An Inspector Calls
J.B. Priestley (1945)
“A mysterious inspector dismantles a wealthy family's respectability in a single evening — and Priestley dismantles an entire class system in three acts.”
Language Register
Formal Edwardian dialogue with class-stratified registers — upper-middle-class propriety masking moral bankruptcy
Syntax Profile
Each character has a distinct syntactic signature. Arthur speaks in long, declarative sentences that brook no interruption — the syntax of a man accustomed to giving speeches and being obeyed. Sybil's sentences are grammatically impeccable, clipped, and final — the syntax of social authority. The Inspector uses short, direct sentences with minimal subordinate clauses — the syntax of someone who states rather than argues. Eric's speech deteriorates under pressure into fragments and repetitions. Sheila evolves from social chatter to moral clarity across the play.
Figurative Language
Low — Priestley writes in a naturalistic mode that relies on dramatic irony and structural symbolism rather than metaphor. The play's figurative power resides in its construction (the photograph technique, the order of interrogation, the cyclical ending) rather than in poetic language.
Era-Specific Language
Pre-decimal currency (22 shillings and sixpence) — Eva's weekly wage, impossibly low
Arthur's aspiration — civic honour as reward for business success, conflating wealth with virtue
Symbol of Edwardian technological hubris — referenced as 'unsinkable' with devastating dramatic irony
Arthur's habitual phrase for the working class — dehumanising through grammar, reducing persons to category
Euphemism for the red-light district / sexual exploitation zone of Brumley — an open secret among respectable men
How Characters Speak — Class & Identity
Arthur Birling
Pompous, self-important, prone to long speeches peppered with references to his civic status ('I was Lord Mayor,' 'I'm still on the Bench'). Uses 'these people' to distance himself from the working class.
New money performing old authority. Arthur has wealth but not breeding, and his language compensates by constantly asserting his importance.
Sybil Birling
The most formally correct English in the play. Short, authoritative sentences. Never raises her voice. Refers to working-class women as 'girls of that class' with effortless condescension.
Social superiority as linguistic habit. Sybil's language is a wall — impeccably constructed, impossible to penetrate, designed to keep the lower orders at a distance.
Sheila Birling
Opens with youthful slang ('lovely,' 'squiffy') and social chatter. After the Inspector's revelations, her language becomes direct and unadorned — shorter sentences, simpler vocabulary, moral clarity.
Linguistic transformation mirrors moral transformation. Sheila literally speaks differently by the end of the play because she has become a different person.
Eric Birling
Awkward, halting, prone to unfinished sentences and sudden outbursts. His speech deteriorates as his guilt is exposed — fragmentation reflecting psychological collapse.
The least socially polished Birling. Eric's verbal clumsiness signals both his youth and the alcoholism the family has ignored.
Inspector Goole
Controlled, precise, authoritative without class markers. Does not defer to wealth or status. His sentences are designed to extract confession, not to impress.
The Inspector exists outside the class system that defines every other character. His language has no social position because he is not a social being — he is a moral force.
Narrator's Voice
No narrator — the play is entirely dialogue and stage directions. Priestley's authorial voice emerges through the Inspector's speeches and through the structural ironies that the audience perceives but the characters do not. The stage directions are unusually detailed and prescriptive (the lighting change, characters' emotional states), functioning as a kind of hidden narration.
Tone Progression
Act One (opening)
Celebratory, complacent, warm
Pink lighting, champagne, self-congratulation. The audience knows it cannot last because Priestley has set the play in 1912 and written it in 1945.
Act One (Inspector arrives) through Act Two
Interrogative, tense, escalating
Each revelation raises the stakes. The bright, hard lighting mirrors the increasingly uncomfortable truths being exposed.
Act Three
Devastating, then falsely relieved, then horrifying
Eric's confession, the Inspector's speech, the brief euphoria when the Inspector's credentials collapse, and the final telephone call that returns the family to square one.
Stylistic Comparisons
- Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman, The Crucible) — same commitment to social critique through domestic drama, similar belief in theatre as political intervention
- George Bernard Shaw — theatrical socialist predecessors, though Shaw uses wit where Priestley uses structure
- Ibsen (A Doll's House, An Enemy of the People) — the well-made play as instrument of social dissection, domestic settings concealing systemic critique
Key Vocabulary from This Book
Notable words used in this text — click to see full definitions