage directions as another dramatic device which helps to establish the characters and the way that they speak to each other. It ascertains how the characters must act - directs emotion and creates tension - the mood is often divided in the way characters speak. Lies and pride which the characters tell and have at the start and which are principally destroyed by the end. Sheila (gaily, possessively), 'I should jolly well think not', this shows that her character is all happy on the outside, but deep inside and under the surface, there is a lot of trouble going on in her mind! Mrs Birling (reproachfully), 'Arthur, you're not supposed to say such things -'. This shows that Mrs Birling is insecure and doesn't want such subjects discussed in front of her children. Finally, on page nine, stage directions are used by Priestley as a way of building up tension: Eric (sitting down) Yes, please. (take decanter and helps himself.) Mother says we mustn't stay too long. But I don't think it matters. I left 'em talking about clothes again. Further down the page, after Birling has spoken to Eric about the representation of women's clothes, Eric gets interested and, (eagerly) Yes, I remember - (but he checks himself). This shows that the stage directions can be used to build up tension, to lead up to something.

Moving on, dramatic irony is used by J.B. Priestley, as another dramatic device to further express his interpretation on capitalist people. The obvious place where this is used, in a very extreme amount is when Birling is making his speech on pages six and seven. The speech shows the Birling's anti-community feelings. The speech is so pride, that the only way to go is down; it setting up a jump, ready for a fall. Birlings speaks about how the Titanic is unsinkable, 'the Titanic - she sails next week - forty six thousand eight hundred tons - forty six thousand eight hundred tons - New York in five days time - and every luxury - and unsinkable'. As I alluded to previously, this statement can only be proved wrong to be acknowledged, if he is correct, the statement simply pales into insignificance - it sets Birling up to be overshadowed. He also states, 'I say there isn't a chance of war'. Both of these statements prove to be wrong and Birling is made to look a fool. This is the kind of reaction or impression that J.B. Priestley will have wanted to make on his audience; one whereby they look at Arthur Birling as a stereotypical capitalist person, and think that he has a lack of responsibility and is immature in his actions and what he says.

Possibly the dramatic device that Priestley incorporates most into his play is dramatic tension. He uses it with a very naturalistic structure, making the device very realistic and plausible. As the inspector slowly reveals the characters have all been telling lies; not been straightforward, friction, agro and a sense of an argumentative atmosphere begin to build up amongst the characters. There is tension as each blunder, contributing to Eva Smith's suicide is revealed. Another type of dramatic tension used by Priestley is that of climax. This is often called or known as a cliff-hanger, and as a reader, it makes you want to read on, or watching the play, it makes you want to see what happens. It is a very effective technique. J.B. Priestley uses this technique right at the end of act one, where it is left with the inspector saying, 'Well?'. The tension comes because it is about to be revealed, how Gerald contributed to Eva Smith's suicide. This is a very effectual to be used for plays, because when it is being acted there will be breaks between each act and therefore the audience are left wanting to know what will happen at the start of the next act.

Finally, the last dramatic device that Priestley uses is style. He uses two styles throughout his play and they both create a different impression on the audience and he includes both of them for different purposes. Firstly, a detective thriller style: this is to do with revelations of how characters are involved in Eva Smith's death and the other, known as morality play. This relates to how much the characters are responsible for their actions and how much guilt and regret they express when the Inspector points it out to them. The style device relates directly with dramatic tension.

Themes

The main reason for J.B. Priestly's play was to portray his concerns about the state of current society. The way he manages to portray this, is by having a number of themes in his play: each theme represents something that Priestley is attempting to show. Some of the themes are typical of capitalist people whilst the others are typical of socialist. The themes can be split up into four simple sections like this:

Lies are a characteristic typical of all capitalist people and throughout this play; defamations are used a lot by J.B. Priestley to demonstrate his perception of capitalists. Characters persistently lie to each other, the inspector and themselves; some of them try to think to themselves that they didn't do something for which they were nothing but guilty. The lies can certainly not be disguised as small misinterpretations or even: misrepresentations of the truth. Moreover, there are examples in the play of blatant lying whereby the characters make no attempt to bend the truth slightly - they have no regard for truth whatsoever and are happy to lie inconceivably to each other. Lies have formed the basis of the Birling's relationships with each other, and every one of them, at the start of the play feel that lies are a part of them and there is nothing much wrong with them. However, as the play progresses, the members of the Birling family begin to slowly view thing from a more socialist perspective, hence some of them realising later in the play that lies are nothing but wrong - this proves to be a controversial issue among some of the characters as arguments begin to rage with the lies that are been told! Lies are also told in this play in a slightly different way: they concern the way people define thing like 'respectability' and 'truth'. This kind of lie is what is often referred to as 'hypocrisy'.

