Priestley's Employment of Dramatic Techniques to Further the Effective Delivery of his Messages

Priestley's Employment of Dramatic Techniques to Further the Effective

Delivery of his Messages

In each act, Priestly builds even more suspense as to what happened to

Eva Smith/Daisy Renton. He starts with a very relaxed and joyful which

is completely different to the rest of the play. The family are all

happy and celebrating, except for Eric who seems a bit absent, but

still happy. They are celebrating the engagement of Sheila Birling and

Gerald Croft, until Inspector Goole makes his presence.

As soon as the inspector arrives, the mood is changed, and Arthur

Birling is immediately annoyed. He becomes frustrated, inhospitable

and threatening towards the inspector. The parents are still

patronising towards Sheila and Eric but the inspector treats them

equally. When Sheila arrives from the drawing room, she is astonished

by the arrival of the inspector. She is kind to him but impertinent.

Throughout the play the inspector plays a serious character, and never

laughs. He is extremely stern and treats the Birling family and Gerald

as if they were children. He describes Eva Smiths death with such

picturesque words that you are able to imagine the corpse, as can

Sheila, and immediately asks the inspector to stop.

When the inspector tells the family that he has a photograph of the

girl that committed suicide, then he suspiciously lets one person look

at the photograph at a time. This gives the audience a very doubtful

thought, but is quickly dismissed as the inspector flows into another

subject. This also gives the audience an absent suspicion about why he

doesn't let the other characters see the photo.

As he first inspects Mr Birling, who feels no resentment at all

towards Eva Smith and does not feel as if any part of her suicide is

his fault. After realising that the inspector would like to talk to

other members of the family other than him, Mr Birling is relieved but

still quite nervous. Sheila's character itself brings out quite a

dramatic effect as each event occurs. This is because she gives a more