An Inspector Calls

For other uses, see An Inspector Calls (disambiguation).

An Inspector calls
Written by	J. B. Priestley
Date premiered	1945
Place premiered	Moscow, Russia
Original language
Subject	Just when everything is going so well, an inspector arrives investigating a girl's suicide
Genre	Drama
Setting	The Birling's home in Brumley, England; 1912

An Inspector Calls is a play written by English dramatist J. B. Priestley. It received its premiere at the Kamerny Theatre, Moscow, in 1945, directed by Alexander Tairov. The West End debut was at London's New Theatre on 1 October 1946, starring Ralph Richardson as Inspector Goole. The play is a parable, in the form of a police investigation into the death of a young girl, Eva Smith, on the potential confrontation between an excess of selfish individualism on the one hand and social responsibility on the other.

Characters

Arthur Birling:

A successful businessman in his fifties, father of Sheila and Eric Birling. Arthur Birling is seen as a rather pompous man.He is also seen as pretentious - he likes to make predictions - many of which are incorrect. He is a firm supporter of right-wing politics, and this is extensively shown throughout the play. It is his arrogant manner, along with his political views and incorrect predictions, that J.B. Priestley shows the 'mistakes of the right-wing businessman', using examples throughout modern history, including the First World War and the sinking of the Titanic. Although he is authoritative and upper class with numerous powerful contacts, he sometimes unintentionally reveals the face of a working class lad. He is also in competition with Gerald's father, Sir George Croft, both in business and socially. His roots and his 'lack of a rank' gives him great anger as the inspector questions - Birling wants to set a good impression for his future son-in-law, Gerald Croft - the son of a very powerful and very wealthy businessman.

Sybil Birling:

Arthur's wife, mother of Sheila and Eric Birling. Although they are both in their twenties, she sees and describes her offspring as children and often patronises them. She is acutely aware of social class and the relative ranks of the characters, but is completely oblivious to what is happening to her family and to their feelings. She is the last of the characters to contribute to the suicide of Eva Smith, after taking offence at Smith's posing as a 'Mrs. Birling.' Sybil shows no regret when told she was the final trigger to Eva Smith/Daisy Renton's suicide, believing she had done nothing wrong compared to the rest of her family, particularly Arthur, and to a lesser extent, Eric. She claims she has a guilt-free conscience.

Sheila Birling:

The Birlings' older child, 'a very pretty girl in her mid-twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited' about her engagement to Gerald, though she shows herself not to be wholly naïve, with a suspicious attitude towards her fiance's extended absence the previous summer, during which time she suspects he might have been having an affair. She starts out as a playful, self-centered girl who loves attention, becoming the one 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 toward her parents, supporting her brother against them.

Eric Birling:

Sheila's younger brother, in his early twenties. Often seen as an outsider, is described as 'not quite at ease, half-shy, half-assertive.' He is a bored, rather immature and foolish young man and a heavy drinker. He does not have an easy relationship with his father. He is initially cheerful, enjoying the family occasion and the alcohol. His involvement with Eva Smith was that he took her home from the Palace Bar. Getting her pregnant, he is the father of her unborn child, also killed when Eva drank disinfectant. Like Sheila, Eric is sympathetic towards Eva Smith and states that he is ashamed of his parents, especially his mother.

Gerald Croft:

The son of Sir George Croft of Croft's Ltd, a competitor of Birling & Co. He is engaged to Sheila at the beginning of the play. Gerald met Eva Smith the previous summer under the name Daisy Renton and, feeling sorry for her predicament, offers her accommodation at a friend's vacant flat and some money to help her back on her feet. As the summer progressed Gerald and Eva/Daisy became lovers but he ends the relationship at the end of the summer. It is Gerald who first suggests that Inspector Goole is not a real Inspector. Gerald is described as the most blameless person in the whole business, as he had at first shown Eva Smith compassion, unlike the Birlings. When the Inspector is revealed to be a fraud, Gerald seems to be of the same opinion as Arthur and Sybil that the matter is done with and things can go back to normal, unlike Sheila and Eric, who still feel bad about what they have done.

Inspector Goole:

The detective investigating the suicide of a working girl. He seems to know everything already and is quite controlling – he often tells others "to settle things afterwards," in order to assure that the conversation goes in the direction he wants and at the speed necessary to enable his well-timed departure. In some productions he is interpreted as a loud man with an aggressive manner and tone. In the script, his manner is stated as quite the opposite yet still oddly controlling (the script often advises the Inspector to pause and stare hard before speaking, creating a much more mysterious character). Both during the performance and off-stage, it is debated whether he actually is an inspector. Some people believe he could be a supernatural manifestation because of his name (Goole/ghoul).

