Inspector Goole in J.B.Priestley’s play, An Inspector Calls

What is the function of Inspector Goole in J.B.Priestley’s play, An

Inspector Calls?

An Inspector Calls was written in 1945 by John Boynton Priestley. The

play was set in 1912 two years before the first world war so from this

their would have been irony as the audience would know. The play is

set in a dining room in the Birling’s residence in Brumley, North

Midlands which was a fictional industrial city. At the time the play

was set the world was a very class conscience place with higher and

lower class depending on one thing: money. The country was set up in

two categories with the socialists which consists of the Political

System in which ways of community and sharing are promoted and

capitalists which is the political system which values private

ownership and the individual. The country really was involved around

capitalist values. For example there was no welfare state. In this

essay I will be focusing on the main functions of the inspector. The

inspectors role is a key to the plot and conclusion and delivers

morals and principles and how the functions of the inspector get used

in specific places throughout the play.

The play opens with the Birling family and Gerald celebrating the

engagement of Gerald and Sheila. It is dramatically effective because

you get to see all the characters in one room therefore seeing their

personalities, instead of them being introduced one-by-one. They are

celebrating and at ease which means they are a little bit drunk. The

mood is very relaxed and everyone having a nice time. From the stage

directions it says the mood is “pink and intimate”. We learn from

Mr.Birling that he is selfish and a capitalist from his speech. He

sums himself up within the opening of the play saying “that a man has

to mind his own business and look after himself and his own-and-”(act

one page 11) this indicates that he is a selfish man and cares for his

family only (Mr.Birling is a capitalist). The mood is soon to change

from relaxed and chilled to harsh when the inspector arrives. At the

last word of Mr. Birlings speech the door bell rings at the right time

to create tension, the doorbell ring was purposely put their to create

tension and to stop Birling preaching about capitalist views. Its

clever even how one word “and” can be such a tensional word as the

door bell rings. In the stage directions “the lighting should be pink

and intimate until the inspector arrives, and then it should be

brighter and harder” it changes to as if all the characters were being