An Inspector Calls - Study Guide

Starter Activity

Determining the Pros and Cons
PMI (plus, minus, interesting) is a brainstorming, decision making and critical thinking tool. It is used to encourage the examination of ideas, concepts and experiences from more than one perspective. PMI was developed by Dr. Edward de Bono, a proponent of lateral and critical thinking.


A PMI strategy can help you to:
* to brainstorm ideas
* make decisions quickly by analysing and weighing the pros and cons
* reflect upon or evaluate a product or processs after the fact
* identify strengths and weaknesses for future improvement


Watch these two clips on the context of 'An Inspector Calls'

Literary detectives

For your study of this play, your class is going to divide into four groups to look at different aspects you will need to write about in your exam. Your groups will focus on:

Characters

Themes (social responsibility v selfishness; class; gender)

Dramatic Devices (stage directions; subtext; entrances and exits; dramatic irony; tension)

The Inspector

Each group has 10 tasks to complete and one or two computers on which to research and record your answers. Homework for each lesson is to write a PEA paragraph on one of the questions you have answered during the lesson. You have two double lessons to complete your 10 questions for each Act (so, 30 questions in all).  By the end of your second double lesson, you need to email your responses to the tasks to everyone else in your class.

You need to decide how to divide up the tasks so that you can compete them all as a group in the time given.

Two useful sources for your research are BBC Bitesize and the Revision Rocks MP3s (on your GCSE English blog).

The following statements are key themes from ‘An Inspector Calls’, around which you will base your research:

•  It’s a play about class and the gap between the poor and the wealthy;
•  It’s a play about women and their changing role in society;
•  It’s a play about social responsibility – that we all owe it to our fellow human beings to look out for them;
• It’s a warning play – that everyone, the whole of society, needs to change or else society will be utterly destroyed;
•  It’s a political play about the evils of capitalism and the benefits of Marxism and its philosophy;
• It’s about the lies people use to portray themselves in a certain way;
• It’s about the way time works in layers – events of 1912 (when the play is set) are aligned with events in 1944 (when the play was written) and events in 1914 (when Priestley was buried alive in a trench during the Battle of the Somme in WWI);
•  It’s certainly not just what it appears to be on the surface – a supernatural thriller about one family and the mysterious suicide of a girl who has a connection with each of them.

Priestley tells us a lot about the characters before anyone speaks – he’s a director as well as a writer. He clearly wants the actors to know exactly how to portray their characters in order to convey his multiple messages.

ACT 1

Context

The characters reveal a great deal about society’s attitudes and values. This is the Edwardian Age, a time of golden opportunity, following directly from the Victorian Era which had seen much social reform but very little for women or working class people. Now, trade associations were beginning to have a voice. However, there was no NHS or welfare state, and most people stayed in the same place in society as they were born into. By the 1930s, the Labour Party had come to power, but at the time the play was set, no such thing existed.

Group Questions

Act 1 

Group 1: Character

1. In the stage directions, the characters are all described at the start of the first act. What do those descriptions of each character suggest about them? How are we then supposed to feel about them?

· Mr Birling

· Mrs Birling

· Sheila Birling

· Gerald Croft

· Eric Birling



2. Why is Mr Birling happy about Sheila’s engagement to Gerald? What does it show about him?

3. How would you describe the relationship between Sheila and Gerald? Does it seem a relationship of equals at this point? Explain your answer.

4. When Mr Birling talks about war and the Titanic, how are the audience supposed to feel about him and why? (Bear in mind, this was first performed in 1946)

5. Pick three stage directions used for Mr Birling between P.11 and 16 – say why they have been used by Priestley and what they convey about Mr Birling.

6. What do you think Gerald’s first line on P.13 shows about him? How could it be interpreted in two different ways?

7. How would you describe Eric’s involvement in the conversation on P.15? What does it show about him in contrast to the older Mr Birling?

8. Pick out three quotations for Sheila over P.17 to 19 and say how you feel about the character and why.

9. On P.26, what are Gerald and Sheila’s different approaches to talking to the Inspector? What is Priestley trying to show about each character?

10. Pick out one key quotations for each of the following characters that you feel effectively captures their character in Act One:

· Mr Birling

· Mrs Birling

· Sheila Birling

· Gerald Croft

· Eric Birling

Group 2: Act 1 Themes

1. How is the theme of class conveyed in the first three pages? Pick three quotations that link to class and explain what they convey about it.

