An Inspector Calls

I think Inspector Calls is written in three different levels between a political play, a morality play and an inspector play. Mr. Birling is the main character in the play and really brings out the political aspects in the play Inspector Calls. We can see this when he says ‘Your engagement to Sheila means a tremendous lot to me.

He also says ‘Your father and I have been friendly rivals in business for some time now – though Crofts Limited are both older and bigger than Birling and company – and now you have brought us together, and perhaps we may look forward to the time when Crofts and Birlings are no longer competing but are working together – for lower costs but higher prices. ‘ So he doesn’t really care about there marriage, he cares more about the money. Priestly uses the seven deadly sins very well as we can see in the play. We know that Mr Birling is used with avarice by his eager for money and leadership.

He thinks money is more important than any thing else. Priestly also uses Mr Birling with pride he thinks too much of himself, as we can see when he is talking to Gerald and he wants to make himself less important to Gerald so they can join and have great success in his job. Eric has three of the seven deadly sins used on him they are: sloth, lust and intemperance. We can see in the play that he is excessive for sex when they go back in time and see Eric wanting Daisy Renton/Eva Smith just to have sex with her. But we all know that he had no love for her in anyway. Intemperance comes into the play with Eric at the start of scene 1.

Where all the family are sitting around the table and chatting then: Eric, Gerald and Mr Birling have a man talk as the rest of the family leave. He really try’s to get into the conversation so he can be asked if he wants some alcohol (which was port). Then there was Sheila she had one of the seven deeds which was envy. He has structured her well in the play with that deed because when Gerald is talking about how he had something to do with Eva/Daisy, she talks out against him as he has done something wrong, and asks him a lot of questions because she is upset that this occurred.

In the Film on the other hand they do this very well by making Sheila make facial expressions when Gerald talks about being with Daisy/Eva. Lastly but not least Mrs Birling has one of the seven deeds in the play. We know this because when Inspector Goole walks in she is very unhappy and cautious because she knows she has something to do with the interruption of Daisy/Eva and doesn’t want to be caught out. Mrs Birling is also unhappy because she didn’t like how Inspector Goole just walked in and told her what to do and controlled her. Mrs Birling up to then was having a nice and enjoyable time until he strolled in.

Capitalism meant that money was more important than anything else, even more important than family. Money was a very big issue in those days because it meant the richer you were the more power and recognised you would be. The less money you had the less recognised you were, and you had no power at all. So that’s why Mr Birling really wanted to get his knighthood so he was more recognised and had power for many things. But when they were around the table before Inspector Goole nocks, Mr. Birling try’s to make Gerald think he is more powerful than he actually is just to get him to work for his company.

Again that’s capitalism. In the part of the play where Mr Birling sacks Eva Smith just because she was asking for higher wages, for a better life, he is only doing this because he knows the lower the wages the higher the profits. So Priestly considers him as a capital person just thinking about money and profits. Mr Birling thinks he is so clever and subconscious about every thing he says ‘Titanic sails next week – forty six thousand and eight hundred tones – forty six thousand eight hundred tones – New York in five days – and every luxury – and unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable. This is ironic because the Titanic does sink when it hits an iceberg.

So it shows when men in those days think they are so rich and have power, they also think they are cleverer than everyone else when in fact they are not. There is another fragment of a paragraph which is also demonstrates avarice when Mr Birling replies ‘I hope it won’t be to long before you’re married. ‘ It shows Mr Birling just wants Gerald to partner him in the business to make more money. So an Inspector Call has got a political side to it but it has been only demonstrated by how money was a big thing in 1912 and onwards. J. B. Priestly has also done this play well because the political side of it is only based on one man which is Mr Birling.

Priestly uses a dramatic device in the play where at the end of act 1 Inspector Goole reply’s to Sheila by saying ‘Well’ and then act one is over. It says that ‘Inspector Goole is left there staring at Sheila and Gerald for a few moments’. Then the curtains are supposed to be drawn down. So Priestly wants the audience to be left there in suspense and thinking on what is going to happen next. He wants the audience to think on what’s going to happen next to make them read or watch on.

With the film which was not made by priestly it is easier to use dramatic device because you can use sudden sounds. So that draws the attention to the audience and makes them more interested. I think An Inspector Calls has a morality side to it as well. Morality means a message in the story, to live without doing something you will regret. Moral means goodness or badness.

He only wanted to do it to make Daisy Renton happy and I think also to make Daisy think he is quite wealthy. But really he felt with a lot of guilt when handing over the money. He will probably regret most of his life and was a bad thing to do. He might have felt all right when giving the money but the after effects came out badly. He will also regret having guilt free sex with Daisy because he know realises that everyone has feelings and just liking someone for sex is not right. So Priestly has used some morality structure to the play, but not one you will see just reading the play once.