Analyse the dramatic events which take place in Act three and consider their effect on the audience.
An Inspector Calls is a play which investigates the themes behind honesty, fairness, social justice and hypocrisy. It is about a family which consists of Arthur Birling, a wealthy, successful manufacturer, his wife, also his social superior, Cybil Birling and their children, Eric Birling and Sheila Birling. Eric's behaviour can be described as peculiar due to the fact that it is described as both "shy and assertive", and Sheila is a pretty young lady. Shelia is engaged to the son of wealthy parents, also Mr Birling's main rivals, Gerald Croft of Croft's Limited.
The play is made up of three acts. In the first act, the family are celebrating Sheila's engagement with Gerald in a light-hearted dinner party and they are made to look all warm and kind. The stage would have been lit with light, bright colours to give the audience the impression of cheerfulness, when the Inspector, Inspector Goole, comes in and tells the family that a young woman has committed suicide by drinking industrial disinfectant. At this point, the lighting would have been toned down to darker, grimmer colours. The lighting would have stayed like this throughout the rest of the play.
At the end of act two the family finds out that it was Eric who made Eva Smith pregnant before her death. Right at the end of act two Eric enters the room with everyone staring at him. The act ends and the curtain goes down the play picks up from exactly where it left off, just like it did at the end of act one and the beginning of act two, when Eric left. The stage directions read:.
"Eric is standing just inside the room and the others are staring at him". His only words are "you don't know do you?" At this time the audience would be holding their breath, wanting to find out exactly how Eric was involved in Eva Smith's life. At this point there may have been a spotlight on Eric and the audience would all be watching him, waiting for him to say something.