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Form and Style of An Inspector Calls
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An Inspector Calls is a play that doesn’t fit easily into any one certain style. However, the play’s form is simple and straightforward. It has it’s own style and fits into many at the same time, and isn’t confined by a certain genre. However with this in mind there are a few categories in which you could place An Inspector Calls. It is obviously and most importantly labeled a mystery play. It also has elements of a social and political satire, a melodrama, a sentimental drama or even a twentieth century morality play. When performed An Inspector Calls takes on a whole new life and it is up to the director to decide the style of the play. It has been performed both realistically and straightforward and more recently it has been performed expressionistically. An Inspector Calls is broken up into 3 acts, and the entire play is mainly exposition. Each character is interviewed sequentially starting with Mr. Birling followed by, Sheila, Gerald, and Mrs. Birling and Eric. All this happens within the first 2 acts with the exception of Eric’s questioning. The 3rd act starts with the questioning of Eric, then moves to the departure of the Inspector. Then the action moves on to the Birlings and Gerald figuring out the identity of the Inspector and the final scene of the play when they learn of an actual girl dying by drinking disinfectant. The mystery genre has been around for quite sometime. One could argue that the mystery play was first introduced with Oedipus Rex. This is argued by saying that in the play, Oedipus is on a search for the murderer and is serving as the detective for the story (Grossvogel 9). Even with this argument about Oedipus being a detective story, the mystery genre didn’t become popularized until the early 1920’s with Agatha Christie. However, not all of Agatha Christie’s plays fit under the stereotypical mystery genre, they still have most of the elements of them (41-42). This is the same with An Inspector Calls. It doesn’t have all the elements of a mystery play, but since the flow of action, Eva Smith’s death and the cause of her death is a mystery; it fits into this category. The mystery of the play is probably the most important aspect of the style of An Inspector Calls. It keeps the audience interested throughout the play and helps move the plot along.
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