An Inspector Calls
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| An Inspector Calls | |
| Written by | J. B. Priestley |
|---|---|
| Characters | Mr. Birling Mrs. Sybil Birling Gerald Croft Sheila Birling Eric Birling Inspector Goole Edna Eva Smith (Only mentioned and heard, never seen) |
| Date of premiere | 1 October 1946 |
| Original language | English |
| Subject | Industry, Wealth, Relationships & Morality |
| Genre | Drama |
| Setting | The dining-room of the Birlings' house in Brumley (spring, 1912). |
An Inspector Calls is a play written in 1944–1945 by the British dramatist J. B. Priestley. It was first performed in 1945 in two Moscow theatres as no London theatres were available. It was then first produced in London at the New Theatre on 1 October 1946. It shows the inter-connectedness of people in the drama of human existence, and reflects Priestley's socialist views whilst outlining the problems he saw with capitalism. However, it consistently advocates duty and individual conscience, and as such is not so much collectivist as individualist, focusing on the importance of individuals voluntarily helping others..
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[edit] Dramatic presentation
- The play is set in the dining room of a fairly large suburban house and revolves around the questioning of a family by Inspector Goole about the suicide of a young woman that the family knew.
- Many events which happen after the play are thought not to be able to happen by Arthur Birling (such as the Titanic being unsinkable and World War I would never happen). These are examples of dramatic irony.
- The play takes place in one set (the dining-room of the Birlings' house), in real time. This is a dramatic device that keeps the audience's attention on the dialogue as well as the timing of the entrances and exits. This conforms to the Aristotlean principles of time, place and action. Foreshadowing is also a large part throughout the play.
- Another dramatic technique is how J. B. Priestley ends his acts. Each time, near the end of the act, the inspector drops a bombshell of information that we are 'forced' to think about in the time we have after the acts. He makes us ponder over all that happened in that act.
Dramatic devices
- the telephone
- the photo
- cliffhanger endings
- doorbell
- lighting
- positions of the family
[edit] Characters of An Inspector Calls
[edit] The Birling Family
The Birling family is built on fields: everyone is hiding something. The relationships in the play come crumbling down when the inspector forces, in the case of Arthur Birling and Sybil Birling, and allows, in the cases of the three others, the characters to tell the truth. When this is said relationships break. The younger generation, meaning, Eric and Sheila, seemed to have actually learned that they had made mistakes not according to the "law" but they had made a mistake "morally".
[edit] Mr Arthur Birling
Mr Birling is the head of the Birling household. This "nice" character has made his own way in life, and has an inflated opinion of himself and his social class; but his less comfortable upbringing ensures that he is less social than either his wife or Gerald, shown by his praise for the cook's quality of cooking. He is dedicated to his business and it is implied that he enjoys the engagement of his daughter and Gerald Croft because it allows for the possibility of Crofts Limited and Birling Company working together in the future. He also contributed to the death of Eva Smith, as he fired her from her job, and caused her to lose everything.
[edit] Mrs Sybil Birling
Sybil Birling is the mother of Sheila and Eric Birling and, although they are both in their twenties, she describes and sees them as kids and often patronises them. She is astutely aware of the importance of social class at the time, and the varying ranks of the characters. She also is completely oblivious to what is happening to her family and to their feelings. She was the last of the characters to contribute towards the suicide of Eva Smith, after taking offence at the character's posing as a "Miss Birling". This, as the Inspector soon reveals, was merely because she had just finished a relationship with her son, Eric Birling.
[edit] Sheila Birling
Sheila is "a very pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited" with her engagement to Gerald, though she shows herself not to be wholly naïve with her suspicious attitude towards Gerald's extended absence the previous summer, during which time she suspects he might have been having an affair. She begins the play as a playful, self-centered girl who loves attention. She becomes the character who is most sympathetic to Eva's plight, showing remorse and guilt on hearing the news of her part in the girl's suicide. As the play progresses, Sheila becomes more rebellious towards her parents.
[edit] Eric Birling
Eric is the child of the family, described as "not quite at ease, half-shy, half-assertive". He does not have an easy relationship with his father. He begins the play being cheerful, enjoying the family occasion although slightly drunk. At the end of the play he decides to give up drinking as he thinks it has led to the death of Eva Smith and their unborn child. As well as Sheila, Eric is also sympathetic towards Eva Smith and states that he is "ashamed" of his parents, especially his mother.
[edit] Other characters
[edit] Inspector Goole
Inspector Goole plays a very big part in this play as he is the detective investigating the case. At first he seems a shady character; this continues throughout the story. The Inspector seems omniscient, and extremely adept at directing – he often tells the characters "to settle things afterwards" in order to make sure that the conversation is going in the direction he wants and imposing himself on conversations: this serves to add to the sense of the supernatural and unknown that surrounds him.
In his final address to the Birlings and Gerald, the Inspector summarizes the actions of each character and then gives a moralistic speech on how he sees what has occurred as wrong. The precise nature of the Inspector remains a mystery, although he is largely seen as a mouthpiece for Priestley's own opinions.
[edit] Eva Smith
The unseen suicide victim whose death is the motivating factor for the entire play. Throughout the play she is portrayed as a moral, kind person. She does not accept stolen money, although she is quite destitute without it. During the play she is given various names under which various of the other characters have known her as well as at least one photograph of her being shown to her acquaintances. This leads some of the characters to believe that she is in fact various women stitched together by the Inspector.
[edit] Gerald Croft
Sheila's fiancé and son of rival business owner that competes with Arthur Birling's company, but which he hopes to complete a merger with. He is referred many times to be an honest man who does his job proudly. His responsibility in this mystery was that he housed, clothed, fed, and eventually made love to Eva, staying away from his fiancé for the whole summer, the revelation of which causes trouble in his relationship with Sheila.
