The Inspector Flashcards
Omnipotent
Definition:
An unstoppable force
The inspector reinforces his power and authority over the rich - the social hierarchy doesn’t restrict him, challenges this. He doesn’t cower to the Birlings.
Tenacious
Definition: someone who is relentless and stubborn about things
Doesn’t let Birlings take control, makes them all confess to the truth
‘One line of inquiry at a time’
Omniscient
All knowing - someone or thing that knows everything going on
Add tension, foresees the future but forces characters to expose their sins with this power (responsibility)
Ubiquitous
Someone or thing that is ever-present
Intimidating, after he leaves Sheila becomes mouthpiece - impressionable conscience
Vicarious(ly)
Acting for someone else or being a substitute
Priestley becomes Inspector, who becomes Sheila - shows the impressionable nature of socialism (inspiring)
Unorthodox
Doesn’t conform to rules or expectations
Challenges capitalist views and social hierarchy/authority. Not a typical inspector, who should be impartial.
‘I don’t play golf’
Recalcitrant
Someone who does what they want and is unruly
Intrudes into home and distressed characters unapologetically
Omnipresent
Being present everywhere all of the time
Morality and message stays with the family, universal socialist view
Systematic
Working in a logical or ordered way
Shows photos in a particular way so that he is in control of the outcome
Conventional view
• proxy for Priestley’s views
• final speech - ‘one Eva Smith has gone, but there are millions and millions and millions’
•capitalist idea of men looking after their own is contrasted with ‘we don’t live alone’
Christianity = socialism
• 80% of the audience would have been Christian
• therefore Priestley connects socialism and Christianity to appear more popular
• ‘we are members of one body’ - deliberate echo of the communion
• biblical allusion would have been recognisable and many would have accepted this teaching, even as capitalists
• much more persuasive than simple politics - the only moral, Christian society MUST be socialist
Inspector promoting an anti-war play
- final speech, ‘fire and blood and anguish’
- prediction is a description of both wars
- making a direct link between capitalism and the desire for war
- war is an economic consequence of capitalism
- ‘lesson’ is that in order to expand markets and defeat competition, British will go to war against its main economic rival, Germany
officers were sons of middle class men - first guys to go out of trenches, most likely to die, means that they sacrifice sons for war as they would be making ammunition, uniforms, etc - devastating consequences - lost sons (who were officers) willing to sacrifice sons for money
Inspector encouraging women to keep their jobs
Most of audience = women, because over a million women now had jobs for the first time since men were abroad in Europe still, needed people to fill them
opportunity for financial independence - don’t want to lose this when the men come back
socialism wouldn’t kick women out of jobs
‘if men will not learn..’ - Priestley is appealing to the female audience, inviting them to see war as a male idea
Churchill voted out because he was so strongly associated with war - no longer trusted, Labour Landslide, still hasn’t been one as big since
Inspector as a proxy for Priestley’s great anger
‘the front door slam’ - dramatically very effective as it’s the last sound of the act
Priestley’s proxy for his great anger
Literary allusion to A Christmas Carol
Birlings = Scrooge
Inspector = Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come
dramatically, leaves because it’s important the family can exercise free will
story the audience are familiar with
P flips ACC on its head because they refuse - ‘goole’ is an allusion to the ghouls in ACC
future is altered as a result and Tiny Tim does not die
Priestley deliberately steals - Eva dies because they don’t learn the lesson - audience knows it should end happily
lesson to learn before another World War
Worries about WW3
Priestley wanted to warn the audience that capitalism could lead to World War Three
Priestley founded CND - campaign for nuclear disarmament - to stop WW3 from happening
wanted a future free of war
Entertainment
Audience want to try and figure out who the Inspector is
‘pink’ turns ‘brighter and harsher’ because the truth is exposed, no longer rose-tinted glass
Edna and the Inspector
significant she introduces him, because he is her natural ally
‘he says he is a police inspector’
‘burnt her inside out, of course’
repetition of irony to reinforce this is the way the working class are driven to behave
