preview

J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls Essay

Decent Essays
Open Document

J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls

In the play 'An inspector calls' by JB priestly, there are a range of dramatic devices used, you can see foreshadowing; where the characters hint at things that you see or learn later. There are the entrances and exit; the dramatic ways that these are used. Also the climatic curtain is used, leaving the readers on a cliff hanger. And finally dramatic irony and denouement are used. All these dramatic devices add up to a brilliant play, about a family who are having a quite night in, when they are disturbed at the dinner table, by a police inspector directing an inquiry on a girl's suicide, and as the story unravels we learn about each characters part to play. …show more content…

Finally we learn that Sheila has a bad temper when Eric says, "She's got a nasty temper sometimes…" (Page5) This is a crucial point, as her temper plays an important part later in the play.

Throughout the play the author, JB Priestly uses entrances and exits to dramatically make characters enter or leave scenes. The first entrance (page10) is the inspectors. My first impression of the inspector when he first arrives in the book, is that of a very serious and clever man, a man that takes his work very seriously, we see an example of this when Mr. Birling says, "Have a glass of port - or a little whiskey?" and the Inspector replies, "No, thank you, Mr. Birling. I'm on duty." This shows that he abides by the rules or his work. I think that the other characters where a little bit surprised at the news of an inspector arriving, as one would be if an unexpected inspector arrived. This is shown when Mr. Birling says, "An inspector? What kind of inspector?"

Sheila makes the next dramatic move (page21), this time an exit, when she runs out of the room after seeing a picture of Eva Smith. The inspector shows her the photo and she runs away as we can see here, "He produces the photograph. She looks at it closely, recognises it with a little cry, gives a half-stifled sob and then runs out." This tells the audience that Sheila has seen this girl before and

Get Access