When the act changes the scenery does not change, this is done to create the affect of claustrophobia on the characters, this effect is created by there being no interval, and it makes them fell as though they can not get away from the inspector, like in a police station where you can not get away, you have to face the facts. This is so the audience are comfortable but not so cosy that they relax. You feel that there is limited use of props. Once again I must agree because there are not a lot of props being used, this is one again due to the fact that the audience need to concentrate on the play rather than the props or the scenery.
The use of the photograph as a prop is used exceptionally well. This is because the photo, just like Eva Smith, could be more than one person. This builds up the tension, because the inspector never actually shows the photo to more than one person at a time so it could easily be a different one, and it gets the audience thinking. The telephone is also use for a small amount, but in the time used well. The telephone in only used twice, once when Mr. Berling phones the infirmary and once when the police officer calls to tell them about the girl being murdered.
Both of these scenes build up tension for the play, by the Berlings going from all getting accused of murdering Eva Smith, to there not even being a girl in the infirmary to a police officer calling them to tell them about the girl that had committed suicide. You believe that dramatic irony is over used. I don’t think so because it is meant to be blatantly obvious so that the audience can see that Mr. Berlings speech about there not being a war and the titanic being unsinkable He is full of pompous pronouncements, such as “The Titanic is absolutely unsinkable”.
I use this example to show how out-of-touch Birling is and how arrogant he is. He places his faith in business and greed. His obsessive faith in the individual, in progress and capitalism is the kind of selfish attitude that has led to Eva Smith’s downfall. And this is what the Inspector comes to teach him about. Mr. Berling says this speech just before the inspector arrives and this is very important to the play. Finally you think that the ending is not dramatic and is disappointing, here I must strongly disagree with you because the dramatic use of the tension building telephone call makes for a brilliant ending!
The ending is not disappointing because the mysterious character (inspector Goole) disappears make the audience doubt and put questions into their heads, It makes them think. Please read this letter carefully, as it will be a big help in you understanding the play. Yours sincerely J. B. Priestley Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE J. B. Priestley section.
