Then essay on : An Inspector Calls

[Soka]

i did this 2 years ago, and i actually liked the play sooo i got a* in the coursework for this (52/54)

my question was:

J.B. Priestley’s ‘An Inspector Calls’ is a play with messages. What are these messages? How and why are these messages delivered?

it doesn't really matter on the question, as long you keep attacking the theme of responsiblitiy class etc, and linking back to your question.

Mines 8 pages long, so i'll paste it here on request..... if you want help from it, but don't copy it!

[today]

I did that in year 9/10.

Then we scrapped it as a "final piece for gcse" so we had to do Saving Private Ryan / THree books (The Red room, something else and something else) and your own story.

Though inspector calls bored me =/ Good luck!!

[Throne Sofa]

Well tension is obviously created when all the family members find out what eachother have done to contribute to Daisy Renton/ Eva Smith's death. It's obvious the Inspector already knows who's done what etc. So this creates friction/tension in the family.

[Jamesy]

I've got to do an essay on an inspector calls its got to be about how Preistly creates tension anyone else done this essay? I duno how to start it

XX
Nia

I done it, it's a git to start. I just waffled on about how he uses the lighting to change the atmosphere, from pink to harsh white light then went from there.

[Ugawa]

Well tension is obviously created when all the family members find out what eachother have done to contribute to Daisy Renton/ Eva Smith's death. It's obvious the Inspector already knows who's done what etc. So this creates friction/tension in the family.

Yes i know but we've got to do like how the entrances and exits create tension and how the people react and how they talk, nd loads of things like that.

[Ugawa]

*double posted didnt mean to please remove *

[JamieAJS]

Bah Long Time ago.

I think I mentioned pathetic fallacy, and how Eva Smith & the other bloke were portrayed as the true representation of socialism vs capitalism, causing the reader to feel automatic support for Eva Smith and creating conflict causing tension.

[Orangeesh]

oo I did that last year

[Carlsta]

Looking at the interrogations of Mr Birling and Sheila, explore how Priestley uses language and dramatic techniques to affect an audience.



