J.B. Priestley's "An Inspector Calls"
"An Inspector Calls" is a politics based detective play script written
by John Bonyton Priestley, or better know as J.B Priestley.
The play takes place in the wealthy Birtling's family dining room, a
room of which has "good solid furniture of the period", "the general
effect is substantial and heavily comfortable but not cosy and
homelike."
The family are celebrating their daughters engagement to Mr Gerald
Croft, an upper class man, as are the Birling's in the play. A visit
from the Inspector Goole becomes a terrifying experience for the
Birlings, as they find out that they have all played a part in a young
girls suicide. J.B Priestley wrote this play after world war II in
1945, and was first performed in 1946, though he set the play as if it
were taking place in 1912,just a week before the Titanic took sail to
New York.
In this play, Priestley's main aim was to encourage people to take
responsibility for their actions, and to stop people from shifting the
blame on to others.
Priestley conveys his attitudes and ideas through the characters in
the play. Inspector Goole is used to voice his own opinions, where as
the Birlings are to show what Priestley's opinions are of
'capitalists.'
Many people in 1912, thought that capitalism was the right way to go
about things, (such as upper class people, the Birlings and Gerald
Croft who appear in the play) where as others thought that this was an
incorrect way, and unfair such as lower class people, Inspector Goole
and J.B Priestley.
In "An Inspector Calls", Priestley tries to encourage socialism, and
for it to over come capitalism. He tries to make a point that
socialism is the correct way to go about things ...
... middle of paper ...
...l, and he shows demonstrations and
examples on how to, and not to behave.
Priestley wanted socialism to overcome capitalism, by using Mr Birling
and Inspector Goole as examples of the differences between the two.
Priestley uses Inspector Goole as a hero, he makes the socialist seem
to be the nicer person of the two, and therefore encourage the
viewers/ readers to have the same opinion or change their opinion to a
"socialism rules, capitalism sucks" point of view.
Priestley's views are absolute and he puts this into both characters.
Birling believes in absolute capitalism, where as Goole believes in
absolute socialism.
Priestley does convey his opinions and attitudes, though I don't think
unfortunately well enough to change other peoples attitudes. There
will always be people such as the Birlings, thinking that they are so
much better than others.
The story of Eva Smith is a dramatic one. JB Priestley is full of good
This coursework focuses on how each character contributes to the suicide of a poor girl Eva Smith/Daisy Renton.
J.B. Priestley's Inspector Calls. An Inspector Calls is a play set in spring 1912. The writer, J. B. Priestly, tries to build up a view of Mr Birling through the set. stage directions and in his speeches.
J. B. Priestly was born in 1894 in Bradford and he died on the 14th of
event yet he chose to put his business first. This should be a part in
So we already know that Mr Birling is a man of some meaning who is
The first point is how the scene is set. It is set in the Birling's
worked for him and asked for a pay rise and was fired from her job by
or two, or a few German officers have too much to drink and begin to
especially for a woman. Even if a woman did get a job they would get
An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley "An Inspector calls," by J. B. Priestley was written in 1946 and set in 1912. Priestley was a politician and a socialist who believed in equality and equilibrium for all, sex, race and class. Priestley had a long but arduous life, 1894-1984. He lived through both world wars, the unsinkable Titanic sank in 1912, the general strike in 1926, labour government resigning in 1931, and the two destructive atom bombs dropped on Japan in 1945. Priestley deliberately set the play in 1912 because the audience watching the play had to have lived through all of this and would have empathised with him.
in jeopardy than how he may have driven a young girl down a spiral to
and say and do. We don't live alone. We are members of a body. We are
upon so many levels. On the surface it is a simple tale of how one man
J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls John Boynton Priestley was one of the most popular, versatile and greatest authors of his day. His works of popular history and literary criticism are numerous, ending with the story of Literature and the western woman. However it was as a playwright and as a social thinker that he was especially important. Politically, J.B. Priestley was a patriotic socialist who did not believe in the case of social class or rich dominancy, he believed that people should help each other and not be so competitive towards others. He hated social class because of the way upper class people took advantage of the working classes.