In act one of An Inspector Calls how does Priestley use dramatic devices to convey his concerns and ideas to the audience as well as interest and involve them in the play. An Inspector Calls is a well-made play. Its progression is that from ignorance to knowledge, not only for the audience but also for the characters themselves.
The place, the Birlings dining-room, is a detailed, naturalistic setting to set the tone of the comfort, success and self-satisfaction required to correspond with the initially celebrating family.It is also constant throughout; and the action and dialogue all contribute to the central theme of the play, with nothing extraneous to distract the audience's attention. The play is set in 1912 but when the play was written in 1945, people had just been through two world wars and were optimistic about there future. Reading it now we know that the world has improved. Our reaction to the play now must be different to what it was then.
The people who had read it in 1945 will be able to realate to it more than most other people because they were there and could of said the same thing as Mr Birling about there not being, how Mr Birling put it ''... a chance of war. The worlds developing so fast it'll make war impossible''.
Mr Birling is convinced there will not a war and makes us think of Mr Birling as being very optimistic. I think Mr Birling is trying to say that his own families future will be safe and secure. The irony is that we know war breaks out just two years later and proves him wrong.Priestley's main concerns were the war and is speaking for him self through Mr Birling about the war never happening. That's what he would of liked to of been true because Priestley was in the war himself.
The genre of the play is a Moral Fable because there's a lesson, a sort of message which the Inspector teaches the Birlings as well as the audience which is to think about how are actions can affect other people, because were all connected and if we do or say something it might affect other peoples lives and we've got to think about it before we actually do it and take responsibility for are actions.In the opening exchanges of the play the audience are given a underlying sense of unease by the ironic references to the impossibility of war like I've already said, and also to the progress mankind is making, as represented by the titanic which, again, according to Mr Birlings great optimism ''Is unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable'', but was to sink on its maiden voyage. This could be interpreted by the audience as either the Birlings being optimistic about there future or just what Priestley's concerns are, 'the war', and 'the future'.The character Arthur Birling is 'rather portentous', Sybil, his wife, is 'rather cold', Sheila is Very pleased with life', Eric is characterised as 'half-shy, half-assertive' and Gerald Croft is described as the 'easy well-bred young man about town'. The mood in the room before the inspector entered was that of joy, celebration and happiness at the fact that Sheila is engaged to Gerald Croft. When I went to see the play the lights dimmed suddenly as the door bell rang.
The doorbell was long and held the family as well as the audience in suspense.The lengthiness of the doorbell almost made the characters as well as the audience tremble with anticipation. As soon as he entered the lights suddenly turned harsh and bright as if light was being shed in dark places. Revealed, was this tall, well dressed middle aged man who had a sort of ghostly presents about him.
The Inspectors appearance conveyed to the family and audience that of an athoritive figure. Clearly all is not as it seems to be, and when the doorbell rings as Arthur Birling is telling Gerald Croft and Eric that 'a man has to mind his own business and look after himself the audience is primed for the main action of the play.Until the Inspector's arrival the lighting is pink and intimate to help reinforce the initially rose-tinted mood. Thereafter, with the Inspector's arrival, the lighting becomes 'brighter and harder' as the events of the play take their dramatic course and mood progressively changes.
The character of Inspector Goole creates an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness. He speaks carefully, weightily and has a disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person he addresses. Even for an Inspector he's a bit to accretive.There was no inkling at that point that he was a fake or different from any other Inspector but you did start to wonder a bit about that after he continuously shouts at the Birlings which is sometimes unexpected.
Sheila has regarded him 'wonderingly and dubiously, later she notes that no-one told him anything that he did not already know. When Priestley was writing the play he must of had a problem establisheing the character of Inspector Goole, was he a realistic straightforward police inspector, a hoaxer, or something else. The Inspector has been successful in bringing Sheila and Eric to a realisation of their guilt and responsibility.This becomes clear on Gerald's return and the subsequent revelation that Ghoole was not a police inspector at all. Who or what he was is left deliberately unresolved by Priestley, almost as if to heighten the supernatural nature of the Inspector.
In his own quest for the truth, Gerald telephones the Infirmary, only to find that there had been no suicide taken there that day and it further serves to heighten the mystery surrounding the Inspector. Throughout his enquiries, the Inspector remaines entirely in control and at times has, massively taken charge.With the Inspector now on the sence characters could only say sertain things while he was in the room. When he left the room they could quickly say things which they couldent when he was in the room.
All the characters were intimidated by him. When one character left the room and one character spoke to another, the person who left dident hear what they were talking about but we did so we know more than some of the characters about whats going on. The effect of the Inspector, whoever he may have been, has been to split the family irrevocably.The mood in the room as the inspector re-entreres is that of tention and secracy. As the Inspector slowly unravelles the history of Eva Smith, the involvement of each member of the family becomes clear, and the Inspector's apparent omniscience drives each of them to confession. It is possible to see each of the Birlings as guilty to various degrees of the Seven Deadly Sins (pride, sloth, gluttony, envy, covetousness, lust and anger).
When I went to see the play the exits that were used was one at the side which was off of the main stage and one which covered the whole back wall of the thearer.The one off the side of the main stage was mainly used for when people went upstairs and for people who ran out in a temper and was good because you had to go of the stage to get to it which looked like they were storming of the stage which added to the affect. The other exit on the back wall was done by computor and could change apperence to follow the story, if the door bell rang it changed to look like a hall, and when everybodey was in the room it changed to look like a wall. At the end of act one were left confused and trying to make sense off things.Were left urging to read on and find out more and want to descover the truth about Miss Eva Smith.
Gerald Croft is distressed by his realisation of his part in Eva Smith's/Daisy Renton's life and death and would leave, later to return, apparently contrite. Mrs Birling, however, remains entirely untouched by the Inspector's questioning as she refuses to see how Eva's death can have followed as a consequence of her actions. Finally Eric, revealed as the father of Eva's child, is affected in a similar way to his sister.Only now, faced with the realisation that her actions have led to the death of her grandchild, does Mrs Birling break down, just as the family appears about to disintegrate into mutual recrimination, the Inspector intervenes to deliver his final judgement: that while Arthur Birling started it all, they are all to blame for Eva's death. Priestley's very cleaver in the way he keeps his audience and his readers interested and glued. He makes us think about the Birlings and the twist at the end our selves instead of telling us what happened.
We do all the work and figure it out instead of him telling us, like a puzzle that we've got to solve. The audience's interest is sustained not only by the progressive revelations but by their desire to find out who, ultimately, was responsible for driving Eva to her suicide. Priestley heightens the audience's suspense by his skilful use of climaxes within the carefully controlled plot and by ensuring that the audience is left on tenterhooks at the conclusion of each act. While Gerald, Arthur and Sybil laugh at what they perceive to be a hoax, Sheila and Eric are serious and aware of the consequences of their actions.At the last moment, Priestley adds his final twist to the plot, as Arthur answers the telephone only to hear the fateful news that an Inspector is about to arrive to investigate a girl's suicide.
As the curtain falls all the characters are seen guilty and dumbfounded, left to face a repeat of the evening's events, the consequences of which would be left for the audience to predict. The ending is purposely ambiguous which is why I think this stories has lasted so long and still remains a great story.