2. Responsibility – What are Mr Birling’s views on responsibility? How do you think they may contrast with Priestley’s views and why?

3. What is Mr Birling’s attitude to his workers? What does this suggest about Priestley’s ideas about class? P.14 – 15

4. How is the theme of difference between the generations explored in P.16 – 17? What would you say the key difference is in the reaction of the older and younger people and how could you link that to what you think Priestley is suggesting?

5. How are women presented by Priestley in P.19 – 20? Explain your answer with reference to specific language?

6. How is class an issue on P.23? Explain your answer.

7. Pick three quotations each for

Men                                                              Women
Ø “                                                                 “
Ø “                                                                 “
Ø “                                                                 “

8. How do you think the themes of class and responsibility are linked in the act? Explain your answer with reference to characters and events.

9. Structurally, what does Sheila realise about responsibility by the end of Act 1?

10. What do you feel is the most important theme explored in Act 1 and why? What does this suggest to you about Priestley’s message?

Group 3: Act 1 Dramatic Devices:

In your research on the dramatic devices used by Priestley, bear in mind the points above. Think about:

Stage directions

Subtexts (what’s implied)

Dramatic Irony

Tension

Structure

When Priestley wrote this play, it was conventional to divide plays into three acts, with two intervals for the audience to stretch their legs and get an ice cream or a drink. Priestley, however, wrote this play as a continuous drama, with no scene changes. Modern productions often run without an interval and with continuous real-time action, which makes for great drama as the audience sees the events unfold at the same time as the characters do.

Think about the chains of events which occur due to the actions of the various characters that we learn of gradually. Look out for points in the play where the actions and choices of characters have consequences or repercussions.

Think of the Inspector more as a tool to reveal ideas and attitudes to us, giving us a new perspective on everything.

Note the entrances and exits of characters. This draws your attention to key ideas and themes.

Form

It has been suggested that ‘An Inspector Calls’ is a modern version a Medieval Morality Play where the characters represent the Seven Deadly Sins: Lust, Wrath, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony, Pride and Envy. We could say the Inspector has called to judge the characters and get them to repent of their sins, guiding them towards a better future.

Language

Not only what the characters say, but the way they say it…

Focus Points for ACT 1

1. Read the Introduction at the beginning of your copy of the play. Use a highlighter and pencil to annotate key points, such as Priestley’s time in the army, references to ‘An Inspector Calls’ and the context. Pick out 10 key points to note down and memorise.

2. Read and annotate the detailed stage directions. Write 5-6 bullet points explaining why Priestley uses such detail. 

3. PMI – using your knowledge of PMI from your lessons on the Spoken Language Study, do a PMI on the use of one unchanging set for the whole of the play. 

4. Clearly this is quite a complex play, difficult to pigeonhole into a certain genre. Is it a mystery, a detective thriller, a supernatural horror, a historical play or a political one? A bit of all of these? Make a spider diagram to investigate each of these genres. Include points from Act 1 to support each one. 

5. Dramatic irony – look up the definition of dramatic irony and find as many examples as you can from Mr Birling’s speeches in Act 1. 

6. The plot can be seen as a chain of events gradually revealed to support reasons why all of the Birling family are responsible for Eva’s death. Draw a chain and show how it is created in Act 1 (showing how each character is linked to Eva). 

7. The photograph – The Inspector uses the photograph to very good effect, showing it only to one person at any one time. Each time, it has a dramatic effect on the character, especially Sheila. This adds to the sense of mystery, as no-one can be sure that they have seen the same photograph. Draw the photograph and, around it, the characters who see it in Act 1 with labels to show their reactions. 

8. It has been suggested that ‘An Inspector Calls’ is a modern version a Medieval Morality Play where the characters represent the Seven Deadly Sins: Lust, Wrath, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony, Pride and Envy. We could say the Inspector has called to judge the characters and get them to repent of their sins, guiding them towards a better future. Draw a diagram of the characters interviewed in Act 1 showing which of the Deadly Sins they represent. 

9. Draw a storyboard to show who is on stage at each different moment once the Inspector arrives. Note that the characters are never alone with him when they make their revelations. Write a caption for each storyboard to explain the significance of each entrance and exit. 

10. Priestley tells us in the stage directions that Gerald is ‘crushed’ (p.26). Write a short paragraph to explain how this stage direction creates a contrast from the Gerald we met at the beginning of the play?

