Character of the Inspector in J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls

Character of the Inspector in J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls

A description of the inspector is given by Priestly as Edna (the

Birling Family house maid) answers the door. It portrays the Inspector

as not being a big man in stature, but he creates “an impression of

massiveness, solidity and purposefulness.” He is a man in his fifties

and is dressed in a plain darkish suit of the period. Even the way he

dresses seems to add to the effect of his dark, deceptive and

mysterious manner. He cross-examines the family as if he were a

forensic scientist, he has a disconcerting and analytic habit of

looking hard at the person he addresses before he speaks to that

person.

His name “Goole” gives a strong ghostly feeling, the way it is

enunciated and the slippery effect it gives off the tongue causes us

to feel the spooky and uncanny nature of his presence. There was

always a question posed that he wasn’t a police inspector at all, as

Gerald finds out at the end of the play when he takes a quiet stroll

and asks if an inspector “Goole” was on the police force. His name

“Goole” suggests to me that he is a shadow that follows you around and

checks up on you. He seems to know all the events that are connected

to Eva Smith’s (or Daisy Renton’s) death. He gives a very cognizant

and knowledgeable impression to the audience and has a profuse effect

on the Birling family in the way he unravels the story as though he

were reading a book. In fact he also claims that he has her diary, in

which he gathered events that happened in her life.

As soon as the Inspector enters the Birling household, he darkens the

mood of the intimate and jolly engagem...

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...inconsiderate, insular and contented. They also liked to

think of themselves united as a family. They were extremely rich and

privileged upper middle class snobs who did anything in order to keep

their money, good fortune and good name even if it meant casting

people aside and hurting them. The inspector made the Birling family

think of members of society other than themselves and he pulled them

out of the safety of their own world, and he showed them the reality

and consequence of their actions. He made them think about how they

were all responsible for each other and also makes the reader think

that we are part of a collective that should help each other when we

are in times of trouble. Priestly gives a strong message that we

should help and care for each other, or we will pay the price in

“fire, blood and anguish.”