

This gives the audience time to reflect on the events of the play.

In An Inspector Calls there is a twist at the end of the plot - the characters are unsure if the Inspector existed at all. Each revelation is more shocking than the last and so Priestley cleverly builds to the climax. They do not know what happened to Eva Smith and so each revelation about her treatment by the Birlings and Gerald Croft adds to the drama. This structure allows J B Priestley to manipulate the audience. A well-made play usually ends with a return to order but Priestley moves away from this genre with the revelation at the end.Īn Inspector Calls is a well-made play because the events are all influenced by what happened to Eva Smith before the play takes place What is the effect of this? This is often concerned with events that happened before the events of the play. In a well-made play the plot is intricate and complex and the action builds to a climax.

All productions of An Inspector Calls will be different, some might focus on a particular theme or could use staging in different ways which will give the performance a slightly different feel.Īn Inspector Calls fits into three possible genres:Ī well-made play is a popular dramatic genre from the 19th-century. There are stage directions to help guide actors and it is written in lines of dialogue. and never dull' Anthony BurgessIf you enjoyed An Inspector Calls, you might like Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.The form is the type of text and genre that the writer chooses to write in.Īn Inspector Calls is written in the form of a play and so it is meant to be heard and seen in performance. 'A vastly talented and exceptionally versatile and wise writer' Iris Murdoch'Priestley was volcanic, fertile. The other powerful plays in this collection - 'Time and the Conways', 'I Have Been Here Before' and 'The Linden Tree' - explore time, fate, free will and the effects of war. Priestley's most famous play, shows us the terrible consequences of poverty and inequality. As their guilty secrets are gradually revealed over the course of the evening, 'An Inspector Calls', J.ī. We are responsible for each other'A policeman interrupts a rich family's dinner to question them about the suicide of a young working-class girl.