The second theme in An Inspector Calls, centred on negatives about capitalist people is that of Pride and Status. J.B. Priestley attempts to create an impression throughout the play that pride will always come before a fall for those people with a capitalist attitude. Moreover, Priestley is looking to make a point to his audience by showing that capitalist people are too proud to show or admit that they made a mistake. This aspect of capitalist people relates back to the Lies theme, because the Birling family are too proud and self-obsessed to realise that they made a mistake. They refuse to admit to it and therefore this results in many lies been told! Only by abandoning false pride can characters arrive at an honest relationship with themselves and each other - but some are unwilling to do this. There pride has become an indulging self-perpetuating fantasy. Some of Priestley's characters, in the play attach a very high importance to their own social status. Furthermore, it is so precious that nothing must threaten their image amongst the rest of society. For them, a high social class, which they are, insulates these characters form the unpleasantness of reality. Characters begin to get particularly worried at the prospect of their actions been made public; they are terrified by a scandal which could irretrievably damage their status among their society and community. The characters get so worried by this because Eva Smith is working-class citizen, considered by capitalists to be of no importance and to have little value. The characters from the Birling family would not like the general society to be aware that they had contributed to the death of someone of a lower-class. It would be deemed to be poor for their image. The play invites and encourages us to question the false reality generated by this conceited attitude.

The themes that I have alerted to here are aspects of personality and character that Priestley is trying to convey, typical of capitalist. However, there are also themes in An Inspector Calls that are emblematic of socialist people and naturally, due to Priestley's opinions and the message he is attempting to portray in this play, the themes focussed here are shown to be very positive and made to look like an aspect of character that a good person should have. Firstly, a theme in Priestley's play is love. Despite the fact that you would think the love portrayed in this play would probably not come from the Birlings themselves, you would be wrong. Furthermore, it is from the Birling family where the love comes. However, the difference is, is that the love comes before the inspector arrives where the atmosphere is rosy and cheerful. There are several types of love the Priestley depicts in this play: husband-wife love, romantic love, filial love of parents, family love of brother and sister and later on in the play a diverse type of love; the Inspector's love of the truth. There are other attributes of love shown in the play. For example: affection, gratitude, loyalty and sexual feeling.

Responsibility is the final theme that Priestley expresses in his play. The play constantly points out the need for a sense of personal responsibility in each and every member of society. The inspector strongly has the view that each character should have a responsibility not only for their individual actions, but also for the way that their actions affect others; to show both empathy and sympathy. As the play progresses, some of the other characters begin to realise that they have to take responsibility for their own actions and they begin to change. These characters who are willing to look at life from this perception act as the communal conscience of the other characters, whose driving concern is self-indulgence. Priestley's characters all react to guilt in different ways, when it is revealed to them. Moreover, some react in a way where they appreciate their misgivings and mistakes and they realise their 'wrong doings' were inexcusable, but the majority react in a way where they show no remorse or shame for their action; some are so hardened that they refuse even to accept that remorse is appropriate. It is clear that the younger characters are the ones most likely to show repentance for their actions, whilst the older generation refuse to take responsibility. Priestley's style of writing suggests that wrongdoing is like a disease, eating away from the inside. The characters must realise, accept and be responsible for the true results of what they have done, if they are to recover their humanity. It is essential that remorse is offered before healing can begin and forgiveness can take place. If responsibility is not taken for an action for which the characters are culpable, everyone is left in the dark.

Conclusion

In conclusion, J.B. Priestly uses dramatic devices in a very close relation to his concerns about the state of society. Furthermore, throughout the play, or specifically, as I have been focussing on - Act 1, dramatic devices are used a lot. When a certain dramatic device is implemented, it will have a close connection with a concern (or theme). Each quote made will in some way lead back to Priestley's perception of the type of character that he is portraying. The impact that Priestley creates is incredibly powerful and makes the audience full appreciate the difference between the rich and the poor, the capitalists and the socialists and those politically right wing against those politically left wing. I believe that Priestley had an aim to make his audience understand more the vast gap between the rich and the poor. He wanted those on the poor side to continue sharing, continue helping, taking responsibility and telling the truth, but he wanted them to not lay down and accept the punishment that the rich were giving them; almost torture! And, obviously he wanted the play to give the richer capitalist section of the population an eye-opener into what could easily happen if personalities were not changed. J.B. Priestley does a great job in the way that he portrays social inequality and his play will have almost certainly changed the state of society.