“In Act One of ‘An Inspector Calls’ how does Priestley use dramatic devices to convey his concerns? - page 5
Keywords: Act One; Dramatic devices and How it is conveyed to the audience
By Shin on 13/06/2008
Level: GCSE Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11)
Page Number: 5 of 6 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6
and guilty. By doing this, Priestley keeps the audience entertained, interested, and makes the plot easier to follow.
Priestley shows that there is more than one way of being responsible about something and then feel guilty about it just like the reasons the Inspector gathered when he interrogated each member of the family. For example, the Birling family is responsible for Eva Smith 's death with several reasons: Mr Birling and his connection with Eva regarding businesses: Mrs Birling and her connection with Eva regarding the treatment of the workers and Sheila and her connection with Eva regarding her spoilt ness. Because of these reasons, each character feels guilty because they know for sure why and how they were involved in Eva's death and the only the Inspector could show them that.
Priestley uses the effect of the cliff hanger at the ending of Act One of 'An Inspector Calls' in order to convey his concerns about spoiled children. Before the Inspector says, "Well?" to Sheila and Gerald in a speech, Sheila speaks to Gerald trying to get everything he knew about Daisy Renton. When she spoke to him, she boasts at him like a spolied child, "Of course he knows. And I hate to think how much he knows that we don't know yet. You see. You see." -Because of her childish behaviour, the Inspector overhears and was certain that Gerald was involved. Priestley shows that spoiled children are like that, getting others involved into something that didn't necessarily involve them. This makes the audience more excited and interested because they know that the scene was not supposed to end that way but unfortunately it did because of Sheila. This creates suspense for the members of the audience because they want to know what will happen instead of what they predicted will happen.
I think that the playwright changes my opinion of the Birlings during Act One. I thought of them as very selfish, very irresponsible, they didn't care about anyone apart from themselves and they didn't care about the world. However, I do find that some of the members in the Birlings family have changed such as Gerald now being more modest and Sheila being less spoilt and childish.
Priestley definitely keeps the audience involved and interested in the play. The most effective devices I think he has used is the Dramatic irony and the use of the
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