Inspector's Last Speech In Act 3 example essay topic

Can a simple inspection turn people's minds around? Well, Inspector Goole certainly turned the Birling's mind around, by inspecting them one by one. During his inspection we see the effect he has on the play. He represents Priestley's central themes, and sends a message to the audience, stating that everything we do or say can affect other people's lives. And by his mysterious appearance we are able to see that he plays an important role in the play.

The Inspector helps moves the story forward. He pressures the characters, to answer quickly to his questions, he hurries them up by telling them that he has no time to waste, "And my trouble is- that I haven't much time". always looking at his watch, as if he is in a hurry, because something is going to happen, and he must finish all his inquiries before that mysterious event happens. This heightens the tension in the play. He is always telling each character to wait for their turn, because he must make one inquiry at time. He says in Act 1, "One person and one inquiry at a time". by this he is making each character confess their guilt one by one, and by making one inquiry at a time, he links each character's action to the suicide, so that in this way, they all feel guilty for Eva's death, and they can't blame the other characters; it also makes it easy for the audience to realize how each person is guilty in a different way. The play is speeded by techniques used by the Inspector, which make the pace of the play fast and in some cases slow.

The Inspector asks straightforward questions, with short answered questions. We can see he throws three short answered questions at the same time, "where? ... What? ... Was?

". . These three short answered questions are continuous, and because they are continuous, the inspection is made quicker and the pace of the play is increased. He also interrupts each character a lot, when they are about to discuss between them or give a speech, this also helps the pace of the play move faster as the inquiries take place, he does this by saying in Act 2 "Don't start on that. I want to get on... ".

. The inspector also questions one family member per time, he says in Act 1 "One person and one inquiry at a time". By making one inquiry at a time, he leads each character's action to the suicide, so that in this way, they all feel guilty for Eva's death, and they can't blame it on the other characters. The Inspector is also hurrying up, as if he wants to leave, before the phone call takes place. This helps move the story forward, because if the whole event was a hoax as the Birling's suspicion is, therefore, by him inspecting one person at a time, it would prevent the Birling's suspecting, that he is not a real police Inspector, and it would help the Inspector move the story forward and make it go exactly as he wants it to, by making them believe that Eva Smith is dead, and that each one of them is responsible for her death. During his questioning he creates dramatic tension, by making each character confess.

He says in a slow manner, "are you sure you don't know... ". (Act 2), creating tension too the characters. He also seems to know a small bit of information, before he starts questioning each character.

When he returns from the drawing room, he seems to know that Gerald knew who was Eva Smith, and he enters and asks Gerald, "Well?" as if he knew Gerald had something to do with the girl, by asking this he creates tension, because we don't know what is going to happen, and what Gerald has to do with the death. Inspector Goole also creates the characters dramatic tension, when Eric leaves, consequently the Inspector tells Mr. and Mrs. Birling", If he's not back soon, I shall go and find him", this creates tension between both parents. Priestley's central themes are presented through the Inspector; he presents us one of Priestley's themes, which consists of 'Social Responsibility'. This theme is presented to us when he answers back to Mr. Birling saying in Act 2, "Public men have responsibilities as well as privileges", Inspector Goole says this, because Mr. Birling, doesn't accept responsibility, for what he did to Eva Smith, and he is trying to intimidate the Inspector by using his social position. The Birling family is criminal, but Priestley presents this in an illegal criminal sense and a moral sense. The inspector proves to us that Eric is a criminal in a legal sense.

When he says, "You mean you stole the money" (Act 3), while as the rest of the family are criminal in a moral sense, because they do not kill Eva physically, they all do irresponsible things that lead her to suicide. The Inspector makes them feel guilty, by saying in his speech in Act 3, "If men will not learn their lesson, then they will be taught in fire, blood and anguish". He uses a very serious and threatening tone of voice. The audience is engaged into the play, and at the end, the inspector is addressing his speech to the audience. "We don't live alone, we are members of a body". this is a message delivered by the Inspector to the audience, making them see, that we don't live alone, and that everything we do or say in our lives affects other people, because we live together in one society, he communicates this to us by saying in his speech in Act 3, "We are members of one body". The Inspector makes the characters see things and learn lessons that they needed to learn, but at the same time, he fails to make some of them learn all the lessons.

The inspector makes the characters realize that they are all responsible and guilty for pushing Eva Smith to committing suicide, and by his inquiries the characters are able to realize this. They say in act 3, "If there's else, we " ll have to share our guilt."It doesn't make any difference", the Birling are taught, that whether he was a real police Inspector or not, it doesn't really make a difference, because the fact that Eva is dead still stands. At the same time, the Inspector fails to teach Mr. Birling the lesson of responsibility, because he is the first one to forget about it. Mrs. Birling never accepts her responsibility, "I accept no blame". He says in his last speech in act 3, "There are millions and millions of Eva Smith and John smith". Making each character, including the audience, realize that every thing we say or do in our every day life, can affect other people, and that we have to take care of others.

All the characters respond differently to his 'inspection', Sheila is the only member of the Birling family who accepts her responsibility, and actually feels sorry for Eva, "I know I'm to blame". She also joins the inspector, to help inspect other character later on the play " Go on mother, you might as well admit". Eric acts suspiciously throughout the play, and acts miserably when he is questioned, he feels ashamed for what he has done, and like Sheila, he turns against his father, arguing about what he did was wrong. Gerald reacts differently from Sheila, he doesn't want to be inspected, and he wants to hide everything he knows from the inspector, "We can keep it away from him".