[edit] Edna the Maid
Edna appears sparingly in the play- only as a device to illustrate the Birlings' attitude to the 'lower classes.' She announces the Inspector's arrival.
[edit] Stage, film, TV and radio
An Inspector Calls was first produced at the New Theatre in London in October 1946 with Ralph Richardson as "Inspector Goole", Harry Andrews as "Gerald Croft", Margaret Leighton as "Sheila Birling", Julian Mitchell as "Arthur Birling", Marian Spencer as "Sybil Birling" and Alec Guinness as "Eric Birling".
The first Broadway production opened at the Booth Theatre on October 21, 1947 and ran until January 10, 1948. The production was staged by Cedric Hardwicke.
Tom Baker played "Inspector Goole" in a 1987 production directed by Peter Dews and designed by Daphne Dare that opened at the Theatr Clwyd on April 14 then transferred to London's Westminster Theatre on May 13, 1987. The cast included Pauline Jameson as "Sybil Birling", Peter Baldwin as "Arthur Birling", Charlotte Attenborough as "Sheila Birling", Simon Shepherd as "Gerald Croft" and Adam Godley as "Eric Birling".
In 1992 the play was successfully revived by Stephen Daldry for the National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre on September 11, 1992 in a production influenced by expressionism and later transferred to the Aldwych Theatre on August 25, 1993 and then to the Garrick Theatre on October 24, 1995; the production starred Kenneth Cranham as "Inspector Goole" (later replaced by Barry Foster and Philip Whitchurch), Richard Pasco as "Arthur Birling" (later replaced by Julian Glover, Edward Peel and William Gaunt), Barbara Leigh Hunt as "Sybil Birling" (later replaced by Judy Parfitt, Margaret Tyzack and Marjorie Yates), Diana Kent as "Sheila Birling" (later replaced by Sylvestra Le Tourzel) and Louis Hillyer as "Gerald Croft". Daldrey's production was transferred to Broadway in 1994, where it ran at New York City's Royale Theatre from April 27 to May 28, 1995. Kenneth Cranham recreated his role as "Inspector Goole" with Philip Bosco as "Arthur Birling" and Rosemary Harris as "Sybil Birling" (later replaced by Sian Phillips).
To date, the only film version of An Inspector Calls (1954 film) was released in Great Britain by Watergate Productions Ltd with a screenplay adapted from the play by Desmond Davis and directed by Guy Hamilton. Alastair Sim starred as "Inspector Goole" (called "Poole"), and the cast included Jane Wenham as "Eva Smith", Eileen Moore as "Sheila Birling", Arthur Young as "Arthur Birling", Brian Worth as "Gerald Croft", Olga Lindo as "Sybil Birling" and Bryan Forbes as "Eric Birling".
A three-part television mini-series of An Inspector Calls (1982 television version) was produced on BBC Television and directed by Michael Simpson. Bernard Hepton starred as "Inspector Goole", and the cast included Sarah Berger as "Sheila Birling", Nigel Davenport as "Arthur Birling", Simon Ward as "Gerald Croft", Margaret Tyzack as "Sybil Birling" and David Sibley as "Eric Birling".
On July 14, 2007 BBC Radio 7 broadcast an audio version of the play adapted by John Foley (originally aired on the BBC World Service) starring Bob Peck as "Inspector Goole", John Woodvine as "Arthur Birling" and Maggie Steed as "Sybil Birling". The production was directed by Rosalyn Ward.
[edit] Other information
An Inspector Calls is studied by GCSE English Literature students in Northern Ireland, England and Wales and by Standard Grade/Intermediate 2 level English students in Scotland.
A full-cast unabridged audio adaptation and comprehensive analysis was released on audio CD and MP3-CD in the United Kingdom by SmartPass in 2004 as part of their "Audio Education Study Guides" series and won the following awards:
- Spoken Word Awards for Best Drama 2004
- Best Original Audio 2005
- Publishing Initiative 2005
The cast of the audio adaptation included David Thorpe as "Inspector Goole", Terrence Hardinman as "Arthur Birling", Pat Gallimore as "Sybil Birling", Sara Bowes as "Sheila Birling', Peter Lindford as "Gerald Croft' and Christopher Kelham as "Eric Birling". The "PassMaster" (the guide to both the play and the analysis) was played by Joan Walker and the accompanying student "Will" was played by Will Hanksworth. J.B. Priestley's voice and quotes in the analysis were performed by Ben Crowe.
Following its first performances, the play received criticism due mainly to the fact that the title character can be interpreted in so many ways, as can the ending.
[edit] Goole: True or False?
- Priestley hints several times at Goole being a figment of the Birlings' drunken imagination; the most obvious clue is that Goole's name sounds the same as the word 'Ghoul'.
- By the end of the play the Birlings discover that there is in fact no Inspector on the force named Goole, so the validity of Goole's claims are diminished massively. However, this does not diminish his words, he is still right as Eric and Sheila realize.
- The Birlings also realize that due to the arrangement of the photographs he showed each of them, the girl they thought they all knew could have just been different girls, therefore it is unlikely that any one of them actually is dead. But either way, they were still in the wrong for doing these things.
- The play closes as Arthur Birling is called by the local police and finds that there has in fact been a girl that had committed suicide in exactly the way the Inspector describes. However, as she has only died in the prior few moments, there is no possible way for anyone to know this.
- Most of the aforementioned information leads to the possibility that Goole is a ghost.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- An Inspector Calls - Theatre Essay. Free Online Research Papers (2008). Retrieved on 2008-05-09.
- "GCSE Bitesize English Literature: An Inspector Calls", BBC Schools Online, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-05-09.
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