Group 4: Act 1 The Inspector

When studying the role of the Inspector, it might help to think of the Inspector as a sort of dramatic device, not so much a ‘real’ character, but more as a tool to reveal ideas and attitudes to us, giving us a new perspective on everything that is revealed throughout the play.

Focus Points for Act 1

1. Read the Introduction at the beginning of your copy of the play. Use a highlighter and pencil to annotate key points where the Inspector is mentioned, particularly from page ix ‘In Performance’.
2. Write four or five bullet points on the significance of the Inspector arriving exactly at the point when Mr Birling is lecturing Gerald.
3. Write four or five bullet points on the connotations of the name ‘Goole’.
4. Write a list of bullet points contrasting Mr Birling and the Inspector (bearing in mind that Birling may stand for everything Priestley hates and wants to change in society, while the Inspector is a force for good).
5. Write a list of adjectives to describe the Inspector – you might use words like ‘purposeful’, ‘determined’…
6.  PMI – using your knowledge of PMI from your lessons on the Spoken Language Study (triangle with PLUS, MINUS, INTERESTING points on the three corners), do a PMI on the Inspector – what’s good about him, what’s not good about him, what’s just interesting?
7. Write another short paragraph analyzing the Inspector’s one-word question, “Well?” at the close of Act 1. You could suggest that this raises the Inspector to the position of an all-knowing inquisitor, increasing the mystery as to where he has got so much detailed knowledge.
8. By the end of Act 1, the Inspector has become much more powerful. He gives his opinions more clearly, setting himself up as a judge, and sums up what has been revealed so far. Find quotations to support these points.
9.  The Inspector’s dialogue consists of quite short lines and incomplete sentences as questions. Write in bullet points the effect of this – to draw out the characters’ confessions? As a prompt?
10. How much do you think of the Inspector as a ‘real’ character and how much as simply a tool to reveal events and attitudes of the characters? Draw a table with two columns – Character and Tool – and then add points to support each idea.

HELP TIP: A very useful study guide which allows you to listen to the play with a helpful commentary aimed at GCSE students is the 'Smart Pass Audio Education Study Guide: An Inspector Calls'.






ACT 2

Group 1 - Character

Group 2 - Themes

Group 3 - Dramatic Devices

Group 4 - The Inspector

Act Two - Group 1 - Character questions

1. On Page 28, how would you describe Gerald and Sheila’s relationship and use key words from their dialogue to back up your ideas? What does this show about the influence of the Inspector on the evening?

2. On Page 29, what do you notice about Sheila’s dialogue and stage directions – what does that show about the character?

3. How would you say Priestley presents Mrs Birling over P.30 to 31? Use three quotations to back up your opinions.

4. Over the course of the act, pick out three key stage direction quotations for each character apart from the Inspector and say what they suggest about the character.

5. Do you feel that Gerald is presented as a likeable character in this act? Use at least three short quotations to back up your answer.

6. On Page 36 and 37, what would you say is interesting about the dynamic of Gerald and Sheila’s relationship as the truth about ‘Daisy Renton’ is revealed? What would you expect to happen and what does happen? Can you link that to the bigger picture of the girl’s tragic death?

7. How would you say Sheila is characterised on P.40? Refer to stage directions and dialogue in your answer.

8. How would you say Priestley has Mrs Birling talk to the Inspector on Pages 42 – 44? What does that reveal about her character and what do you think message do you think Priestley is trying to convey through her?

9. The family start to turn on each other around P.45 to 47. Pick three quotations which show this and explain what these reactions show about the characters.

10. How does Priestley structure the end of Act Two? What does the dialogue and action build towards and how does that affect the audience’s reaction to Mrs Birling?

Act Two Group 2 Theme questions

1. What do you think Priestley wants to show Sheila realises about responsibility across Pages 28 – 29. Pick three short quotations to back up your answer.

2. On Page 30, Priestley has Mrs Birling says ‘Girls of that class’. What do you think the character would have gone on to say and what does that show about her? How is Priestley presenting her and why – link to his ideas on class.

3. Priestley has Sheila use the metaphor of a ‘wall’ between the family and the girl. What do you suppose Priestley wants us to understand by this concept?

4. Get three quotations each from across the Act which shows that Mr and Mrs Birling act as if their class allows them to do what they want.

5. How would you say the younger generation are presented in this Act? Give three different ways and get quotations to back up your ideas.

