Discuss the Role of the Inspector in An Inspector Calls Essay -- An In

Birlings, he controls the development of events who will speak andwhen who may or may non leave who will or will not see thephotograph. He even Priestley describes the Inspector, when he firstappears on stage, in terms of massiveness, solidity andpurposefulness (p.11), mean the fact that he is an unstoppableforce within the play. His disconcerting habit of looking hard at theperson he addresses before speaking (p.11) gives the impression thathe sees through with(predicate) surface appearances to the real person beneath. Italso gives him a thoughtfulness that contrasts with thethoughtlessness of each characters treatment of the girl.His role in the play is not simply to expect each character with thetruth, but to force each character to admit the truth they alreadyknow. He works methodically through the characters present 1 at atime, partly because he recognizes that otherwise, theres a muddle(p.12), and partly because, given the chance, the characters are allquick to defend each other, or to call upon extraneous help (such asCol unrivaledl Roberts) in order to avoid accepting the truth of what hesuggests.He arrives just after Birling has been setting out his views of livingthat every man must only look out for himself. The Inspectors rule isto show that this is not the case. Throughout the play he demonstrateshow people are creditworthy for how they affect the lives of othershis views are summed up in his visionary and dramatic final speechthat we are members of one body. We are responsible for each other(p.56). Responsibility is one of the plays two key themes, and theInspector is Priestleys vehicle for putting across his own views ofthis as a socialist. In this final speec... ...led as both an alcoholic and a thief.After the Inspector has gone, Birling simply wants things to return tothe way they were. He cannot understand Sheilas and Erics insistencethat there is something to be learnt, and he is relieved andtriumphant when he feels that scandal has been avoided and everythingis all right. Right up until the end, he claims that theres everyexcuse for what both your mother and I did - it turned outunfortunately, thats all (p.57).Birling is not the common cold and narrow-minded person that his wife is hesimply believes in what he says. He is a limited man, who is shown tobe wrong about many things in the play it is the Birlings of theworld whom Priestley feared - in 1945 - would not be willing or ableto learn the lessons of the past, and so it is to the youngergeneration that Priestley hopefully looked instead...