Who is Inspector Goole?
The Inspector arrives at the Birlings' door just as Mr Birling finishes preaching his selfish philosophy, and from that moment he controls the play. He is calm, powerful and utterly unimpressed by the family's wealth and status. Priestley describes him as creating "an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness", and he never loses that authority, however the Birlings bluster.
He is not really a police inspector in any ordinary sense. He already seems to know everything, he questions the family "one person and one line of enquiry at a time", and his name, Goole, sounds like 'ghoul'. He is the play's moral force made into a character. Because the play is still in copyright, I quote only short lines here; use your copy of the script for the full text.
Inspector Goole's role in the play
The Inspector's role is to be Priestley's mouthpiece, the voice that delivers the play's central message. Through his questioning he forces each Birling to confront their part in Eva Smith's death, building a chain of responsibility that no one can escape. But his real target is not any single crime, it is the whole selfish worldview that Mr Birling represents. He is there to teach, not just to investigate.
He is also the engine of the drama. His method of showing the photograph to one person at a time keeps the tension tight and stops the family from closing ranks. And in his final speech he steps beyond the plot entirely to address the audience, warning that if people do not learn to care for one another, "they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish", a chilling reference the 1945 audience would hear as the two World Wars. Structurally, he is judge, teacher and prophet at once.
How Inspector Goole changes
Unlike the Birlings, the Inspector does not change, and that stillness is part of his power. He is a fixed moral point around which the family are forced to move. From his first entrance to his last speech he holds the same calm authority and the same clear message, and it is the characters around him who are altered, or fail to be.
What does develop is the audience's understanding of what he might be. At first he seems like an unusually forceful policeman. As the play goes on, his uncanny knowledge, his control and his sermon-like speeches make him feel like something more. By the end, when the family discover no Inspector Goole works for the local police, we are left to decide what he really was: a hoax, a ghost, a projection of their guilt, or a force of justice sent to warn them. Priestley never answers, and the mystery is deliberate, keeping his message hanging over the audience.
Key Inspector Goole quotes
“We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other”
Where: Act 3, final speechThe heart of the play's message, and of Priestley's socialism. The image of 'one body' insists that society is interconnected and that we owe each other care. Your single most important Inspector quote for the theme of social responsibility.
“they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish”
Where: Act 3, final speechThe chilling warning that closes his sermon. To a 1945 audience this points straight at the two World Wars as the price of not learning to care for one another. Argue that Priestley uses the Inspector as a prophet, not just a policeman.
“there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us”
Where: Act 3He widens one death into a whole class of the exploited. The repetition of 'millions' makes Eva a symbol for countless others. Use it to show the Inspector's message is about society as a whole, not one girl.
“It's better to ask for the earth than to take it”
Where: Act 2A pointed contrast between Eva, who only asked for fair treatment, and the Birlings, who took what they wanted. Argue that Priestley uses the Inspector to reverse the family's moral judgements about who deserves respect.
“Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges”
Where: Act 2The Inspector directly challenges Birling's belief that wealth brings only entitlement. It states the play's argument plainly: privilege carries duty. Use it for the theme of social responsibility and the critique of the powerful.
“each of you helped to kill her. Remember that”
Where: Act 3The Inspector's verdict on the whole family, refusing to let any of them off. 'Each of you' spreads the guilt across them all. Argue that he insists on collective, shared responsibility, the opposite of Birling's every-man-for-himself creed.
Inspector Goole and the play's themes
The Inspector is the voice of the play's central theme, social responsibility. Everything he says argues that we are all connected and answerable for one another, which is Priestley's socialist reply to Mr Birling's individualism. He is also the play's judge on class and the abuse of power, holding the wealthy Birlings to account for what they did to a powerless working-class girl.
His mysterious nature adds a thread of the almost supernatural or moral-fable quality, making the play feel like a warning from beyond ordinary life. Connect him to these ideas on the An Inspector Calls themes page, and remember that he is less a realistic policeman than the embodiment of Priestley's message.
Context: what Inspector Goole represents
Priestley was a socialist, and the Inspector is how he puts his politics on stage. Writing in 1945, as Britain debated the welfare state and a fairer post-war society, Priestley used the Inspector to argue that people have a duty to look after one another rather than only themselves. The Inspector's speeches are, in effect, Priestley speaking directly to his audience.
The final twist deepens this. When the family learn no such inspector exists, and then the phone rings to announce a real inspector is coming, Priestley suggests that judgement is inescapable, and that a second chance is being offered and, for the older Birlings, wasted. The Inspector's warning about 'fire and blood and anguish' would land hard on an audience who had just lived through two World Wars. For the exam, the key point is that the Inspector is a dramatic device, Priestley's mouthpiece and a kind of moral force, rather than a realistic character.
How to write about Inspector Goole in the exam
Write about the Inspector as Priestley's mouthpiece, not as an ordinary policeman. The strongest answers treat him as a dramatic device: his control of the questioning, his impossible knowledge and his final sermon all serve the play's socialist argument. His 'one body' speech is your essential quote for social responsibility.
For a perceptive point, explore what he might be, ghost, conscience, or force of judgement, using the twist ending and his name, and argue that the ambiguity is deliberate, keeping his message alive after he leaves. Bring in Priestley's socialism and the 1945 context. Set him against the man he confronts on the Mr Birling page, and connect him to the themes page.
Study the Inspector against Mr Birling, whose worldview he demolishes, and alongside Sheila, who comes to share his message. Connect him to the play's ideas on the An Inspector Calls themes page and the key quotes page.