Setting, Lighting & Dramatic Irony

Test yourself on Setting, Lighting & Dramatic Irony

Test your knowledge with free interactive questions on Seneca — used by over 10 million students.

Setting of An Inspector Calls

The setting of the play never changes and is designed to show the wealth and privilege of the Birling family from the start.

'Heavily comfortable'

He describes the house as ‘heavily comfortable’.
The house immediately suggests that the Birling family are higher-class people with a lot of money.

Setting

The setting (the house) never changes.
- This reminds audiences of the family’s wealth throughout the story.
- This could also be suggesting that some of the characters never change/learn throughout the play.

Lighting in An Inspector Calls

Priestley gives clear directions on how the stage should be set in the play – he wants to show an audience the wealth and privilege of the Birling family from the start.

Start - 'pink and intimate'

At the start of the play, the stage lighting should be ‘pink and intimate’ while the family are having dinner.
The lighting is very important to the atmosphere and setting – this pink, low light suggests the family and audience are wearing rose-tinted glasses and can only see the perfect facade (deceptive image).
Before the Inspector arrives, the family are happily pretending that their lives are perfect.
- They are generally very happy with their self-centred, ignorant (not intelligent or unaware) views of the world.
- They enjoy their position and wealth.

Inspector's arrival - <b>‘brighter and harder’

Inspector's arrival - ‘brighter and harder’

When the Inspector arrives, the lighting becomes ‘brighter and harder’.
This lighting change is significant. It symbolises how Inspector Goole sheds light on the true nature of the characters.
He also breaks apart the façade (deceptive image) they present of the perfect upper-middle-class family.
The Inspector forces the Birlings and Gerald to see the harsh realities of the consequences of their actions – he symbolically shines the bright, hard light on them and removes their ignorance (unawareness or stupidity).

Dramatic Irony in An Inspector Calls

Dramatic irony is when the audience understands or knows something that the characters in the play or story do not.

Uses

Priestley uses dramatic irony throughout the play to make the higher classes (especially Mr Birling) appear foolish.

Mr Birling

He comes across as a dislikable character. Everything Mr Birling says about the future is wrong.
- He says the Titanic is ‘unsinkable’ – the audience knows it sank.
- He says that the strikes will die down – the audience knows that there were more and more strikes.
- He says ‘we’re in for a time of steady prosperity’ – the audience knows about how bad the Great Depression was (1920s/1930s).
- He says that there will never be a war; instead there will ‘be peace’ – the audience knows that a war broke out 2 years after the play was set, and that another one happened in 1939.

Effect on audience

J.B. Priestley makes sure that the audience have little faith in the higher-class people. Every prediction Mr Birling makes is completely false.
In fact, his blasé (indifferent) attitude towards all of these difficulties (war, financial struggles, and mass strikes of the working-classes) might offend and anger audiences who lived through all of these things.