Department of English

Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

An Inspector Calls

(1947)

J. B. Priestley

(September 13, 1894 – August 14, 1984)

Notes

An Inspector Calls premiered at the Leningrad Comedy Theatre, Moscow, in 1945. It premiered in London at the New Theatre in October 1946.

164  Steady...the buffs: Note that in the Penguin's 2000 edition of the play, An Inspector Calls and Other Plays, the line is "Steady the Buffs!" which means "calm down"; note also associated connotations of being drunk and of its being an educated class slang

• steady, the Buffs! (Partridge, Eric. A Dictionary of Catch Phrases: British and American, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day. Ed. Paul Beale. London: Routledge, 2003. 429. Print.)
  A catch phrase of self-admonition or self-adjuration or self-encouragement: late C19–20: military and—rather later, by adoption—Royal Navy; and finally among civilians. From an incident in the history of the East Kent Regiment, the nickname the Buffs perhaps originated in the fact that they were the first regiment to wear buff, or buffalo, leather accoutrements. (F&G.) Perhaps the catch phrase arose when, in 1888, Kipling popularized the phrase in Soldiers Three.
  Thus, a man aware that, tipsy, he is walking unsteadily, might say to himself, 'Steady, the Buffs!'
  Paul Beale: not always only to oneself: the phrase may be used to 'steady' others too.
• Steady, the Buffs! (Grammarphobia)
  “Steady, the Buffs!” means “Keep calm!” or “Steady on, boys!” and can be traced to the late 19th century. 
  
  The “Buffs” in the phrase is a reference to a famous British Army unit, the Third Regiment of Foot. The regiment, founded in 1572, was nicknamed “the Buffs” in the early 18th century because of the colors of its uniforms.
• Steady the Buffs (The Word Detective)
  The use of the phrase “steady the Buffs” in the play is apparently one of many not-very-subtle signals that these are indeed prosperous folk.
  
  “Steady the Buffs” is a catchphrase meaning “stay calm, be careful, and persevere,” an expression of encouragement offered to someone in trying circumstances. The phrase itself dates back at least to the late 19th century, when it was popularized by Rudyard Kipling in his short story collection “Soldiers Three.” “Steady” in the phrase is the well-known nautical command, meaning “steer steady,” i.e., maintain the current course and speed.
  
  The “Buffs” takes a bit more explaining. It’s capitalized in the phrase because “the Buffs” is the nickname of the East Kent Regiment of the British Army, a famous unit that dates back to the 16th century. The regiment’s nickname refers to their uniform jackets in the 19th century, which sported facings (trim on the collars, cuffs, etc.) of a “buff,” or light yellowish-tan, color. “Buff” as the name of a color comes from the tanned hides of buffalo (the Asian sort, not the American bison) used as outerwear; “buff” meaning “enthusiast” comes from “fire buffs” in 19th century America, volunteer firefighters (or just wannabe firefighters) who wore such coats to conflagrations.
  
  The exact origin and logic of the phrase “steady the Buffs” is a bit unclear, although given the illustrious history of the unit there is no lack of stories set in pitched battle against an implacable foe in which a commander encouraged his men with the phrase. After Kipling popularized it, it became a common way to say “carry on and don’t panic,” especially among the upper classes.
• David Page, "Steady the Buffs!," The Kipling Society
  Kipling quotes this phrase in three different stories—this one, “Poor Dear Mama” (The Story of the Gadsbys), and “The Last Term” (Stalky & Co.)
  
  The source of this quotation was discussed on the Kipling Mailbase in 2001 and 2002, the following being based on the comments by Roger Ayers, Michael Jefferson, and Tim Connell:
  
  The Buffs were a notable regiment of the British Army, the Third Foot, descended from a regiment raised for Dutch service in 1572, and the London Trainbands, all of which had buff coloured facings to their uniforms. The 3rd Foot had become popularly known as 'The Buffs' by 1702, and this became part of their official name by 1751.
  