Eva Smith:

The unseen pregnant suicide victim whose death is the central event of the play. She is portrayed as a moral and kind person. She is given various names under which various of the other characters have known her, and at least one photograph of her is being shown to her acquaintances. This leads some of the characters to believe that she is in fact different women stitched together by the Inspector. Her name also represents her class in society: Smith being a very common name, Priestley possibly wanted to convey to the audience that she is representative of the working class in society.

Edna:

Edna is the Birlings' maid. Quite a quiet character with few lines, she can be portreyed as small and insignificant character, or a highly important extra. She can be cast as young or older.

Plot synopsis

An Inspector Calls 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

• 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. When Mr. Birling is saying these things he calls himself a 'hard-headed business man'(he thinks he has experienced everything well enough to say this) this shows he's trying to bring security to his family, and assure them that all these 'predicted problems' wont happen.
• 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 Aristotlian 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.

A major part of Inspector Goole's character is that he is an enigma and the reality of the Inspector's character is debated by the characters and literature fanatics alike. However, it is generally interpreted that:

• He uses the technique of divide and conquer.
• Inspector Goole was less a person, more the collective manifestation of the consciences of the characters formed into a human state.

• By the end of the play the Birlings discover that there is in fact no Inspector Goole on the force, 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 was Eva Smith could have 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 learns that a girl has in fact died in exactly the way the Inspector described. It is not implied that she committed suicide. However, as she has only died in the prior few moments, the Inspector couldn't have possibly known this.

An important part of the play, perhaps intended to stir up emotion among the mainly upper-middle class audience, was the inspector's final speech. The Inspector says that there are many more Eva and John Smiths out there and if people don't learn to look after each other than they will learn in fire and blood and anguish. This is a dramatically ironic reference to the coming First World War or Russian Revolution.

Inspector Goole: Goole is the name of a seaport town and could suggest that the Inspector is going to fish for information: he does this very successfully be revealing very little to the characters, never showing more than one character the photograph at once and giving them enough rope to hang themselves. The Inspector allows the characters to interrogate themselves and make them feel guilty. Sheila feels most guilty about what has happened as she is forced to split up with Gerald. Mr Birling doesn't feel too bad, Mrs Birling still thinks that she is the best and Gerald also feels upset for cheating on Sheila.

Productions

An Inspector Calls was first performed in 1945 in two Moscow theatres, then, in 1946, at the New Theatre in London 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 21 October 1947 and ran until 10 January 1948. The production was staged by Cedric Hardwicke.

The play was produced and performed at the Ferdowsi Theatre (pictures) in Iran in late 1940s based on the translation by Bozorg Alavi.

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 14 April then transferred to London's Westminster Theatre on 13 May 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 11 September 1992 in a production influenced by expressionism and later transferred to the Aldwych Theatre on 25 August 1993 and then to the Garrick Theatre on 24 October 1995; the production starred Kenneth Cranham as Inspector Goole (later played by Barry Foster and Philip Whitchurch), Richard Pasco as Arthur Birling (later played by Julian Glover, Edward Peel and William Gaunt), Barbara Leigh Hunt as Sybil Birling (later played by Judy Parfitt, Margaret Tyzack and Marjorie Yates), Diana Kent as Sheila Birling (later played by Sylvestra Le Touzel) 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 27 April to 28 May 1995. Kenneth Cranham recreated his role as Inspector Goole with Philip Bosco as Arthur Birling and Rosemary Harris (later Sian Phillips) as Sybil Birling.

Adaptations

Main articles: An Inspector Calls (1954 film) and An Inspector Calls (1982 film)

Film and television

Two films have been adapted from the play; a theatrical release and a television mini-series. Produced in the United Kingdom by Watergate Productions Ltd, the 1954 screenplay was adapted by Desmond Davis and directed by Guy Hamilton. Alastair Sim starred as Inspector Goole, renamed "Poole" for the film , with 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 was produced by BBC in 1982, 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.

Audio

On 14 July 2007 BBC Radio 7 broadcast an adaptation 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.

A full-cast unabridged audio adaptation and 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. The guide to the play and analysis is Joan Walker

Awards and nominations

Awards

• 1993 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Revival
• 1994 Drama Desk Award for Best Revival of a Play
• 1994 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play

References

• "English Literature: An Inspector Calls". GCSE Bitesize. BBC Schools Online. 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-09.
• "J.B. Priestley". J.B. Priestley.com. 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-05.

Further reading

• Priestley, J. B. (1947). An Inspector Calls: A Play in Three Acts (First edition ed.). London: Heinemann. OCLC 59564726. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)

External links

• An Inspector Calls at IMDb