Week 5 Apply Task - What is the
function of the Inspector in the play?
Function
To maintain an aloof
professionalism.
To control speech and movement on
stage
To create moments of tension and
intrigue.
To show the characters and
audience that all our lives are linked;
to act as a vehicle for Priestley’s
moral message.
To force the characters to reveal
their involvement in Eva’s suicide.
To shock the characters, and the
audience, with the consequences of
their involvement in Eva Smith’s life.
Evidence
Birling: … I know the Brumley police
officers pretty well – and I thought I’d
never seen you before.
The Inspector: Quite so.
Birling: But I don’t understand why you
should come here, Inspector-
Inspector: (cutting through, massively)
Gerald: Any particular reason why I
shouldn’t see this girl’s photograph,
Inspector?
Inspector: (coolly, looking hard at him)
There might be.
‘Because what happened to her then
may have determined what happened to
her afterwards…’
Inspector: I think you remember Eva
Smith now, don’t you, Mr Birling?
Inspector: She wasn’t pretty when I
saw her today, but she had been pretty
– very pretty.
Exploration
He doesn’t appear very friendly and is not
impressed by Mr. Birling’s credentials, showing
that he is solely here to uncover the truth. He
does not believe that social status and
reputation put you above the law, therefore is
not intimidated by Birling’s suggestions that he
has friends in high places.
The inspector makes himself seem like he is a
big presence on stage. The cutting in and
interrupting, is his way of making himself seem
important and wise.
The inspector wants everyone to be on the edge
of their seats. Therefore, he will talk slowly and
in a deep, low voice to create suspense.
The whole events of the play are a chain of
events. The Birling family and Gerald Croft are
like dominoes. It leads from one catastrophe to
another. In my opinion, this should also make
the possibility that this all happened to the
same girl very unlikely.
The inspector will single each character out, in
front of witnesses so that once it is said, it
cannot be unsaid.
The inspector wants the characters to think
about what they have done. He thinks that they
will be horrified by the fact that Eva Smith was
a pretty, young girl with her whole life ahead of
her, and together, the Birling family and Gerald
Croft have ended it.