Priestley and His Dramatics: An Inspector Calls - Essay Example

When the play begins, the affluent family of Arthur Birling is all gussied up to celebrate the engagement of Birling's daughter Sheila to Gerald Croft, a handsome young man given to the same set of capitalist canons as his prospective father-in-law. The revelry is paused when Inspector Goole arrives asking for information about the suicide of Eva Smith, Birling's former employee. The interrogation assumes the Birlings to be guilty of the death of the woman. But after the 'inspector' leaves, the family realizes Goole was an impostor and that Eva did not die en route to the infirmary after consuming a disinfectant.

Thus, the interrogation acquires a subconscious quality - a trial of the mind, carried out as it were in real-time. When the play opens, amidst the fizz of the celebration, we hear the social talk between Gerald and Birling. They talk about business, politics, social attitudes, classes, and the like. The philosophy of Birling ("that a man has to make his own way, has to look after himself and his family .") reverberates the hall as the cop enters. He questions why Eva was sacked from the firm and whether she asked for a rise and was the leader of a gang of rebel employees.

Birling is also made to confess that he did have an affair with her last summer. He then proceeds to interrogate Sheila. She was jealous of Eva because she looked better in a few dresses. In fact, the first act of the play is real and fantastic at the same time. Although the inspector is supernatural, the natural characters blend and associate with him so well that the former element is not at all projected. The playwright's skill in driving home the fact of fantasy that is ingrained even in the mundane tenor of everyday life is explicit even at the beginning.

The rivalry between Birling and the father of Sheila is symbolic of not only the spirit of competition in business but also of the rat race after money. Even Gerard sees Sheila not as a wife to be, but as a necessity to de-tense himself when wound up in the machine of business. Priestley exhibits a slice of contemporaneity through a pack of well-etched characters. These people are always amidst us. In fact, they are us.