Social Responsibility in An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley

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An Inspector Calls

"We don't live alone. We are all members of one body. We are responsible for each other."

What is Priestley's main aim in `An inspector calls`? How successfully does he achieve it.

In `An inspector calls` by J.B Priestley, the writers aim is reflected into this quote, "We don't live alone. We are all members of one body. We are responsible for each other." Meaning that we are not isolated, we all live in one community and we are all collectively responsible for each other, our actions affects the people around us. We can be independent in the society we live in, but only to a certain extent.

Priestley's main aim was perhaps to make an audience aware that no one person can live in a society without being responsible for others who live in that same society. `An Inspector calls` is set in the early 1900`s and was first presented to audiences in the 1940`s, up to current date. Attitudes of the characters in the book, reflect life in the Edwardian times. And how they take and view responsibility of the other people in there society. The older generation would of only cared for themselves and there family while the younger generation take responsibility for others as well as themselves.

Arthur Birling is a hard-headed, practical man of business. He?s a rather portentous man in his middle fifties. His role reflects the life of a typical man of the middle upper class of the Edwardian times. Birling has a certain type of optimism, what he believes it is the opposite to reality, for example he believes that the world is progressing too much for world wars to occur.

?The worlds developing so fast that world was is impossible- lets say, in 1940- I tell you buy then you?ll be living in a world that have fo...

... middle of paper ...

... all that matters?.

Priestly is showing audiences in the 1940s, that the younger generation in the Edwardian period were more `impressionable`, meaning they are easily impressed or influenced. Priestleys main aim was to make audiences aware of how their actions affect others.

In conclusion, many audiences are drawn to think that Priestly was successful in his main aim. At the end of plays audiences are drawn to think about societies and how their actions have affected other people in that same society. Priestly presents his main aim through, the inspector. The inspectors intentions when he visited the Birling`s was to make them understand, that what they did lead to Eva Smith?s death. And also to make them feel some responsibility for her death, this reflects Priestleys main aim to make an audience feel responsibility for others in their community.

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