6. How would you say the theme of family is presented in this scene – make three different points and use at least three quotations in your answer.

7. In terms of Gerald’s deception about ‘Daisy Renton’, what themes are present in terms of the presentation of his relationship with her. Which do you feel is the most important theme and why?

8. What does the episode with the committee and Mrs Birling show about the presentation of class and charity in the play?

9. The fact that the Inspector gets Mrs Birling to demand the young man ‘confess in public his responsibility’ shows what about the theme of family and responsibility?

10. What do you feel is the most important theme explored in Act Two and why? What does this suggest to you about Priestley’s message?

Group 3 - Dramatic Devices Questions - Act 2

1. The play is set in real time, so why do you think Priestley chose this moment to end Act 1 and begin Act 2?

2. Mrs Birling enters "briskly and self-confidently, quite out of key with the little scene that has just passed". How does Mrs Birling's entrance interrupt the tone that has just been created between Sheila and the Inspector?

3. Priestley uses stage directions frequently to indicate the tone of voice the actors should use in their conversations. Find three examples of this and explain why you think Priestley has indicated this particular tone (e.g. SHEILA "[urgently, cutting in]" when Mrs Birling is saying, "Girls of that class...").

4. The characters interrupt each other frequently in this scene, cutting each other off just as they are about to express themselves. What effect does this create upon the pace and tension?

5. Mr Birling enters just after Mrs Birling says, "Though naturally I don't know anything about this girl." He is "rather hot, bothered". How does this contrast with Birling's appearance in Act 1?

6. Pick out three stage directions that show that the Inspector is in command during Act 2. How does this help to make him a figure of authority?

7. Read from where the Inspector says, "Who is to blame then?" to the end of Act 2. What is the significance of the timing of Eric's entrance?

8. How does Mrs Birling's tone change when she realises Eric is involved? Give examples from the text.

9. Find two examples of where there is much tension created by what the characters say (particularly Mrs Birling).

10. Give an example of dramatic irony in this Act (there are plenty!).

Group 4 - The Inspector - Act 2

1. The scene begins with an argument between Sheila and Gerald, intercepted by the Inspector "massively taking charge", according to the stage directions. Why do you think Priestley adds this stage direction just as Sheila tells Gerald, "And this is just the wrong time not to believe me."?

2. The Inspector then emphasises Sheila's sense of responsibility about Eva Smith's death by using repetition: "She'll be alone with her responsibility, the rest of tonight, all tomorrow, all the next night - " Thinking about the theme of responsibility, why does Priestley use repetition like this?

3. When the Inspector says "[coolly]: We often do on the young ones.", who do you think is the "we"?

4. The Inspector remains very calm in this scene, using very short sentences. Find an example and analyse the effect it creates.

5. The Inspector works his way systematically through the characters, confronting a suspect with a piece of information and then making them talk. Find a metaphor towards the beginning of the Act that Sheila uses to demonstrate this.

6. Find some examples in the stage directions to show how the Inspector has become a figure of authority in Act 2.

7. Find two quotations that demonstrate that the Inspector has power over both Mrs Birling and Mr Birling in this Act.

8. Explain how the Inspector eventually manages to break the composure of Mrs Birling.

9. The Inspector seems to have an incredible amount of knowledge about the characters. Find a quotation to demonstrate this just before Eric's entrance.

10. What impression of the Inspector do we have by the end of Act Two when the stage directions say, "Inspector holds up a hand"?

---------------------------------------

Act 3 Questions

Character in Act Three

1.     What does the quotation, “You told her. Why. You little sneak!” on P.50 show about Eric?

2.     Why does Priestley have Mr Birling demand Sheila takes Mrs Birling “to the drawing room” on P.52? What does it show about his character?

3.     If Priestley writes that Daisy Renton/Eva Smith treated  Eric as if he was a “kid” even though the character is “nearly as old as she was”, what does that suggest about Eric?

4.     On P.53 and 53, how would you say Priestley has the older characters act to the revelations about Eric and why? Make reference to stage directions in your answer.

5.     What about the fact that Mr Birling says to Eric, “I’ve got to cover this up as soon as I can” on P. 54? What does this show about Mr Birling? Make reference to structure in your answer and link to ideas about change.

6.     How is the revelation about Mrs Birling’s behaviour towards Eva Smith Daisy Renton on P.55 similar to the events of Act Two? Make reference to the characterisation of Eric and Mrs Birling in your answer.

