The role/function of Gerlad’s character in the play.
In this series of articles we have looked at the role of each character in the play and what function they serve and how Priestley is using them. In terms of the inspector:
- Priestley does not tell us who exactly this mysterious character is. The mysterious aura around the inspector is only reinforced right at the end when we hear that the second inspector is coming and that a girl (presumably Eva) has died just now.
In other words the figure of the mysterious inspector is given a supernatural air by the fact that not only may he not be actually part of the police force he seems to be able to know the future. This helps to create a degree of mystique around the character and it is important to remember that a play such as ‘An Inspector Calls’ is not merely a political work but also a play, and the primary goal of a play is to entertain it, thus writers often exercise ‘artistic license’, meaning they do not always stick to facts but engage in creativity. As literature, poetry, plays are not about academic research it is seen as perfectly normal to engage in ‘artistic license’. - The inspector may be serving as the voice of society, the voice of morality exposing to the Birling family and their new son in law, Gerald, their part that they have played in the death of Eva Smith and in more general terms a message to the rich in society of their role in the suffering of the working class and a plea for a better, more just society.
Inspector Goole as a supernatural character.
The name which Priestley chose for the inspector is Goole, which sounds almost the same as ‘ghoul’. A ghoul is a demonic creature, a malovelent ghost. Even the very name of the inspector carries with it some association with the supernatural. Nor do we ever know his first name, which adds to the mystery around him.
He is clearly not a normal ‘person’. He may not even be a human being, but some sort of supernatural entity. We do not know for sure as Priestley did not tell us, perhaps deciding it was better for the play and for the character of the inspector to enjoy the air of mystery around him.
However we can see some similarities with other supernatural characters in the works of other British writers such as Dickens. Dicken’s had various supernatural characters in his famous work, ‘ A Christmas Carol’ including various ghosts such as the ghost of Christmas past, Christmas present and Christmas Yet to Come.
Like ‘An Inspector Calls’, ‘A Christmas Carol’ focuses on the rich not helping the poor. However the Christmas Carol has much more of the supernatural and in some ways can be seen as a more sophisticated progression on from fairy tales that younger children would have been reading earlier on in their lives. ‘An Inspector Calls’ is a bit more realistic and only has a slight but powerful dose in the form of the mysterious inspector. Nor is there any reference to religion by Priestley whereas Dickens uses Christmas (a Christian celebration) for his story of Scrooge.
The inspector is a strong character, Priestley wrote of him that he ‘Need not be a big man but he creates at once an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness.‘
There are various examples in history of men or women such as Napoleon and others who are not physically that big or tall but have a very powerful personality or energy around them that inspire respect and perhaps even submissiveness.
Priestley also writes:
”He is a man in his fifties, dressed in a plain darkish suit of the period. He speaks carefully, weightily and has a disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person he addresses before actually speaking”
He is clearly a serious man, dressed in a serious manner with a serious style of speech. The death of a woman is not something light. He looks ‘hard’ at the Birlings. This may reflect the fact that Priestley wants the rich in society to look at themselves to carry out introspection.
The Inspector as an inquisitor
The inspector carries out an inquistorial style with the Birlings, asking them questions to which he knows the answers to, revealing through the night the involvement of all the Siblings in Eva’s death. As he is perceived as an inspector he is seen as an important and powerful figure whom the rich and also powerful Birlings cannot afford to be evasive with or refuse to answer questions to. Answering him is unavoidable.
By extension what could possibly be drawn from this is that there may be a day when everybody will have to reckon with their own deeds, and possibly deal with guilt.
However in addition to being an inquisitor, a questioner, the inspector is also the voice of morality, as we can see in many quotes urging the rich Birlings to have empathy for the poor in society as in the quote:
“…It would do us all a bit of good if sometimes we tried to put ourselves in the place of these young women counting their pennies in their dingy little back bedroom”’
That ‘do us all a bit of good’ and ‘we tried to put ourselves’ does not apply to the Birlings only but to the audience and to society in general especially those who are richer.
In an age of social separation, where TV was not common and no internet, where people could not even visually witness the suffering of the poor Priestley through the inspector makes an impassioned appeal to the rich in society to think and contemplate on the suffering of the poor.
Later on the inspector castigates the Birlings for their role in Eva’s death.
“And be quiet for a moment and listen to me. I don’t need to know any more. Neither do you. This girl killed herself- and died a horrible death. But each of you helped to kill her. Remember that. Never forget it. (He looks from one to the other of them carefully) But then I don’t think you ever will. Remember what you did”
This is again another appeal to the Birlings, but on a deeper level an appeal to the wealthy in society to think about their role in the suffering of the working class.
The inspector leaves in an impressive manner. There are no pleasantries, no superfluous niceties e.g. ‘I hope you have a nice day, it’s cold outside’. No far from that, he delivers a hard hitting, to the point final message ending with a customary ‘Good night’, which is the most he goes in terms of formal pleasantry. He says:
“But remember this. One Eva Smith has gone- but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, and what we think and say and do. 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, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish. Good night.”
Priestley explained later on he deliberately set the play in 1912 as it was two years before a horrific event which had precisely tonnes of ‘fire and blood and anguish’, broke out and that was the first world war.
In contrast to Birling who thinks there will be no war, the inspector seems to allude to the possibility of a war or of a ferocious conflict. The inspector who seems to know everything related to the Birlings and is all-knowing in that context is clearly more intelligent than the somewhat foolish Birling.
The first world war when millions died. It started two years after 1912 the year ‘An Inspector Calls’ is set.
The inspector (and thus Priestley) is telling the Birlings (and thus Priestley is telling society) that we are interconnected and must shoulder collective responsibility for the suffering of the vulnerable in society or otherwise we will suffer collective punishment. Unlike Dicken’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ there is no reference to religion or the hereafter but more perhaps an allusion to karmic comeuppance.
The inspector (Priestley) is telling us all of a common humanity that we share that the likes of Eva Smith who are in the millions have ‘hopes and fears’ too. This is to address the relative de-humanization or ‘otherisation’ of the working class by the rich as inferior and not worthy of respect or much importance, an unpleasant reality that must be endured, rather than as fellow human beings in the family of mankind.
Useful vocabulary for GCSE students in essays and exam questions.
- Otherise – To make someone the ‘other’, not part of you or your community, to exclude them and possibly even view them as an enemy or threat.
- Interconnected– For different things to be connected or linked to each other. Priestley shows we cannot just live pretending other classes do not exist but we are all interconnected whether we like it or not.
- Karma– The belief that ‘what goes around, comes around’, that if you do bad then later on bad will be done to you.
- Mystique – To have an air of mystery around you as the inspector does when he leaves and we see another phone call this time from what seems to be a real actual inspector.
- Allude – An indirect reference to something else. Sometimes understand by only the speaker and the one listening to him due to their common awareness of the context or related facts, whereas a passer by may not understand. The noun is allusion.
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