20th Century Drama

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An Inspector Calls is often referred as a “morality play”. This means that it makes the audience think about the message in the play in more depth. The story also teaches a lesson about what’s right and wrong and it also plays on your conscience through the actions of the characters. Furthermore, the play also contains extracts of a “detective play” to solve a mystery; searching for clues and mysteries to answer throughout the play. It is also considered to be a “well made play” which has a tight plot, because the story is somewhat claustrophobic, because most of the play takes place in a dining room with a climax to the end. The characters go through a journey, which is sort of set and you get to learn a lot about the character and their personal experiences. The two dates of the play, 1912 and 1945 are important, because it tells when the play is set and when the play was first performed. Additionally, 1912 is the date before 1914 which is the First World War. Before the First World War, people were naively optimistic about the future, because there were many new advances in medicine, technology, science and travel, all of which benefited the economy of Britain. Britain at that present time was economically strong and had a vast empire, because of the colonies it had, it was considered as a time of prosperity, considering everything was going according as the citizens of Britain expected it to be. However, little did the people know, the citizens of Britain didn’t know that World War one will be commencing soon in a couple of years. “ World War One was considered as the war to end all wars” Having the audience being exposed to two World wars, this ultimately causes a lot of dramatic irony, which in actually fact creates a lo... ... middle of paper ... ...alism, because Mr Birling is defined as a snobbish, arrogant individual which is used to personify capitalism and in contrast, Mr Birling is a socialism and believes in the ideology that people should help one another and convince the people of capitalism that they are going in the wrong direction. The effect of the doorbell ringing has an effect on the family, because it interrupts Mr Birling views and speech, and it also disturbs the celebration and the atmosphere of the house, which is conveyed through this quote: “We hear the sharp ring of a front doorbell. Birling stops to listen.” Mr Birling is mid – speech of a pro-capitalist message, thereby attacking socialism, when the door bell rings. His viewpoint is that everyone should look after themselves, considering the fact that he is against the idea of a community.

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