This deep dive covers Function 3: THE MYSTERY — Goole as Ghoul within Inspector Goole (character) for GCSE English Literature. Revise Inspector Goole (character) in An Inspector Calls for GCSE English Literature with 12 exam-style questions and 15 flashcards. This topic shows up very often in GCSE exams, so students should be able to explain it clearly, not just recognise the term. It is section 4 of 17 in this topic. Use this deep dive to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
🎭 Function 3: THE MYSTERY — Goole as Ghoul
Priestley deliberately leaves the Inspector's identity unresolved. His name — Goole — sounds like "ghoul": a supernatural figure feeding on the dead. He appears at the moment of celebration and vanishes before the institutional check can begin. He knows facts no police inspector could know. He speaks about Eva Smith's death with certainty, yet no girl is in the infirmary when Gerald calls.
Priestley's refusal to resolve the mystery is itself the argument. The Inspector could be: a real inspector who vanishes before the check is made; a supernatural figure embodying collective conscience; a time-traveller who knows what the Birlings caused; or a projection of the audience's own moral judgement. Priestley makes all of these readings possible simultaneously.
The crucial point — which Sheila understands and her parents do not — is that the Inspector's identity is irrelevant to his function. Whether or not he is real, the Birlings did what they did. "He made us confess," Sheila says. He did not make them do anything; he made them see what they had already done. The Level 5 essay names this: Goole is a dramatic device for moral reckoning, not a character to be identified.
Quick Check: Why does Priestley make the Inspector's final exit coincide with the revelation that he may not be "real"?
Priestley uses the timing to separate two responses: those who ask "who was he?" (the elder Birlings) and those who ask "what did we do?" (Sheila and Eric). By making the Inspector's reality uncertain at the moment of departure, Priestley forces his audience to choose which question matters more. The elder Birlings' focus on identity lets them escape the moral question; Sheila's dismissal of the identity question — "You're beginning to pretend all over again" — is Priestley's clearest statement of what the lesson requires.
Practice questions for Inspector Goole (character)
What does Inspector Goole's name suggest to the audience?
Explain one technique Priestley uses to make the Inspector a powerful moral and dramatic force in An Inspector Calls. [2 marks]