An Inspector Calls

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

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

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.^[1] 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.^[1]

[edit] Characters

[edit] Arthur Birling

Arthur Birling is a "heavy-looking, rather portentous man in his middle fifties", father of Sheila and Eric Birling. In the play he arguably represents that which Priestly, a socialist, detests most. He is a firm proponent of seeking "lower costs and higher prices!", who strongly objects to the Inspector's intrusion into their "nice little family celebration". It is his arrogant manner, along with his political views, callous personality and incorrect predictions, that J.B. Priestley exposes what he sees as the faults with society, using examples throughout modern history, including the First World War and the sinking of the Titanic, both of which Arthur Birling claims to be "fiddlesticks!". Although he is authoritative and upper middle class, he reveals his lower social rank to that of his wife, Sybil Birling, when he compliments the cook right at the start of the play and, although it is obvious to argue that Birling, like the other characters, is partly responsible for Eva Smith's suicide, it is a valid argument to say that Birling, of all the guilty parties, has the most justification for his actions. Eva Smith may well have been one of the ringleaders in the strike, but, as in many jobs of the day, she was sacked - as any employer would have Birling argues. The theme of the play, however, is Birling's attitude towards responsibility, which never changes, and this is perhaps why he receives the phone call at the end.This greatly angers Sheila, who cannot believe how Arthur can just go on like nothing had ever happened. However the scene at the end, where Arthur picks up the phone to hear the news of a recent suicide in the morgue and an inspector on his way to ask some questions, shows how much Arthur really does care about the situation, going by his apparent 'look of horror' at the other members of his family.

[edit] Sybil Birling

Sybil Birling is the wife of Arthur Birling. She sees herself above the inspector when he is questioning her and does not think he should be talking to her the way he is. She is her husband's social superior, however his social status has risen since he became a successful mill owner. There was even talk of him receiving a knighthood in the new years honours list. Towards the end of the play when the inspector is revealing secrets about her son, it becomes clear that everything she thought about her son was wrong and he is a different person to who she thought.

[edit] 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-centred 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. She used her social position to have Eva Smith removed from her job as a shop assistant at Milwards, out of mere spite. As the play progresses, Sheila becomes more rebellious toward her parents, supporting her brother against them. It can also be said that Sheila becomes the Inspector's accomplice, interrogating Gerald initially, and then becoming the strongest protester against the older generation - now agreeing with the Inspector's socialist views - at the end of the play.

[edit] 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. Eric also becomes extremely defensive of Eva and piles all the blame onto his mother and then his relationship with his father becomes sour.

[edit] 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, and is at the Birling residence for a celebration. Gerald had 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 to get back on her feet. As the summer progressed Gerald has Eva Smith as his mistress, and Gerald is said to become "the most important person in her life". Gerald can be described as the most blameless person in the whole business, as he had at first shown Eva Smith compassion, unlike the Birlings, although the counter to this argument is that he, of them all, caused her the most pain. It is Gerald who first suggests that Inspector Goole is not a real Inspector. When the Inspector is revealed to be a fraud, Gerald seems to be of the same opinion as the elder Birlings; the matter is done with and things can go back to normal - a stark contrast to Sheila and Eric, who still feel remorse at their actions.

[edit] 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).^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Eva Smith

The unseen girl who the Inspector claims has committed suicide whilst pregnant with Eric Birling's baby, she is used as a very important dramatic device as the plot unfolds. She is portrayed as a moral and kind person, and given various names which, again, are used for dramatic effect when, for example, Gerald recognises the name 'Daisy Renton', giving himself away to the Inspector, having not recognised Eva Smith. Similarly, the Inspector shows the different characters photographs, but it is not clear if there is one or many photographs - a pivotal theme of the end of the play. This leads some of the characters to believe that she is in fact different women stitched together by the Inspector, in order to incriminate the Birlings. Her name is also said to represent her class in society; Smith is a very common name - Priestley possibly wanted to convey to the audience that she is representative of the working class in society. This is supported by the quotation from the Inspector's final, damning, speech, "One Eva Smith has gone, but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva... and John Smiths still left with us".

[edit] Analysis

An Inspector Calls shows the inter-connectivity 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.
In several instances of dramatic irony, author uses the character of Mr. Birling to dismiss the possibility of several events that happened after the play came out, so the audience already knew the full story about these events and the fact that they actually happened.(such as the sinking of the Titanic and World War I). Priestley's idea was that, if the audience laughed enough at Birling's naive beliefs about war, they wouldn't take his capitalist views seriously either.
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 Aristotelian principles (three unities) of time, place and action. Foreshadowing is also used frequently 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.

[edit] 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^[2]) 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. It won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Play.

[edit] Adaptations

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

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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

[edit] 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

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b Gale, Maggie B. (2008). J.B. Priestley. Routledge Modern and Contemporary Dramatists. London: Routledge. pp. 139–164. ISBN 0415402433.
^ Theatre in Iran, 1944-53

"English Literature: An Inspector Calls". GCSE Bitesize. BBC Schools Online. 2008. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/dramainspectorcalls. Retrieved on 2008-05-09.
"J.B. Priestley". J.B. Priestley.com. 2008. http://www.jbpriestley.co.uk/bio.php. Retrieved on 2008-10-05.

[edit] Further reading

Priestley, J. B. (1947). An Inspector Calls: A Play in Three Acts (First edition ed.). London: Heinemann. OCLC 59564726.

[edit] External links

An Inspector Calls at the Internet Broadway Database
An Inspector Calls at the Internet Movie Database

[gale-0] Gale, Maggie B. (2008). J.B. Priestley. Routledge Modern and Contemporary Dramatists. London: Routledge. pp. 139–164. ISBN 0415402433.

[iran_production-1] Theatre in Iran, 1944-53

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