An Inspector Calls: Writer's Methods and Techniques (Edexcel IGCSE English Literature)

Writer’s Methods and Techniques

‘Methods’ is an umbrella term for anything the writer does on purpose to create meaning. Using the writer’s name in your response will help you to think about the test as a conscious construct and will keep reminding you that Priestley purposely put the play together.

Dramatic Methods

There are a number of dramatic methods used in An Inspector Calls:

• dramatic structure

• stagecraft

• dramatic speech and language

Dramatic structure

• An Inspector Calls follows a three-act structure which utilises many conventions of the detective genre, though some of these have been subverted:

  • The Inspector’s speech does not provide any further revelations but simply repeats the moral message of the play

• Priestley structures the play using some dramatic devices from Greek tragedy, specifically the Three Unities, to create intensity and add an element of realism to the play:

  • Unity of Place: the play is set in one location

  • Unity of Time: the events are enacted in real-time

  • Unity of Action: the play has only one plot 

• In the opening section of the play, Priestley has introduced the Birlings, established their social positions and gives some clues to the audience that this depiction of a happy family is not quite what it seems:

  • Priestley prepares the audience for the characters’ downfall

• Priestley has structured the play so that each act presents the audience with a number of gradual revelations, twists and surprises:

  • This is used to increase tension, create shock and/or and add an element of surprise

• The play employs a cyclical structure, meaning the play ends where it began with a call from a police inspector:

  • This structure may indicate the characters will be made to repeat the events of the evening, with another opportunity of redemption for those characters who had refused to do so 

  • It could also indicate that these characters are doomed to repeat the same mistakes as before and will fail to ‘learn their lesson’

• In order to create suspense and shock, Priestley subverts the denouement of the play, by ending the play on a cliff-hanger with an unexpected twist:

  • The pattern of ending each act on a cliff-hanger will have been anticipated by the audience

  • However, the revelation that a girl has just died and a police inspector is on his way will have created a thrilling end to the play

Stagecraft

• The events of the play take place in the Birlings’ dining room:

  • The single location of the play may signify the Birlings’ relative isolation and detachment from the lower classes

  • It also adds an element of entrapment with the characters seeming unable to escape the Inspector’s interrogation 

• The intimate location also creates a contrast between the private and public spheres of the family:

  • The revelations exposed are at this point a private family matter, yet the impending visit of the police inspector at the end of the play will threaten to bring events into the public sphere

• The sharp sound effect of the doorbell when the Inspector arrives interrupts Arthur’s speech about the importance of looking after oneself:

  • This forewarns the audience that his attitude is about to be challenged by the Inspector

• The lighting changes from ‘pink and ‘intimate’ to suggest that the Inspector will place the characters under great scrutiny:

  • It may also indicate that the characters will begin to see events with greater clarity and in a new light

• Priestley uses cliff-hangers at the end of each act and begins each subsequent act where the previous one finished, which helps to maintain tension and pace

• Dramatic entrances and exits are used to create further suspense:

  • Sheila dramatically exits the stage when she is shown a photograph of Eva, showing she is distraught

• Priestley deliberately makes Eric a peripheral character for much of Acts I and II:

  • His repeated absences from the stage are used to delay Eric’s confession until the dramatic final act

• Priestley deftly creates tension through a variety of methods:

  • The use of silence and pauses

  • Information about Eva and each of the character’s involvement with her is only gradually revealed to the audience

• The use of photographs is used to great effect:

  • This assumes great importance at the end of the play when it is suspected he may have been showing a different photo to each character

• There is a strong contrast in the first half of the act compared to the second half in terms of both character and mood:

  • The first half illustrates the prosperity and smugness of the Birlings

  • The second half enables the audience to observe its destruction

Dramatic speech and language

It is important to consider the ways in which Priestley organises speech and language within the play. For example, the use of dialogue; the use of monologues and each character’s specific use of language.

Dramatic Irony

• Priestley uses a great deal of dramatic irony throughout the first part of Act I

• Priestley deliberately uses dramatic irony, in part, to portray Arthur Birling as foolish when the character smugly boasts about the Titanic ship and the future prospects of peace and prosperity:

  • Arthur’s optimism for the future is superficial and his predictions demonstrate his complacency

  • However, this suits him, for he has much to lose if things were to change

• Arthur Birling’s speech also serves several dramatic purposes:

  • It presents a picture of a world safe for Capitalism to thrive

  • The speech also shows a man confident in his own judgement and totally self-satisfied

  • However, the audience is clearly aware of the sinking of the ship and the war which followed two years after the play was set

  • His pronouncements display him as a self-opinionated materialist whose confidence in his own judgement is a sham

• While understandably Arthur would not have been able to predict these future events, Priestley deliberately uses this device to further ridicule his character, by presenting Arthur as a character unworthy of sympathy

Moralistic Language

• The Inspector is the most important voice within the play:

  • He speaks “carefully” and “weightily” and controls the events and dialogue

  • As he is used to developing the plot, much of his speech is filled with questions and imperatives (“And be quiet for a moment and listen to me. …This girl killed herself- and died a horrible death. But each of you helped to kill her. Remember that. Never forget it.”)

• He delivers many lengthy monologues 

• The Inspector is also dramatic in his speech:

  • Ideas relating to social responsibility are repeatedly interwoven throughout his dialogue

  • He continually uses the pronoun ‘we’ to highlight his message of social responsibility

Foreshadowing

Priestley uses foreshadowing on many different occasions in the first act of the play to hint to the audience what is about to happen:

• Sheila makes the comment to Gerald: “…except for all last summer when you never came near me, and I wondered what had happened to you”:

  • This alludes to Gerald’s affair with Eva/Daisy

• Sheila comments to Eric: “You’re squiffy”, accusing Eric of being drunk:

  • This alludes to the audience that Eric’s drinking is a fairly constant feature of his behaviour

• Birling’s comical remarks to the family: “we must behave ourselves, don’t get into the police court or start a scandal”:

  • This suggests a potential scandal is indeed about to be revealed