Are you really likely to get an exam question about Edna?
After all, the parlour-maid delivers fewer than 30 words of dialogue in the entire play.
Whilst it’s unlikely that you’ll get an explicit question about Edna, you can still
write about her in your answers to other themes and characters.
For example, what if you have a question on class?
Edna is the only working class character who actually appears on stage.
Or what about a question on Mr Birling, or Mrs Birling?
The way they interact with Edna is worthy of analysis.
So in this video, let’s analyse this minor, but significant character.
In ‘An Inspector Calls’ every character is in some way representative of a section
of society- with the character of Edna, Priestley demonstrates the mistreatment of the working
class.
Although Edna is a minor character in the play, there are a couple of key moments worthy
of analysis.
Firstly, it is Edna who shows Inspector Goole into the dining room in act one, announcing
that “an inspector’s called”.
This line of dialogue is the closest line we have in the play to the title ‘An Inspector
Calls’ being mentioned, and is clearly a significant moment as Edna ushers in the inspector
who is about to challenge the values and beliefs of the Birlings and Gerald.
Birling replies with “Show him in here.
Give us some more light.”
Now you might not have noticed this before, but in the plot of the play, it is Edna who
changes the lighting in the room when the inspector arrives.
The change of lighting on the stage, moves from ‘pink and intimate’ to ‘brighter
and harder’.
Here, Inspector Goole has a physical impact on the room, and the ‘pink and intimate’
lighting can be seen as indicative of the overly optimistic ‘rose tinted glasses’
through which the Birlings view their lives of middle class privilege.
Inspector Goole brings with him a harder sort of light – a spotlight of interrogation
which will illuminate the truth.
I look at that in more detail in my quotation songs videos, but right now the key thing
to point out is that it is Edna who changes that lighting.
The fact that it is Edna who is the one who brings the inspector into the dining room,
and who lights the room is important, in that Priestley could be suggesting that it will
be the working class who will deliver the truth to the middle and upper classes.
And this is what we see in the play: the life of working class Eva Smith is used to challenge
the Birlings and Gerald, making them face the true consequences of their actions, and
it is working class Edna who brings in the inspector and changes the lighting which signifies
that challenge.
We don’t only analyse characters through how the speak and act, but also through how
others speak to or about them.
When Birling demands ‘Show him in here.
Give us some more light.’, the language and structure of his dialogue is worthy of
analysis.
As Tom Briars Delve points out: these two simple sentences are bluntly short and monosyllabic,
suggesting no attempt at politeness from Birling to Edna.
Both also start with clear imperatives, ‘Show’ and ‘Give’, as if Birling expects his
orders to be followed instantaneously.
Such off-hand comments may appear insignificant but they subtly add to the dramatic force
of Eva’s narrative, highlighting the pressure for working class women to unhesitatingly
obey their middle-class employers even if working conditions are unfair.
In 1912 when the play was set, the use of maids and servants in the homes of middle
and upperclass families was more common than by 1945, when the play was first performed.
To the 1945 audience, Edna’s very presence on stage would feel old-fashioned, and Priestley’s
deliberate inclusion of a maid would serve as a reminder to the audience of the outdated
practice of employing working class people on very little money, to work long hours completing
jobs that could have easily been done by the owners of the house.
Now let’s stop for a second and think about just what it is that Edna does on-stage.
Edna is ordered to pour port, serve food, answer the door: none of the tasks she completes
require any special skill, and all could be done by the Birling family themselves.
In fact, when Mr Birling offers to answer the door himself late into act three, Mrs
Birling casually remarks “Edna’ll go.
I asked her to wait up”.
This intrusion into Edna’s life because of the situation the Birlings have found themselves
in demonstrates how the Birlings see Edna as merely an employee, and do not care that
their actions are impinging upon her wellbeing.
Edna cannot sleep, because the Birlings want her up to do more tasks for them, even though
we can assume that typically she would have finished work by this time.
It’s also worth nothing that the Birlings’ successes are never shared with Edna: for
example, she isn’t invited to join in the toast for the engagement.
Priestley seems to be condemning this mistreatment of the working class, and for an audience
in 1945, they would consider the treatment of Edna as out of date, and overly formal.
This would further alienate the Birlings from the audience, presenting them as people whose
views and attitudes you wouldn’t wish to replicate or repeat.
Although Edna speaks only a few lines on stage, she still has more of a voice than Eva.
Both Edna and Eva are two women from the working class, and both seem to suffer in some way
at the hands of the Birlings.
Eva never appears on stage, and yet her voice is channeled through Inspector Goole.
When Goole tells the Birlings that “There are millions and millions and millions of
Eva Smiths and John Smiths” he is advocating for the absent Eva, who is unable to speak
up for herself.
However, there is also no one who speaks up for Edna.
Edna’s silence could be interpreted as symbolic of the lack of agency that the working poor
had.
Edna would not have had the same freedom of movement as those in the middle classes, and
she would have been even more restricted due to living with the Birlings, and things being
made awkward if she ever wanted to leave and ask for references.
In 1912, employees didn’t have the same working rights as they did in 1945, and the
strengthening of the Unions meant a contemporary audience would appreciate how precarious Edna’s
position would have been had she wished to leave.
Priestley might not use Edna to say very much, but it is just as important to consider what
isn’t said, when viewing Edna’s importance in the play.
The working poor suffered in many ways, and not all of them are obvious at first glance.
Through his depiction of Edna, Priestley encourages us to consider how, even when they are being
paid, the poor are being exploited.
Well I hope you found this video useful.
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