The End of Act Two in An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley

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The End of Act Two in An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley

Introduction

In the first half of the 20th Century a number of different events

took place. As you may already know, two of the biggest events that

took place were the Two Great World wars. The devastating Wars took

the lives of soldiers, innocent people and civilians but also caused

the whole World to suffer. The Titanic, a ship that was ment to be

unsinkable, sank in 1912. The Holocaust in the 2nd World War was when

Hittler killed thousands and thousands of Jews either in concentration

camps or by torture. The Atomic bomb and the Great Depression was when

the World fell into a dismal grey, pit of depression after World War

1. They thought there would never be a War like it again.

Priestley was worried with how this world was turning out, how people

are selfish and don't help others and how they ignore and are

prejudice to one another. Priestley was a great writer of plays and

novels, which he hoped would inspire readers into making this world a

better place.

This essay is going to explore why the end of Act Two is so powerful

and if it is still relevant to a modern audience of today.

The Plot

In the play "An Inspector calls" an Inspector intrudes on a rich

household of snobby people about the murder of a young girl.

Themes

We can see clearly the themes of "An Inspector Calls" from our key

extract scene. Firstly we can see that he was interested in the

differences between right and wrong. For instance, when Mrs Birling

denies she has done anything wrong. The Inspector says "I think you

did something terribly wrong - and that you're going to spend the rest

of your life regretting it". This suggests that the Inspectors

opinions of right and wrong are completely different to Mrs Birling's

idea of right and wrong. The Inspector almost acts as the judge of

morality and tells the characters harshly when they do wrong and that

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