An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley In my English class I have been reading the play 'An Inspector Calls'! The play is about a fairly well-off family (the Birling's) who have their evening spoilt by having an inspector call round, to ask them questions about a girl, Eva Smith, who drank some disinfectant to kill herself. I am going to start my comparisons with the head of the house-hold, Arthur Birling. Arthur Birling is a selfish, arrogant, family man who doesn't know the meaning of the word responsibility. The play starts off with the family sat around the dining table, toasting to the daughter, Sheila's, engagement to Gerald Croft. While the girls (Sheila and her mother, Sybil) trail off to the drawing room, Arthur decides to teach Gerald something about responsibility; 'A man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own' He also has a fairly good reason as to why he thinks like this, and he tells so to the inspector; 'If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we'd had anything to do with, it would be very awkward, wouldn't it?' When Arthur doesn't know the full story as to why the inspector has arrived, he tries to use his importance to get his way. He threatens the inspector with the following phrase; 'I've half a mind to report you… perhaps I ought to warn you that… our chief constable… he's an old friend of mine, and that I see him fairly often' Arthur doesn't react at all to the death of Eva, and he acts as though 'such is life'. When the inspector leaves towards the end of the play, Arthur tries to think of all sorts of idea's to prove that the man wasn't an inspector at all, - proving that Arthur didn't change at all in reaction to the death of one of his former employees. Sybil Birling is Arthur's wife. She is very like her husband in being selfish, and is very unrepentant. Sybil finds out that she had
There would be more of an effect on the audience at the time, as it
“I know it’s only his body and all that’s in the cemetery,and his soul’s in Heaven and all that crap, but i couldn't stand it anyway.” the quote is self explanatory in the fact that he outright states that he knows that Allie is dead but still somewhat cannot truly accept it. The fact that- -Holden outright says this tells a lot about his character in the fact that he can be too outright at times .
and thinks of him as a man for having killed another man. The fact of the
Criticism in An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley "An Inspector Calls" has been called a play of social criticism. What is being criticised. Explain some of the dramatic techniques which Priestley uses to achieve the play's effects. "An Inspector Calls" has been called a play of social criticism as Priestley condemned the many different injustices that existed in the society between the first and second world wars.
and say and do. We don't live alone. We are members of a body. We are
for each other. And I tell you that a time will soon come when if men
point that he is trying to make is that he is so mean that his
This coursework focuses on how each character contributes to the suicide of a poor girl Eva Smith/Daisy Renton.
talks with. He is a man who has come to the Birling's house to do his
thinks that he just merely works under them and he always has to no matter what
especially for a woman. Even if a woman did get a job they would get
satisfied. He talks a lot and likes the sound of his own voice. He's a
in jeopardy than how he may have driven a young girl down a spiral to
Birlings, as they find out that they have all played a part in a young
the suicide of Eva Smiths death. The aim of the story is to, try to