Open Prompt Response - 9/30

2000. Many works of literature not readily identified with the mystery or detective story genre nonetheless involve the investigation of a mystery. In these works, the solution to the mystery may be less important than the knowledge gained in the process of its investigation. Choose a novel or play in which one or more of the characters confront a mystery. Then write an essay in which you identify the mystery and explain how the investigation illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

            Social classes have long been an identifier for human beings, a way for them to rank themselves against one another. This behavior was rampant in England during the onset of the industrial age, and is heavily emphasized in J.B. Priestley’s An Inspector Calls. Priestly uses a fake mystery to illuminate the societal flaws in traditional capitalism, and the investigation to solve it reveals that all humans are interconnected, regardless of social rank.

            The play begins with no hint of a mystery; it simply focuses on the life of an upper-middle class family, often pointing out the class differences therein. When an Inspector shows up at the door and informs them of their part in his investigation, the reader, as well as each character, becomes suspicious. Inspector Goole’s actions immediately suggest that there is no mystery in the story at all, such as when he shows the picture of the supposed murder victim, Eva Smith, to each character individually but not to the group. We can’t be sure he’s showing the same picture to each person, a detail suggesting that the surface mystery is not Goole’s reason for being there. His accusations against each character reveal their dispositions, with Arthur Birling, the head of the household, refusing the accept guilt for firing Smith, and his wife, Sybil, refusing to accept guilt for advocating her women’s support group to not help the girl months before. Furthermore, Eric and Sheila Birling, the son and daughter of Arthur and Sybil, both took advantage of their social standings to exploit Eva; Eric becomes sexually involved with the girl and Sheila, in her insecurity about Eva’s beauty, gets Eva fired from the department store she worked at. These actions are Priestley’s way of putting the upper class in a bad light, something he does throughout to set the stage for his promotion of socialism.

            Once Goole has the characters’ participation in the death of Eva Smith identified, he can begin to infuse guilt. The Birling children are the first ones to feel remorse for their actions, begging their parents to do the same. Their role then becomes that of a socialist propaganda advertisement, attempting to force their capitalist middle-class parents to feel for other humans. They don’t budge however, and Goole’s departure from the home leaves the entire family in a feudal state. Soon thereafter, upon realizing that Goole was a fraud, the Birling parents believe they got off free, that their social responsibilities for the lower classes are nonexistent; Priestley is proving his belief that in a capitalist society, everyone’s solo fight for survival is detrimental to those like Eva Smith. Just as they think they can return to their lives without consequence, the phone rings and they are informed of a suicide that just occurred, and told that a police inspector is on his way over to ask questions. It’s as if the entire situation with Inspector Goole never occurred, and the Birlings are given a second chance to handle it. Priestley does this to show the paradoxical nature of the situation – humans cannot live through something and then, by stroke of luck, get to live through it again. This is his way of saying to contemporary society that we only have one shot to get society on the right track, and that switching to socialism is correct way to go.

            J.B. Priestley’s use of mystery in An Inspector Calls is not to provide a plot, but to show society that our capitalist fight for survival is inefficient and cruel. He attempts to prove the benefits of socialism through the investigation of this mystery, and through a dramatic ending shows us that humans only have one chance to make it right.