My take on ‘An Inspector Calls’

I guess upon passivly reading/watching the play it leaves you with many questions. Who is the Inspector and who is Eva? Are both of them even real? So yes being the person I am, I shall share my veiws on this.

The Inspector

I guess the inspector serves as the ringleader of the play. He is god, the voice of Priestly. The inspector acts as the trigger and is the cause of the nights events. His strategic way of investigating one line of enqiary at a time makes the audiance on edge and unravells the story at a perfect pace. At the end were left wondering. Is it the same girl? As Birling and Gerald imply at the end, it may have been a hoax. Was he a fraud? The two still hadn’t chanched their ways after the inspector had left. Birling, too stuck in his old ways. An optamistic veiw of the world.  He’s right and no one is ever more right than him. Gerald, being bought up an aristocrat, again. Had not seen a huge change in the course of the play. Priestly included the inspector to get his own veiws across. To change the audiances idea of responsability. The butterfly effect. Our actions affect everyone. Even though we may not know or care about it at the time. He makes us aware of how lots of small things can lead up to one big tragedy. A lost life… 

The inspector is a rather inspiring character. I guess because Priestly was desperste for change. Equality. The inspectors last speech is more directed to us. The audiance. The speach in itself rather eye opening and thought provoking. 

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 interwined with our lifes, and what we think and say and do. We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for eachother.  And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men do not learn that lessson, then they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish. Good night.

 

I guess this speech could do serve as a warning. “Then they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish” I guess it’s like saying if you do not learn the error of your ways and start taking responsabilty for you actions one day it will come back and hit you in the face. Just because you ahve it easy for not it doesn’t mean you will have it easy forever. The overriding theme of the play is responsability. For ourselves and society. “We are members of one body.” Our lives are all interlinked. We need to take responsability for our actions. Treat others how we wish to be treated ourselves. Eva Smith was an innocent woman. Described often as “Pretty” and by Gerald as “Warm- hearted.” This shows us that people often die innocently. Eva deserved more than she recived. Eva deserved love and security. She deserved happiness and her death was a great tragedy. Preistly wasnted to open the eyes of the audiance, make them realise that social class shouldn’t matter. Being rich doesn’t make you the best and being poor doesn’t mean you’ve done anything wrong. Preistly belives everyone deserves help in life and everyone deserves to be treated with respect. That is what the inspector was there to do.

So is the inspector real? Well I guess thats your desision. I myself have to belive he was actually there. In the birlings home, only because it’s difficult to belive all that happened and he was never there in the first place. I still belive that even though he was there in a way he is Priestly’s voice. He is god. He has control of the situation, and often the one who takes charge. The inspector is also our consience. Serving us the oppertunity to evaluate ourselves.

Eva Smith

Well Eva. In my eyes she represents every working class woman. Represents everyone mistreated by society. Everyone who recived less than they deserved. I belive this in part because Smith is the most common english surname and Eva is close to Eve, who in the story of creation was the first woman to walk  the earth. Another reason for my beliveing this is the inspectors last speech. “One Eva Smith has gone” This is hinting at the fact that Eva. She really was just a cover up. A name to the face all the characters remember. Apart from Gerald who knew her as Daisy Renton. The inspectors speech also uses repetition of the word “millions”, further engaging the audiance and making them realise that maybe this girl is not real as such but there are many like her in society and they all deserve help and to be cared for. Least of all they deserve respect. My views are also supported by the fact that we can’t be sure the inspector showed everyone the same photo. So yes there is a chance that they are all talking about different girls but the actions are still the same. 

So how did the inspector know a girl was going to die? How did he know so much about the Birlings? Theres something a little fishy here. 

Yes this does seem a little odd. Maybe the inspector is a psychic or he too could have had some involvment with the girl himself. This issue could also draw back to him not being real. A ghost maybe, the name “Goole” hints to it. I guess thats for you to decide.