Inspector analysis

• Role of Inspector Goole

  • Used to present the Birling family and Gerlad with the message of social responsibility
  • Variety of techniques and methods Priestley uses to present the message through this character
• Techniques used by Priestley

  1. Inversion of generic expectations

  2. Use of anadiplosis in sentence structure

  3. Portrayal of Inspector Goole as a mysterious character

  4. Use of questions and direct dialogue to hammer home the message
• Inversion of generic expectations

  A traditional detective story focuses on narrowing down from a list of numerous suspects to just one, but Inspector Goole does the opposite and shows that not one but all are responsible
• Inversion of generic expectations


  Presents the key message that 'We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other'
• Use of anadiplosis in sentence structure


  • "Because what happened to her then may have determined what happened to her afterwards, and what happened to her afterwards may have driven her to suicide."
• Anadiplosis


  The second clause in the sentence begins by repeating the last words of the previous clause, emphasising how the content of these statements is inextricably connected
• Portrayal of Inspector Goole

  • Deliberately portrayed as a mysterious character
  • Vagueness of character is deliberate to create a sense of ambiguity and mystery
• Significance of Inspector Goole's name

  It sounds like the word 'ghoul', meaning ghost or spirit, and he does haunt Gerald and the Birlings about their role in Eva's death
• There is no definitive answer about whether the inspector is who he says he is
• Vague and ambiguous depictions of the inspector


  Help us focus less on the character himself and more on the message he brings
• Inspector Goole's dialogue


  • Uses questions to interrogate the characters, but also delivers lines that seem to come directly from the mouth of Priestley to hammer home the message of social responsibility
• The character of Inspector Goole seems to be the embodiment of JB Priestley himself, a mouthpiece used to deliver the key message
• Priestley's use of supernatural imagery in the inspector's final words

  An allusion to the Biblical description of hell, adding to the supernatural, other-worldly aspect of Inspector Goole and helping us to remember his message
• Priestley's message about good deeds and heaven/hell is not accurately found in the Bible, but is a moralistic concept