"An Inspector Calls" by J. B. Priestley.

Act 1, pages 13-14 Inspector's first interview, with Mr. Birling, in presence of Eric and Gerald What the act is about: Birling family and Gerald Croft are having a dinner to celebrate Sheila Birling's and Gerald Croft's future marriage, when all of a sudden an Inspector calls and announces about a suicide which took place a few hours before. He questions Arthur Birling and his daughter Sheila and it turns out that they both knew the …

…calm tone. The tension is growing, and if at the beginning Birling held himself in control and was trying to seem a high-class representative, moving to the end he drops the game and reveals his real self: " it's a perfectly straightforward case"  ' I don't like that tone' This paragraph is very important for the development of the plot because it evaluates Birling's character and prepares the reader for the Inspector's role and methods.