Explore the way Preistley presents and uses the character of the Inspector in ‘An Inspector Calls’

The Inspector is used as a device by Priestley to explore the wider themes of the play and to unfold other characters’ true personalities. The character of the Inspector is a very mysterious figure in the play as no one knows anything about apart from the fact that he may be an Inspector. However, he seems to have been taken seriously, seeing that he has the title of inspector, so the characters and even the audience immediately believe everything he says. Goole is the inspector’s name. This has been used by Priestley to make everyone truly speculate the true identity of the Inspector as the name is a homonym of ghoul (meaning a ghost) and later on starts to seem ominous, perhaps even supernatural. This has got people wondering if he is even human at all as he seems to know everything, even of things the individual characters have kept to themselves. 

The stage directions that describe the Inspector gives the impression that he is an imposing figure, who juxtaposes Mr Birling while taking lead of the conversation and for spreading socialism teachings which make both Mr and Mrs Birling very agitated. Inspector Goole’s tendency to interrupt and control the when and where the conversations would go add to this impression too “….he creates at once an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness.” The fact that his ‘massiveness’ and ‘purposefulness’ suggest that the Inspector would be a very powerful and as said earlier an imposing figure. As a working class man, it is very unusual when we see the Inspector taking charge and authority immediately away from Mr Birling which indicates that the Inspector is here to do his job seriously, quickly and correctly. The Inspector was on duty, set by Priestley, to change the capitalistic idea of the family to the social idea. 

However, the “Rose tinted glasses” symbolises a capitalistic view on life as they see everything in a luxurious and heavenly way but a selfish way as well, hence making the Inspector’s job quite hard as the family have a pretty fixed view on life. This is exactly how the Birling family see life as a happy, rich and high in society family that dress in evening wear for dinner. Everything is dim and very closed in on the family to represent the way they see themselves; it is to show that the family are only self-obsessed and only thinks about their own lives. However, when the Inspector arrives, the lighting becomes “brighter and harder.” This suggests that there is going to be some kind of interrogation and that secrets are now going to be revealed. It is also a way of showing the family that not everything is about them and that there is more than just their family to think about. The inspector is used by Priestley to wake the family up and to tell them that they have responsibilities upon society just as much as everyone ‘lower’ than them.

Furthermore, throughout the play, Priestley successfully uses the Inspector the way he wanted, as the catalyst of the play as he takes control of how the characters flow into the revelations of their acts. The Inspector has his way of forcing the character to admit their guilt against their own will, no matter how hard they try to conceal the truth. His entrance had even made the characters uncomfortable within an instance. The way he stares right at the person he is speaking to makes them feel like he is looking right through their soul and finding answers to the unquestioned. The Inspector is the main character of the play as even the title is ‘An Inspector Calls’. This shows the importance of his role in the play and he is the one that leads the way of the play. Without the presence of the Inspector the family would never have realised how deeply affecting their past, present and future actions are on others all around them. 

Priestley had brought in a huge amount of social status in ‘An Inspector Calls’; this was shown by the division of classes at the time before the World Wars. The Inspector is presented as Priestley’s mouthpiece to say all of his political ideas and shows his views on the social structure of the pre-war society. He was trying to show the world that if change does not happen soon between people then something terrible will happen. The Inspector’s view and version, therefore Priestley’s view of socialism is quite utopian. It seems related to Marxist analysis of capitalist labor practises that debates that the owners of capital are constitutionally unwilling to contemplate the plight of their own workers. This is exactly what happened between Eva smith and Mr Birling and the Inspector makes sure to point it out.

The whole play is designed in a way of presenting the Inspector as the alter ego of Priestley. “We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come when if men will not learn that lesson, they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish. Act three” This is from the Inspector’s final speech to the family just as he was about to leave. It is the most obvious crystallisation of his thinking, which has been developed throughout the play, and seems to have summed up his whole purpose of enlightening the family, and trying to shake them awake to face the reality of this world. The Inspector uses the tricolon of ‘we are’ to get his point through perfectly that everyone makes a difference to the way of the world and that our actions affect the whole population in a ripple effect. In the Inspector’s perspective, humans quite simply have an obligation to one another because it is right in the abstract to care for other people, because a world that ignores and pushes aside the connections and relations between people is not a stable world at all. Consequently, the Inspector’s speech is the ultimate instance in the text of dramatic irony and foreshadowing. Priestley may use the Inspector as a dramatic construct to suggest to the audience that war will be imminent in the future if they do not heed the advice of the Inspector. He signals that the collision between individual and collective interests will generate the need for more, be that in businesses to countries’ colonies. War broke out across the world for the want of full power to one individual, one individual who wanted all to himself, one individual whose pride in his own nation was so overpowering. That individual had views on ruling over more land, the want for more and the sole purpose of seeing through those rose-tinted glasses that are very desired. Humankind had reached this point in time and Priestley had lived and experienced it, forming this play as a way of flagging up warning signs to future generations.