  The phrase originated in the Peninsular War, and is attributed to the Colonel of the Buffs. During an engagement, the Buffs, as senior Regiment were positioned on the right flank in an advance against the French. The enthusiatic Buffs moved rapidly and got well ahead of the general line of advance, whereupon the Colonel is reputed to have shouted:
  ‘Steady the Buffs, give the Slashers a chance!’
  The 'Slashers' was a nickname accorded to the 28th Foot (2nd Battalion, the Gloucestershire Regiment), the Regiment to the left of the Buffs in the advance line, a name that they are said to have earned when cutting their way out of trouble at the Battle of White Plains in 1777. They share the battle honours Albuhera, Vittoria, Pyrenees and others in the Peninsula with the Buffs, the Berkshires and the Northamptonshires so they were often in action together.
  
  

11  party man:

• party man (Collins English Dictionary)
  a loyal member of a political party, esp one who is extremely loyal or devoted
• partyman (Oxford Dictionaries)
  1 A man belonging to, or supporting, a political faction or party; a partisan. In later use chiefly South Asian.
  2 A man who frequently attends or gives parties; a man who is popular or lively at parties.

18  public school:

• public school (Oxford Dictionaries)
  1 (In the UK) a private fee-paying secondary school, especially one for boarders:
  [AS MODIFIER]: his precise English public-school accent
• "English Public Schools," PBS
  [...] English public schools, such as Eton and Harrow, [...] have been enormously influential in England for hundreds of years. ("Public" schools are actually what Americans would call private schools, and serve chiefly upper-class and well-to-do boys, and, more recently, girls.)
• Glenn Everett, "Public Schools," The Victorian Web
  Eton, Harrow, Westminster, Rugby, Winchester, Charterhouse, and Shrewsbury, and two London day schools, St. Pauls and Merchant Taylors's, were defined as "Public Schools" in the 1860s by the educational Clarendon commission.
  [...] establishing house systems, stressing school spirit, emphasizing muscular Christianity and games like football and cricket as means of improving character, became a model for other Victorian public schools. The whole educational process was designed to mold the student into a young Christian Gentleman.
• "Public School," Encyclopædia Britannica
  The term public school emerged in the 18th century when the reputation of certain grammar schools spread beyond their immediate environs. They began taking students whose parents could afford residential fees and thus became known as public, in contrast to local, schools.

24  it's a bit thick:

• a bit thick (Oxford Dictionaries)
  British informal
      Unfair or unreasonable.
      ‘I thought this was a bit thick and tried to defend myself’

Programme Note

An Inspector Calls has had a curious history. It was written during the winter of 1944-5, and the Red Army being much in our minds at that time. I sent a copy to Moscow. It was immediately translated and soon two famous Russian companies were playing it simultaneously in Moscow. The Old Vic produced it later in 1945. Then it began to go all over the world (it had 1600 performances in Germany alone), and became equally popular on both sides of the Iron Curtain. I saw it myself, chiefly by accident, in London, Moscow, New York, Paris, and several other cities, and I mention this because, while we are all supposed to be so very different, the reaction of audiences was almost always exactly the same. Even during the last 10 years I have had innumerable letters, from graduates, undergraduates, high school students, from everywhere, demanding to know who or what the Inspector was, there having been furious arguments about him. (Oddly enough, they never asked about the second Inspector who was on his way, though this is not simply a dramatic twist but really the key to the play) [...] A last point. The particular year in which the action is supposed to be happening was not chosen at random: it is significant and is indeed another key to the play.

—J. B. Priestley, "Programme Note," Mermaid Theatre production of An Inspector Calls, 1972, University of Bradford J. B. Priestley Archive

Characters

Arthur Birling, Mr. Birling – "a fairly prosperous manufacturer" (5); "heavy-looking, rather portentous man in his middle fifties, with fairly easy manners but rather provincial in his speech" (5)

Sybil Birling, Mrs. Birling – "about 50, a rather cold woman and her husband's social superior" (5–6); "a prominent member—of the Brumley Women's Charity Organization" (195); chair of the interviewing committee [of the Brumley Women's Charity Organization] (196)

Sheila Birling – "a pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited" (6)

Eric Birling – "in his middle twenties, not quite at ease, half shy, half assertive" (6)

Gerald Croft – "an attractive chap about thirty, rather too manly to be a dandy, but very much the easy well-bred young-man-about-town" (6); "son of Sir George Croft...Crofts Limited"

Edna – the Birlings' "neatly dressed parlor maid, in her late twenties" (5)

