The Underlying Themes in An Inspector Calls
‘We don’t live alone we are members of one body we are responsible for
each other`.
These were the exact words of Inspector Goole the character produced
by J.B Priestly. Throughout the whole play these words were the most
important and the most meaningful words transferred from J.B Priestly
to the audience, these words remind us that there are people around us
and we must appreciate them and their situations. It also means we are
all humans and we must not have different classes of people or a
culture, a religion or anyone, J.B Priestly tells the audience
discrimination of any kind should not be tolerated. Finally the words
explain to us we must help each other to get through our problems, we
must help each other solve these problems like a mature team and we
must be careful we don’t hurt anyone else through the process of
supporting ourselves.
The play An Inspector Calls was first produced in London on 1 October
1946 at the New Theatre. The play only consists of seven characters
produced by J.B Priestly. I think he only created seven characters to
keep the play easy to understand and to get his points across to the
audience without confusion. All three of the Acts are set in the
dining room of the Birlings’ house in Brumely an industrial city in
the North Midlands. The play was set on an evening in spring, 1912.
I think the reason why J.B Priestly set the play in the in the past
was so he could use dramatic irony, this way he described his
characters better because the audience knew there was more
discrimination in the past. Although it still happens today there was
a...
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...across to me through the attitude of the
Birlings and Gerald Croft towards Eva Smith, which lead her all the
way to death through five difficult steps.
Inspector Goole points out to the Birlings and Gerald Croft that there
are more people out there and you must be very careful and responsible
for your actions. At this point of the play I felt that J.B Priestly
was appealing to the world to respect others. I think his play was
very successful and the issues, which he raised, were excellent, but
the way he raised them with only seven characters in one room was
purely remarkable.
The issues he raised really got me thinking about what kind of people
there are in the world and the tragedies that are happening all over
the world that we don’t even get hear of.
J.B Priestly’s play was definitely a success.
