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J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls
In the play 'An inspector calls' by JB priestly, there are a range of
dramatic devices used, you can see foreshadowing; where the characters
hint at things that you see or learn later. There are the entrances
and exit; the dramatic ways that these are used. Also the climatic
curtain is used, leaving the readers on a cliff hanger. And finally
dramatic irony and denouement are used. All these dramatic devices add
up to a brilliant play, about a family who are having a quite night
in, when they are disturbed at the dinner table, by a police inspector
directing an inquiry on a girl's suicide, and as the story unravels we
learn about each characters part to play.
This play contains some early foreshadowing from the three characters,
Eric, Gerald and Sheila. This is where there are little things that
hint at important information to come later in the play. We do not
however see any foreshadowing from Mr or Mrs Birling. Near the
beginning of the play we learn that Eric has a drinking problem when
it says, "ERIC suddenly guffaws" then Sheila says, "Now - what's the
joke" and Eric replies, "I don't know - really. Suddenly I felt I just
had to laugh." (page3) This shows that Eric was drunk at the time, and
hinted at him having a drinking problem, which later led to him having
a relationship with Eva Smith, which was mostly drink related. We also
see that Gerald may have been sneaking around with someone else when
Sheila says, "Yes - except for all last summer, when you never came
near me, and I wondered what had happened to you." To which Gerald
replied, "As I've told you - I was awfully busy at the works a...
... middle of paper ...
...ath and couldn't let himself off the hook, he
felt very bad, and had learnt not to mess around with women and hurt
them, because it can really damage them emotionally.
Finally the audience can learn from this experience. We can learn
about what can happen from a small thing that you may do to someone,
we learn about the huge affect it can have on their lives. This will
make the audience think about anytime that they might have made
someone fell bad by doing something to them, and regretting it, and
hopefully understanding what can happen.
To conclude, this play is a very mysterious play. It is full of
dramatic devices, of suspense and twists. The play would be bland and
boring without these, and JB Priestly uses them in the perfect places,
and in the perfect way to create a brilliant play from beginning to
end.
Criticism in An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley "An Inspector Calls" has been called a play of social criticism. What is being criticised. Explain some of the dramatic techniques which Priestley uses to achieve the play's effects. "An Inspector Calls" has been called a play of social criticism as Priestley condemned the many different injustices that existed in the society between the first and second world wars.
and say and do. We don't live alone. We are members of a body. We are
J.B. Priestley's Inspector Calls. An Inspector Calls is a play set in spring 1912. The writer, J. B. Priestly, tries to build up a view of Mr Birling through the set. stage directions and in his speeches.
J. B. Priestly was born in 1894 in Bradford and he died on the 14th of
This is shown when both Eric and Gerald had used her for sexual relations. When Gerald describes Eva as “very pretty-soft dark hair and brown eyes” gives me the impression that he only got to know Eva because of her looks and not because of her personality. It is also arguable that Gerald helped Eva as he was “I was sorry for her;" his shows that he may be just a good person for giving her a place to stay but it took at first when we was confronted by the inspector he kept it a secret for a while as he did not want Sheila to know or maybe because it would affect his place in class for having an affair. Eric also had a relationship with Eva when he met her he was drunk as "Oh - my God! - how stupid it all is!” this is giving me the impression that he is trying to avoid the fact that he had a responsibility and that he felt guilty for leaving Eva as she fell prevent with his
event yet he chose to put his business first. This should be a part in
In conclusion I think that the stage directions and dramatic irony are significant to the play, and without them there would be no need for a lot of the events that happen in the play.
At the start the playwright creates slight allusions that produce tension; Sheila wondered ‘half seriously what had happened to Gerald previous summer when Gerald never went near Sheila’. Lady Croft and Sir George have not come to the engagement feast and Eric is behaving quite anxiously. Eric’s strange behaviour on the cheerful occasion creates trepidation and foreshadows a rather surprising event which interests the audience.
JB Priestley uses dramatic devices to make An inspector calls a modern day morality play, to do this he uses dramatic devices, such as dramatic irony and tension in order to convey the message through the entire play. They are used accurately considering the time in which the play is set. Priestley also uses the characters as dramatic devices, they symbolise the dramatic devices, an example of this is Priestley makes us hate Mr. Birling because he symbolises capitalism, and in Priestley’s eyes capitalism is wrong. Throughout the pl...
a year later; it tells the tale of how a middle class family from the
Birlings, as they find out that they have all played a part in a young
Goole. Some the Birling family are used to show how we are not to act
My least favorite aspect of this play was the ending. The ending confused me and was anticlimactic. It was not funny and not entertaining at all.
The story of Eva Smith is a dramatic one. JB Priestley is full of good
was genuine and this allows the audience to almost predict their own ending; how will the family react to the arrival of the real Inspector? Will they acknowledge this as a chance to admit to their mistakes or will they try and conceal their guilt? I thoroughly enjoyed studying An Inspector Calls and have learned a great deal about how society has changed and how moral ideals have evolved over time. I found the play effective although because of the way in which society has developed Priestley's morals may not be applicable to life today. As wealth and power have become increasingly more important socialist feelings of responsibility for one another have been progressively weakened.