Notes on 'An Inspector Calls' for GSCE- covering key quotes in depth, characters, context, linguistic and dramatic devices, plot etc. Everything you'll need to get a grade 9 in those essays!
, Introduction
There are a number of references to external events within the play and
these could provide the areas which could be developed further. Among these
are:
➢ The Titanic
➢ The emergence of Russia as a world power
➢ The outbreak of World War One
➢ The importance of the Women’s Rights movement
➢ The rise of Socialism
➢ The writings of H G Wells
Key Notes:
➢ very compact structure to the play, nothing is allowed to distract the audience from
the central theme. There is no sub-plot.
➢ the play takes place in just one location, the action is continuous
➢ Act One begins by introducing the characters and establishing the idea of a happy and
united family looking forward to the future with a degree of confidence. In retrospect,
there are a number of hints that all is not as it seems but these are not particularly obvious
until later in the play. There is nothing to warn us of the shock of the Inspector's visit
➢ events soon gather speed and it is not long before we are being informed of Birling and
Sheila's involvement with Eva Smith
➢ tensions increase, firstly as Gerald's affair is unveiled (and the scandal it would cause)
and Sheila begins to realise that they are all implicated in some way 'he is giving us rope - so
that we’ll hang ourselves'.
➢ Mrs Birling's attempts to shift the blame for the girl's suicide leads her to blame the
father of the unborn child. The tension is heightened at this point by the dramatic
entrance of Eric.
➢ with the departure of the Inspector it would appear that what follows will be something of
an anti-climax as the Inspector's identity is put into doubt by a series of observations
made by the Birling family and Gerald. Even the existence of Eva is called into question.
➢ however, the tension remains to some extent as the two generations confirm the
differences as suggested by the Inspector - the moral divide is very great indeed
, ➢ the final denouement, the phone call announcing that a police inspector is on his way to
ask some questions about a girl who has just died in the infirmary is as shocking as it is
surprising and ensures that the audience will leave the auditorium in a state of real shock
Quick Summary
Act I
Sheila Birling has become engaged to Gerald Croft and as a
result the Birling family have enjoyed a family dinner
together. Mr Birling makes grand speeches giving his views
on technology and industrial relations, emphasising his
opinion that a man should only care about himself and his
family and no-one else. Their evening is suddenly interrupted
by the arrival of a police inspector by the name of Goole who
is making enquiries into the suicide of a young woman called
Eva Smith.
The inspector has a photograph of the woman and from it Mr Birling admits that he once
employed her in his factory but had sacked her over an industrial dispute over wages.
Gerald Croft backs Mr Birling’s belief that he acted within reason. Sheila and her brother
Eric react differently, feeling that their father was harsh in sacking her. However, upon
seeing the photograph herself, Sheila realises that she also sacked the same woman from
her job as a shop assistant.
During the course of Act I it becomes clear that the inspector has an uncanny knowledge
about the family’s dealing with the girl. He then announces that the girl has in fact
changed her name from Eva Smith to Daisy Renton. The reaction that this causes in Gerald
makes it obvious that he knows the girl also. By the time we reach the end of the act the
inspector is already suggesting that many people share the responsibility for the miserable
existence of the young girl which prompted her to take her own life.
Important questions & points about this act:
Why is Mr Birling happy about Sheila’s engagement to Gerald?
Because Gerald’s father had always been his rival.
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