The book called ‘An Inspector Calls’ is about a family who realise they are all involved in a girl’s suicide when an Inspector Goole turned up at Sheila and Gerald’s engagement. Some of them didn’t realise they were involved as the girl used many different names. They all admit that they knew of the girl and had seen her in the past and have affected her life in some way. The name Goole could present a ghostly figure that isn’t real which makes him sounds a mysterious or spooky character. Later on after Inspector Goole leaves they realise that he wasn’t a real inspector after all. They are all relieved thinking that he was making it up and they had done nothing wrong, until they got a phone call saying that a girl has really died. Now they were left to wonder whether it was Eva Smith or someone else. In the play Eric & Sheila learn the errors of there way’s and you realise that money isn’t everything.
When Priestly wrote ‘An Inspector Calls’ in the 1940’s it was currently the middle of the Second World War. Many different things’s happened leading up to the 1940’s including the Titanic sinking and the workers being exploited.
Priestly set the play in 1912 so that he could make incorrect predictions of events which actually happen. For example he could say that the Titanic wasn’t going to sink when he knew that it actually was going to sink. Doing this makes the audience think that they are ignorant. 1912 was the start of World War One so they set it then to say it’s going to get better but it doesn’t.
In ‘An Inspector Calls’ there are two different interrogations featured, one with Mr Birling and Inspector Goole and one with Sheila and Inspector Goole. In the interrogations they use many different dramatic techniques to make the reader more interested in what they are reading. The dramatic techniques that are used in ‘An Inspector Calls’ are: Dramatic Irony, Pace, Juxtaposition and Ambiguity.
Dramatic Irony is a technique by which the significance of a character’s words or actions is clear to the audience but unknown to the character. Dramatic Irony is used in many places in the interrogations; Mr Birling makes a lot of predictions which all turn out to become true. One example of this is where he says that that the titanic will not sink in the future but it turned out to actually sink. Mr Birling also say’s that the war is fiddlesticks but the audience are currently in the war when this was written so the audience could feel quite insulted.
The pace is the rate of speed at which something proceeds or develops. This is used in Mr Birling’s speech where he uses big paragraphs to catch the Inspector out. Mr Birling’s speech is a fast pace but then when it gets to Inspectors Goole’s replies he cut’s Mr Birling short and slows him back down again. One place where Inspector Google does this is where Mr Birling says: “I thought you must be. I was an alderman for years – and Lord Mayor two years ago – and I’m still on the Bench – so I know the Brumley Police officers pretty well – and I thought I’d never seen you before.” Which was a fast tempo then the Inspector doesn’t act very bothered and answers with the reply “Quite so.” Which makes the inspector sound like he’s not actually bothered and answers straight to the point, to make the audience not suspect anything is going on.
Next is Juxtaposition. Juxtaposition is the state of being placed or situated side by side, in other word’s it shows a conflict between two things. In the Interrogation Inspector Goole says: “Mr Croft is going to marry Miss Sheila Birling?” then Gerald says “I hope so” then the Inspector says “Then I’d prefer you to stay here”. This shows that Gerald was all happy that he was going to be marrying Sheila then when the Inspector say’s to stay there it changed to a sad moment. This shows a conflict between the two characters. Sheila then finds out Gerald’s connection towards Eva Smith. He had an affair with her under the name of Daisy Renton which spoilt the engagement between them.
In the Interrogations there are different moments that are very tense. Tension is when there is a strained state or condition resulting from the interplay of conflicting elements. When Mr Birling tries to intimidate Inspector Goole he is trying to out smart the inspector to make him spill to say that he isn’t really an inspector, but the Inspector remains Neutral and act’s as if he isn’t bothered about a word Mr Birling is saying to him. You can see this moment in the part when Mr Birling says: “I was an alderman for years – and Lord Mayor two years ago – and I’m still on the Bench – so I know the Brumley police officers pretty well – and I thought I’d never seen you before” and the neutral reply from the inspector was “Quite So”. There is also another reason why this moment is tense; this is because it looks as if there is a conflict in power between both characters as one is acting all high and mighty and the other one is keeping is cool. When Sheila enters gaily it is tense because she doesn’t have a clue what is going on and start’s quizzing everyone what’s going on, but Mr Birling doesn’t want his daughter involved to protect her so he tells her that there is nothing to worry about, but the inspector insists on telling her what had been happening. When the Inspector first enters the Mr Birling was saying to Eric and Gerald that they have to stand on their own two feet and also says that he needs to keep his head down till his promotion. By saying he needs to keep his head down till his promotion it could mean that he is a man that has been up to no good or has done something which he shouldn’t have done and he doesn’t want to get caught otherwise his career could be over and he will not get his promotion that he had been waiting for.
Next is Ambiguity. Ambiguity is words, phrases or texts which are open to interpretation, or language which may be understood in diverse ways. This basically means that there could be a literal meaning to the sentence or a meaning inside the text, which is called subtext. When they are on about a ‘wretched girl’ there are many different things that they could be meaning. It could mean that the girl is annoying, stupid, unfortunate, not good, waste of space or that she had caused Mr Birling a lot of trouble. When they use the words ‘Dark Eyes’ it would mean the literal meaning that she has very dark coloured eyes or by saying that it could symbolise death, sadness or mysterious.
Next we are going to discuss the different ways in which the characters speak.
When Inspector Goole speaks he tries to stay calm and controlled, by doing this he doesn’t make it obvious whether he is a real inspector or not and the audience is left inquisitive. He also uses short sentences which break down the pace of the Interrogations where as other characters will use long sentences, he also is a very dull sounding man who doesn’t like waffling and just likes to get straight to the point of answers. By doing this he makes the audience feel a bit confused to who he really is and makes them think that he is a professional inspector.
When Sheila speaks you never know what she is going to say next. She is what you would call a very unpredictable person. She is also a very temperamental person with random mood swings. One minute she will be fine then the next minute she will be going off on one quizzing various characters.
Mr Birling speaks a rather lot to stop the other characters saying anything that they shouldn’t say, he also speaks in very large paragraphs which are there to make the interrogation a fast pace. His sentences don’t just use normal language; it uses very complexed languages with very old words and very long words. When Mr Birling talk’s all of the audience can relate to him due to him speaking on behalf of what there are all thinking.

THANKS

[Recursion]

good luck We had to do the exact same essay! We were advised to jump straight into the essay, don't explain what the book was about etc.. Also don't introduce every paragraph