Mr. and Mrs. Birling, don't accept and take responsibility for what they have done, Mrs. Birling thinks that she did the right thing that had to be done, "my action was justified", while Mr. Birling he doesn't care about Eva, all he's worried about is public image. "I was almost certain for a knighthood in the next honors list". The play can be seen as a Detective play. Where the Inspector plays the role of a policeman. In act 2 the Inspector says, "It's my duty to ask questions", and even though as the story moves forward, we realize that he doesn't sound or act as an ordinary police Inspector, because he makes comments which are unusual to be said by a typical police Inspector instead of just asking questions, One of these comments, is the comment he makes in act 1, where he tells Mr. Birling "It's better to ask for the world than take it". Because Mr. Birling says that labor costs should be kept down, because people would be asking for the world, and by this comment the Inspector suggests that Birling is exploiting the working class, and he is winning a lot of profit with his business.

As the inspector questions, he always has part of the information, and part of the story, that is going to be said by the rest of the characters. He says he gets all this information from a diary Eva had kept, he says this in Act 2, "she kept a rough sort of diary". He always asks straightforward questions, and short answered questions, which are direct. He speaks in a determined way, and looks sharply at the person he is speaking to. The Inspector also makes the character's turn against each other; he makes the children turn against their parents. In act 3 Eric says to his parents, "You are acting childish", suggesting, that they don't think like they do.

In the play we see a crime, which is Eva's suicide, and it is the police Inspector job, to find out what gave Eva the final push for her to commit suicide. This suggests that the play is a detective play. Criminal activity is also seen in the play, where the characters are moral criminals, and Eric is a criminal in a legal way. In act 3, the Inspector proves that Eric is a criminal in a legal sense by showing that he stole the money he was giving to Eva from his father's office, he proves this by saying, "you mean you stole the money". It can be also suggested that the play is a morality play, in where the Inspector play's the role of the Birling's voice of conscience. The inspector teaches them lessons on life, by saying in Act 3, "We are members of one body", he teaches them that everything we do or say can affect other people's lives.

He is their conscience, which makes them confess the truth bit by bit. Each character represents the seven deadly sins, Mr. Birling represents pride, he abuses of his social position to intimidate the Inspector. While as Sheila represents envy, she felt envy towards Eva, we see this, when she says in Act 1 "she was very pretty and looked as if she could take care of herself". The characters names are representative in the play, they represent something about each character, Inspector Goole, suggests the representation of a ghoul, which means ghost. Mr. Birling's name represent something heavily built because his name reminds us of the word burly. The name Eva Smith, represents the working class, because this name is very common.

In the Inspector's last speech in act 3, he says, "millions and millions of Eva and John smiths". By this he represents the whole working class. The comments the Inspector makes through the play, sound like those in the Greek chorus, one example, that sounds like a Greek chorus, is the comment the Inspector makes to Mr. Birling in Act 1, "Its better to ask for the world than to take it". From another point of view, the play can be see as a political play, where the Inspector represents the socialist, and Birling represents the capitalists. Where Priestley gives his points of view through the Inspector, meaning the Priestley is a socialist, we suggest that he is a socialist, because he criticizes the capitalists throughout the play, through the Inspector. The Inspector undermines birling in four different ways.

He turns their words against them, by suggesting the contrary. He uses dramatic irony in his speech in act 1 to undermine Birling, because he feels very confident about certain things, that makes him look stupid to the audience in 1945. Such as when he says that the titanic is unsinkable, in Act 1, "absolutely unsinkable", and we now know that in 1912 the titanic sunk in the Atlantic ocean, and by using theses comment, he looks stupid, because he seems to be very confident, suggesting that he knows everything, by saying in act 1", Now you youngsters just listen to me, I know... ". . He uses the word "I" a lot as he speaks.

And by this way he is undermined. The Inspector also undermines the characters, by turning other characters against them, for example in Act 1 the Inspector uses Birling's own children to undermine him, we notice this, when Eric says", It isn't if you can't go and work somewhere else", Eric undermines his father, because he said that it is a free country, and by saying this comment, Birling is undermined. The play can be also seen as a religious play, where the Inspector's role is God, or a prophet giving a warning. In his last speech, he suggests he is God, because he talks in a very biblical language as from the Old Testament, and uses a threatening and serious tone of voice, as if he was preaching the audience and the characters; he says this in his last speech in Act 3, "Fire, blood and anguish...

". By this he suggests that he is like a prophet from the old testament, warning everybody that God is going to come, and that if they are evil, they will be punished. At the end of the play the Inspector's last speech is addressed to the audience, he makes the audience think differently, and suggests them to analyze each of their actions, before actually making them, because everything we do in our lives affects others. He makes us as the audience realize this, by saying in his last speech in Act 3, "There are millions and millions of eva and John Smith still left with us", "We don't live alone, we are members of one body". Was the Inspector a time traveler, the Birling's guilty conscience or was he really a ghost? Whether he was or wasn't, it doesn't make a difference.

Is there some relationship between his name Goole? The Inspector's name represent the word ghoul, but even though he wasn't a real police inspector, he turned to be the Birling inspector, "He was our police inspector", the one who made them realize their moral values, and taught them a lesson. He was the one who inspected them and made them confess the truth bit by bit.