J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls

J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls

I think that an "Inspector Calls" is about the discriminations between

different classes and sexes, it conveys a lot of messages about these

topics and uses An Inspector - a mysterious, curt individual who makes

an unexpected call on an upper middle class, very opinionated family

named the Birlings. The inspector seems to invade their own little

world - upsetting a celebration of theirs, forcing them to realise the

truth - they all contributed to the death of a young, working class

girl with what should have been years ahead of her, instead these were

snatched away by a greedy, insensitive and selfish chain of events,

all down to the Birlings. The girls name was Eva Smith.

It is set just before the First World War, a time which is linked to

one of the messages that the play delivers to the viewer in one of the

final, most powerful, statements and at a time when class was very

important, there was a clear divide between the working and upper

classes, the working class being inferior, almost uncivilised or

animals.

I would want a large, open well-furbished and elegant dining room with

a solid looking fairly ornate dining table in the centre of the stage.

Some exotic plants such as small palm in the corner giving an

individual air to a traditional setting. They might believe it sets

them apart from other higher and lower classed houses as the Birlings

have something special almost extraordinary for this country. This is

similar to the BBC's production as I thought that this production had

a set which captured the essence of the Birlings and how they viewed

themselves - to be almost almighty, su...

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... I would hope that the audience would expect a climatic concluding

scene where we learn the truth about the whole family's involvement in

the degeneration of a young woman's will to live. If the play was well

produced they would expect to learn the extent of which class and

superiority has gone to destroy a life and how the Birlings can go

about improving their lifestyles to accommodate for the rest of the

world, especially the working 'inferior' classes. They should expect

the Inspector to be able to almost convert the Birling's lives to ones

which can help other people to unite and accept responsibility where

it is needed as this is what J.B. Priestley has tried to do with his

most provocative of plays - "An Inspector Calls".

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