Edna

• Edna is a minor character in 'An Inspector Calls'
• Edna delivers fewer than 30 words of dialogue in the entire play
• Edna is the only working class character who actually appears on stage
• Edna shows Inspector Goole into the dining room in act one, announcing that "an inspector's called"
• Edna changes the lighting in the room when the inspector arrives, from 'pink and intimate' to 'brighter and harder'
• Priestley could be suggesting that it will be the working class who will deliver the truth to the middle and upper classes through Edna
• Edna completes tasks such as pouring port, serving food, and answering the door for the Birlings
• The Birlings see Edna as merely an employee and do not consider her wellbeing
• Edna's successes are never shared with the Birlings, indicating mistreatment of the working class
• Edna's silence could symbolize the lack of agency that the working poor had
• Priestley encourages us to consider how the working poor are exploited through his depiction of Edna