7.     Pick out three key quotations that characterise the following characters in Act 3.

Eric	Mrs Birling	Mr Birling	Sheila

8.     What does the debate about the nature of the Inspector (P.58 to P.65) reveal about the different Birling family members? What point do you think Priestley is making through their various attitudes?

9.     Pick out three key words from Eric’s speech at the bottom of P.64 and the top of 65 and explain what they suggest about his character.

10.  What would you say is the difference in tone between the younger generation (Sheila and Eric) and the others (Mr and Mrs Birling, Gerald) on the last five pages of the play? What does this result in at the very end?

Themes in Act Three

1. What themes would you say are explored through Eric in Act Three and why? Use quotations to support your answer.

2. What themes are conveyed in the Inspector’s final speech on P.56 and which pieces of language help to convey these themes?

3. The fact that Gerald and Mr and Mrs Birling believe tha

4. How does the presentation of the Inspector in Act Three (and throughout the play) link to the idea of control?

5. Which characters do you feel understand the theme of responsibility and why? Use quotations to back up your answer.

6. Pick three stage directions and say how they help the audience to understand the themes being explored in the act.

7. What themes would you say are explored in each of the following characters and why?

Sheila

Eric

Mr Birling

Mrs Birling

Gerald Croft

8. Place the following themes in the order of which you feel they are important in Act Three and briefly explain why you think that beside each one:

·       Family

·       Responsibility

·       Power

·       Control

·       Selfishness

9. Now find a key quotation from Act Three to go with each of the following themes.

10. What theme would you link most with the final piece of dialogue in the play and why?

Dramatic Devices in Act 3

1.     Plot the play’s levels of tension by placing each of the jumbled up statements on the graph where you think appropriate.  (You may wish to number / put the sentences in chronological order before you begin to plot them…)

·      Eric’s entrance

·      Interrogation of Gerald

·      Inspector’s entrance ‘Well?’

·      A certain unease is hinted at prior to the Inspector’s arrival

·      No such Inspector exists

·      Interrogation of Mrs Birling

·      Inspector’s exit

·      No suicide cases received by the infirmary

·      Interrogation of Sheila

·      Inspector’s final speech

·      Eric’s interrogation

·      Interrogation of Birling

·      Inspector’s arrival

·      The telephone rings

2.     In the stage directions on page 51, what extra information is added to our knowledge of Eric?

3.     On P.53 and 53, how would you say Priestley has the older characters act to the revelations about Eric and why? Make reference to stage directions in your answer.

4.     What about the fact that Mr Birling says to Eric, “I’ve got to cover this up as soon as I can” on P. 54? What does this show about Mr Birling? Make reference to structure in your answer and link to ideas about change.

5.     How is the revelation about Mrs Birling’s behaviour towards Eva Smith Daisy Renton on P.55 similar to the events of Act Two? Make reference to the characterisation of Eric and Mrs Birling in your answer.

6.     Pick three stage directions and say how they help the audience to understand the themes being explored in the act.

7.     How does Priestley use punctuation to show Eric’s distress on page 55?

8.     Finally, the play opens with a facade (a false image) of a perfectly happy united family. How would you summarise it now?

9.     Explain in your own words what is meant by ‘Priestley observes the classical unities of time, place and action in his structure’.

10.  What effect do you have from the stage directions after the Inspector leaves?

The Inspector in Act 3

1.     What do the stage directions tell us and Eric at the beginning of Act 3?

2.     What is the effect of the Inspector’s short statement, “Yes, we know,” at the beginning of Act 3?

3.     What action by the Inspector tells us that he is in charge now, not Mr Birling?

4.     The family starts to quarrel amongst themselves in this Act. How does the Inspector control their behaviour?

5.     Preistley has the Inspector say, “I haven’t much time” and the Inspector shows impatience with the family. What effect does this have on the audience?

6.     The Inspector repeatedly prompts the family members to “remember” and says “You won’t forget.” What effect does this have?

7.     Pick out some adverbs from the stage directions which show the Inspector’s demeanour In this Act.

8.     What themes are conveyed in the Inspector’s final speech on P.56 and which pieces of language help to convey these themes?

9.     What is the effect of the Inspector’s abrupt exit on P.56?

10.  What do you think Priestley means by Eric’s assertion, “He was our inspector all right.”?