Priestley's Genre in An Inspector Calls

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Recommended: Example of how priestley shows his views on socialism in an inspector calls

Priestley's Genre in An Inspector Calls

'An Inspector Calls' is a "Whodunit" written by J.D. Priestley in 1945

and was first shown in Britain at the new Theatre on the 1st October

1946.Priestley was a socialist and in 'An Inspector Calls', the main

theme explores capitalism versus socialism. This play is a morality

play. Priestley communicates his message to the audience by

representing capitalism by the upper class and the Birling family and

socialism by the lower class and the Inspector and Eva Smith/Daisy

Renton as this related to real life during this time. Priestley

presents his arguments clearly through interesting characters, with

very different views and a powerful story line with major consequences

to individual actions. He presents this morality play within the

"whodunit genre".

Priestley uses a whodunit genre to demonstrate his social message for

various reasons. The message is directed to the upper class so

Priestley needed to make sure they saw it. Going to the theatre was

popular with the upper class until 1939 when cinema became extremely

popular, so as an attempt to retain a theatre audience Priestley used

a detective thriller as these genres were clearly popular at this time

as many people enjoyed Agatha Christie and Emlyn plays. They were

popular detective thriller play writers. Another reason for using a

whodunit genre would be that in the play most of the characters are

usually thoroughly questioned by a detective so their actions,

thoughts, and opinions can be explored deeply through the question and

answer process. Also this would be perfect to demonstrate a social

message as actions and consequences of a c...

... middle of paper ...

... Priestley wrote this play with interesting dialogue, deep,

realistic characters, and an effective story line that specifically

dealt with the problems of capitalism. Through the thorough

questioning of each character he was able to present these problems

interestingly, without having to list them down, and so kept the

audience entertained while expressing the true theme behind this

detective thriller. Also Priestley wrote this play to appear it is

about the Birling's mistakes but manages to direct the message at the

audience and while watching this play, make them think of their own

mistakes and I think that is what Priestleys main aim was. I think

that Priestley wrote "An Inspector Calls" to demonstrate the true

importance of socialism and the unimportance of capitalism and I think

He definitely achieved his purpose.

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