An Inspector Calls

An Inspector Calls is an example of a drawing-room play, a genre typically set in the lavish homes of the wealthy. Traditionally, this setting operated in accordance with the material status of the characters and the audience: Drawing-room plays featured wealthy people and were performed for wealthy people. An Inspector Calls uses the tradition of drawing-room theater to peek behind the veil of the British upper class in the early 20th century. The play deliberately creates a dichotomy between the public and the private spheres. In public, the Birling family are an upstanding example of how to succeed in society. They have been richly rewarded for Arthur’s work as a factory owner and a local politician and are swiftly ascending the social ladder. Indeed, the only thing Arthur believes could threaten his status is a public scandal. To the outside world, however, they are beyond reproach, and such a scandal seems unlikely. Then Inspector Goole arrives. He enters into their private space and threatens their pristine reputation, forcing them to confess to their darkest secrets. The domestic setting of the play becomes important, as it takes the audience into the private sphere of a family whose public image is immaculate. Shining reputations, the play suggests, are built on a foundation of private scandal.

The Birling family hide many secrets through their refusal to address certain aspects of themselves. In the opening act, Sheila hints at Eric’s alcohol addiction, but she is quickly shut down by Sybil, who insists that she adhere to social convention and refrain from discussing private matters in front of a guest. Sybil uses the public performativity of manners to cover up private embarrassments and deviations from the social norm. In a similar way, Gerald uses his elevated status to cover up his affair. Sheila questions him about his whereabouts the previous summer and he insists that he was busy with work. Since Arthur is more than delighted to welcome Gerald into the family, he puts a stop to his daughter’s valid questions. Like Eric’s alcohol addiction, Gerald’s infidelity is hushed up and pushed into the realm of the private. His reputation and the reputation of the Birling family are too important for them to risk confronting the truth about themselves. The inspector’s arrival, however, obliterates the carefully guarded distinction between public and private. Goole, ostensibly a public employee, enters the private world of the Birling drawing room and—with the audience as his witness—forces them to confess to the many ways in which their wealth and power is built on the exploitation and mistreatment of others. He drags their dark secrets out from the private shadows and makes them known to the “public” of the audience.

The inspector’s desire to bring private sins into public is an extension of his political view. Arthur criticizes Goole as being a socialist, which he believes gives him cause to dismiss Goole’s judgment out of hand. Later, as he convinces himself that Goole was not a real police inspector, Arthur seeks to rebuild the division between private sin and public scandal. He hopes that he has gotten away with his mistakes and that he can return to ignoring the sins of his past. Gerald believes the same, encouraging Sheila to continue their engagement as though his affair has not been revealed. Arthur and Gerald’s delusion shatters in the play’s final lines. A real inspector is on the way to question them about a young woman’s death, and their sins are now likely to be exposed after all. Try as they might, they can no longer separate the private and the public.