JB Priestley was a socialist and strived for a more equal society. So when he wrote An Inspector Calls at the end of WWll he wasn’t just writing a play. He was trying to change the mind set of post war Britain. What class of person you belonged to meant everything and climbing the social status ladder was far more important than helping others or giving to charity. There was no NHS or welfare state and there was a lot of prejudice against you if you worked in a factory for a living. As a socialist Priestley disagreed with the way the rich treated the poor. In an inspector calls he tells almost an Aesop’s Fable or moral play to try and change the opinion the rich had to make Britain wake up.
Arthur Birling is a rich factory owner in the early 20th century. He has two grown-up children and a wife. He is an arrogant man with little respect for people poorer than him. Priestley shows us this when Arthur says ‘the way some if these cranks talk and write now, you’d think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive – community and all that’. He clearly regards poorer people as being nothing to do with him.
He is linked to Eva because she used to work for him. Her and some other of his employees disagreed with their pay and asked for just over two more shillings a week. Arthur refused to pay them this and then sacked Eva. This was the first in a chain of events that led to Eva’s death. Arthur refuses to share or take any of the blame for this as he feels he did nothing wrong by sacking her.
To be honest there isn’t much to like about Arthur. He likes to constantly remind people of how important he is and how he is a ‘hard headed, practical man of business. To a 1940’s ...
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... actually dead (yet). He leaves in a mysterious manor. When the Birlings and Gerald investigate they learn he was not a real inspector and no girl had died in the infirmary. As they celebrate this news they receive a call to say a girl just died and there is an inspector on his way to speak to them. Leaving a question for the audience, was the inspector real at all?
I think what Priestley tried to do was very clever. He knew that the audience to his play would be upper class, exactly the people he was trying to change. He used clever tactics to hook the audience in and has a good twist at the end. By making the younger characters change into more morally aware people I think it sort of reflected the people he was trying to change. Because the younger generations will carry the view forward into the future.
Works Cited
An Inspector Calls by J.B Priestly
In the beginning, Priestley describes the Birlings’ house as ‘a fairly large suburban house’ with ‘good solid furniture of the period’, showing they are upper-middle class and that they have money. They also have servants such as a maid and a cook. Priestley wants to give us an idea that the Birlings are upper class both in possessions and attitudes.
After Gerald re-enters, he reveals that there was no Inspector Goole and that this was a hoax, to which everyone except Sheila and Eric are delighted to hear of the news.
J B Priestley clearly had a strong moral conscience which led him to hold socialist beliefs wanting to bring about change against the capitalists who were exploiting the poor working class. In 'An Inspector Calls' Priestley cleverly uses dramatic techniques, lighting and stage directions to produce an emotionally charged setting to bring home a very important message to the correct society of his day and remains a challenge to the society in which we live in now.
but he also broke it off. All of their morals are tested and they are all put to the test because none of them really know the truth about what they have done until the inspector brings it out of them. After the inspector goes the family finds out that he was a fake and that no girl had died.
she needed more money. So she said to him give me 25/6 because of that
As the play was meant to be produced on stage, rather than to be written as a book format, 'An Inspector Calls' is very dramatic; to capture the audiences' attention, and to keep them thinking as the play develops. Each of the three acts are very dramatic, but I am choosing to analyse the first half of Act One of 'An Inspector Calls', because in my opinion, this is where J.B. Priestley's use of dramatic devices is most evident. This part of the play is very important, because it is the opening scene. Not only must the opening scene of the play grab the audiences' attention, it must also give impressions and introductions to the main characters. J.B. Priestley has used the scene to capture the audiences' attention and imagination, and gives a good introduction to the characters and their personality.
J.B. Priestley's Motives Behind An Inspector Calls J.B. Priestley was born in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1894. His mother
The Dramatic Techniques J.B. Priestley Used to Create and Develop Tension in Act one of An Inspector Calls
The Reflection of J. B. Priestley's Political and Philosophical Beliefs in An Inspector Calls In 1945 J. B. Priestley wrote the play "An Inspector Calls". It is a very tense play; the audience are always on the edge of their seats. It is didactic as it conveys a social and moral meaning to the play.
In fact it makes all the difference." Also the reference the Inspector makes about Socialism being a lesson we have to learn "We are members of one body if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish. " This is a reference to the way Priestley thought that Capitalism was the cause of First World War, which he himself served in, the "fire and blood and anguish" being a reference to events he witnessed while fighting on the front line.
Priestley's Social Message in An Inspector Calls The play an Inspector Call’s was written at the time of 1945 but is set in 1912. Priestley conveys a lot of social and important messages in this play. He conveys the messages through the character of Inspector Goole. One most important message that Priestley conveys is about Socialism.
Through his play Priestley endeavoured to convey a message to the audiences, that we could not go on being self obsessed and that we had to change our political views. He used the Birling family as an example of the Capitalist family that was common amongst the higher classes in 1912, who took no responsibility for other people and he showed this with the power of Socialism, represented by the inspector; the uneasy facade put on by the Birling family to cover up their real flaws and how they have treated those whom they considered to be lower class could not stand up to any scrutiny without shame for what had happened, showing that they know they have been wrong.
Arthur is portrayed to be somewhat foolish and gullible in Book I along with Book IV, not in the sense that he is silly and imprudent, but in the sense that he is a pushover.
...provide the hope in the play that the younger generation will carry on the future responsibly. Sheila and Eric are better than their parents, who are too set in their ways.
However I do feel that we as a society might be able to learn from some of Priestley's teachings and work together to form a more equal society for our future generations.