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

By what means, and how successfully is suspense created and sustained

in An Inspector Calls?

An Inspector Calls Essay

By what means, and how successfully is suspense created and sustained

in ‘An Inspector Calls?’

· Show analytical and interpretative skills

· The effects of dramatic devices and structure

· Layers of meaning in language, ideas and themes

· The social and historical setting/context

JB Priestley wrote ‘An Inspector Calls’ towards the end of World War

2. The play however, is set in 1912 at a wealthy, middle-class family

home. The play is about a family celebrating an engagement, when an

Inspector calls, and tells them of a young girl’s suicide. The play

is always set in the family’s dining room, but it has precise stage

directions, so each character must be sitting in a certain place.

Suspense is used right through the play, usually at its peak at the

end of an act.

I think JB Priestley was trying to get a message across to us that we

need to abolish the social class differences, and all be equal.

The play is very good because you are always trying to find out who

was responsible for the suicide, and you know that everybody fits in,

but you don’t know when or how.

As you find, or think you’ve found something out, the play takes a new

dramatic turn, which definitely makes suspense the key factor. What

makes the play even better is that the audience always knows a lot

more than the characters do, and you are always wondering: “why

haven’t they worked that out?”

Suspense is very successfully created and sustained in ‘An Inspector

Calls.’

When Act one begins, the mood is merry, and civilised in the dining

room, at The Birlings’ house. The family are happy, excited and ...

... middle of paper ...

...er this phone call means

that yes everything was true, or no, it was a hoax. Then, it is used

as a dramatic device again when it rings, and the local Inspector says

he is coming round to question the Birlings about a young girl’s

death. The play ends here.

Now, we have found out the suspense is created and sustained very

successfully in ‘An Inspector Calls’. With you always wondering

whether the Inspector is real, and all the cliffhangers that are used,

you are constantly left in suspense, even after the very unusual

ending. You are wondering at the end whether this time it really is

real, or is it another hoax? We will never know. Dramatic devices are

a key element in this play, for example in Act 3; a telephone is the

focal point. It can be little things like that. I hope this brings a

good conclusion to a very good, interesting, even if strange play.