Inspector Goole – "need not be a big man but he creates at once an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness. He is a man in his fifties, dressed in a plain darkish suit of the period. He speaks carefully, weightily, and has a disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person he addresses before actually speaking" 169;

Eva Smith – "her original name—her real name—was Eva Smith" 14

Daisy Renton – "very pretty—soft brown hair and big dark eyes" 35; "lost both parents [...] came originally from somewhere outside Brumley [...] had a job in one of the works here and had had to leave after a strike [...] said something about the shop, too, but wouldn't say which it was" 36
Joe Meggarty, Alderman Meggarty – "half-drunk and goggle-eyed, had wedged her [Daisy Renton] into a corner with that obscene fat carcase of his" (189); "a notorious womaniser and one of the worst sots and rogues in Brumley" (190)

Setting

Time: evening, spring, 1912

Place

England

North Midlands

Brumley

Birlings' house

dining room – "Dining-room of a fairly large suburban house, belonging to a fairly prosperous manufacturer. It is a solidly built room, with good solid furniture of the period. [...] A little upstage of center is a solid but not too large dining room table with solid set of dining room chairs around it. A few imposing but tasteless pictures and engravings. The general effect is substantial and comfortable and old-fashioned but not cozy and homelike." (5)

Vocabulary

irony, ironic

• verbal irony
• dramatic irony
• situational irony
  

contrast

form

thriller

morality

structure

stage directions

act

scene

stage

curtain

set

setting

props

point of attack

dialog

syntax

diction; denotation, connotation

repetition

literal language

figurative language

pun

metaphor

overstatement

understatement

image

imagery

• visual imagery
• auditory imagery
• tactile imagery
• olfactory imagery
• gustatory imagery
• kinesthetic imagery
• thermal imagery
  

allegory, allegorical

symbol, symbolic, symbolism

gesture

facial expressions

mood

tone

theme

Character, Characterization

major characters
minor characters

protagonist

antagonist

stock or type characters
stereotypes
foil
self-revelation
personality
direct presentation of character
indirect presentation of character
show v. tell
consistency in character behavior
motivation
plausibility of character: is the character credible? convincing?
flat character
round character, multidimensional character
static character, unchanged
developing character, dynamic character, active character
direct methods of revealing character:

• characterization through the use of names
• characterization through physical appearance
• characterization through editorial comments by the author, interrupts narrative to provide information
• characterization through dialog: what is said, who says it, under what circumstances, who is listening, how the conversation flows, how the speaker speaks (ex. tone, stress, dialect, diction/word choice)
• characterization through action

indirect characterization

Plot

Freytag's Pyramid

linear, nonlinear, linearity

beginning, middle, end
inciting incident
chance, coincidence

plot, main plot, minor plot, subplot, underplot, double plot,

story
conflict, internal conflict, external conflict, clash of actions, clash of ideas, clash of desires, clash of wills, major, minor, emotional, physical

• man v. self
• man v. man
• man v. society
• man v. nature
• man v. the supernatural
• man v. machine/technology

suspense (suspenseful)
mystery (mysterious, mysteriously, mysteriousness)
dilemma
surprise (surprising, surprised)
plot twist
ending

• happy ending
• unhappy ending
• indeterminate ending (ambiguous)
• surprise ending (unexpected)

artistic unity (unified)
time sequence
exposition
in medias res
complication (complicate)
rising action
falling action
crisis
climax
anti-climax (anti-climactic)
conclusion (conclude, conclusive)
resolution (resolve, resolving)
denouement
flashback, retrospect
back-story
foreshadowing
causality
plot structure
initiating incident
epiphany

recognition

reversal
catastrophe
deus ex machina
disclosure, discovery
movement, shape of movement
trajectory
change
focus

Sample Student Responses to J. B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls

Response 1:

Reference

Priestley, J. B. An Inspector Calls. 1945. New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1972. Print.

Priestley, J. B. An Inspector Calls: A Play in Three Acts. 1947. An Inspector Calls and Other Plays. London: Penguin, 2000. 158–220. Print.

Further Reading

Priestley, J. B. An Inspector Calls and Other Plays. London: Penguin, 2000. Print.

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Last updated September 24, 2019