Drama at the End of Act Two in An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley
What do you think is particularly dramatic about the section at the
end of Act Two when Mrs Birling is
questioned?
In directing the drama how would you bring out the drama?
The play of Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestley is made dramatic
because it is all about an investigation of a suicide and how each
family member is responsible. That is the whole aim of the play (in
the Inspectors words): “We are all responsible for each other.”
The theme of the play is affected by when the play was produced in
1946, after World War Two when the Welfare State was being introduced.
Priestley supports the topical issues in the play and shows how the
Welfare State is needed by ordinary people. He is also trying to prove
that society is not equal, even after the Second World War.
In this section at the end of Act Two we find out that Mrs Birling
was the final person who drove Eva Smith, who was pregnant at the
time, to her suicide. However we do not yet know how Eric met Eva and
what the circumstances were. This leads to tension and suspense. By
the end of the first two acts, every member of the Birling family (and
Gerald) has been questioned except Eric, so the audience have already
realized that a dramatic pattern is unfolding. Suspense is also
created when Eric left the stage in Act Two because the audience do
not know the reason for his disappearance; this situation leads onto a
dramatic climax when Eric re-enters the stage at the end of Act Two.
However, if you study the Inspector closely,...
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..., whereas in Priestley’s
play he is exploring class division and is showing how everyone is
responsible for Eva’s death. In response to this the family cannot
adapt themselves to face reality. In this section only Sheila can but
further on so can Eric.
This section of the play also leads to Eric’s interrogation which in
turn completes the plays imaginary jigsaw of responsibility. All these
techniques that Priestley uses, contribute to a recreation of
‘courtroom drama’ into the Birling’s household.
Eventually, as the play progresses, the audience begin to grasp
Priestley’s methods of dramatic tension and towards the end of the
section I am studying, the tension transfers inside the audience. This
results in them helplessly wanting to witness Eric’s inquiry and also
wanting Mrs Birling to face her proud snobbery.
one page 11) this indicates that he is a selfish man and cares for his
Eric realises that they all know of Eva and the following events that occurred. He also reveals that he had stolen money from his father’s business.
she needed more money. So she said to him give me 25/6 because of that
they are given a second chance at the end of the play - that their
Wells, both of whom references are made to in the opening pages of the play. A lot of the tension in the play is between Birling and the Inspector, both of who are powerful figures in the household and are both vying for dominance, creating a lot of tension. This is symbolic of the global struggle between capitalism and socialism, the Inspector represents Priestley's socialist views, and Birling, the antithesis of the Inspector represents capitalist views, which is made clear through his speech "the interests of Capital steadily increasing prosperity." When the Inspector is there, Birling is very fast to drop the blame on someone else, insisting "I can't accept any responsibility" which is a complete contrast of what the Inspector says, telling the family to "share the blame among yourselves when I have left" This constant conflict, which is often at the heart of the dramatic genre itself, makes sure there is tension whenever the two characters are talking to each other. This conflict is not the only one within the play.
Victorian rich life out to be less than what it seems. I think it was
Priestley's Social Message in An Inspector Calls The play an Inspector Call’s was written at the time of 1945 but is set in 1912. Priestley conveys a lot of social and important messages in this play. He conveys the messages through the character of Inspector Goole. One most important message that Priestley conveys is about Socialism.
The play begins at Reverend Parris' home, whose daughter Betty is ill. Parris is living with his daughter and his seventeen-year old niece Abigail. Parris believes that is daughters illness is from supernatural causes, so he sends for Reverend Hale. Betty first start to look ill after her father discovered her dancing in the woods with Abigail and his Negro slave, Tituba along with several other local girls. There are rumors going around that Betty's sickness is due to witchcraft. Parris doesn't want to admit to seeing his daughter and niece dancing in the woods, but Abigail says that she will admit to dancing and accept the punishment.
This essay is going to explore why the end of Act Two is so powerful
The history of the time the play was written helps us to understand the views and the feelings expressed by Priestley in the play. The inspector transfers Priestley’s views and he shows the difference in social classes at the time. A gap which he wants to diminish. He illustrates the reason for this in the play, via the inspector, where he outlines the ways each of the Birlings have influenced someone from a completely different background and social class. This is the way Priestley viewed pre-war England.
At the end of the play, the male characters actively fail to get rid of Sutter using their methods of Christian exorcism and violence; “There are loud sounds heard from upstairs as BOY WILLIE begins to wrestle with SUTTER’s GHOST…. BOY WILLIE is thrown down the stairs. AVERY is stunned into silence” (106). From the beginnings of their lineage the males of the Charles family to properly resolve conflict as the women have sat in the back resulting in greater struggles. Bernice realizes this as, “She crosses to the piano. She begins to play… With each repetition, it gains in strength.... The sound of a train approaching is heard. The noise upstairs subsides” (106-07). Taken out of direct application to the play and assessed with society one can assume Wilson believed women to be equally powerful and capable on their own compared to men as none of the living male characters actively attributed to the final resolution as Bernice did. Without her Sutter’s ghost, would continue to haunt them or anyone who the piano was given
In conclusion, Even though both Ibsen and Glaspell are showing the responsible for giving women insight to what their lives could be as an independent person who is treated as an equal, their plays deals somewhat different sight to deals with the problems of the inequality between men and women. In other words, in A Doll’s House, Nora – like many others – begins to realize that she is more than capable of thinking and living for herself. Unlike Nora, however, in Trifles, Mrs. Wright chose to stay married to her unloving and murder her husband. Moreover, unlike what A Doll’s house portrayed, in Trifles, Glaspell shows the power of women can gain by sticking together and looking out for one another in order to improve their social positions from the behavior of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters.
Birling is presented as a self-centred capitalist very early on in the play. His pleasure in the marriage of his daughter is purely for his own profit. "Now you've brought us together and perhaps we may look forward to a time when Crofts and Birling are no longer competing but are worki...
The play’s major conflict is the loneliness experienced by the two elderly sisters, after outliving most of their relatives. The minor conflict is the sisters setting up a tea party for the newspaper boy who is supposed to collect his pay, but instead skips over their house. The sisters also have another minor conflict about the name of a ship from their father’s voyage. Because both sisters are elderly, they cannot exactly remember the ships name or exact details, and both sisters believe their version of the story is the right one. Although it is a short drama narration, Betty Keller depicts the two sisters in great detail, introduces a few conflicts, and with the use of dialogue,
...her defiance to no longer comply with the gender constructions of society. Ibsen, therefore, criticises society’s compliance with the constructions of the culture and urges us to be more like Nora is at her epiphany. Lady Bracknell is memorable for her comically masculine traits and character. Not only does Wilde shatter our gender expectations, but ridicules the compliance of individuals in the performances that they make for society. Both plays raise questions regarding the submission of men and women to society’s presumptions and pressure regarding gender, and criticise individuals for conforming without asking questions. Each play makes us question our own performances for society and the performances of others in our lives. Nora’s realisation that she has married a construction is as unnerving now as it was to its contemporary audience because it forces us to look at our own behaviour and that of others around us, presenting us with a frightening and menacing awareness that we also may be existing in false and constructed lives.