'A man is a member of a community and the fact that he is a member of a community enlarges his stature and increases his opportunities' - Discuss how Priestley explores and dramatises this belief in 'An Inspector Calls'?

Mark M. Addison Page 07/05/2007

GCSE English Coursework

‘An Inspector Calls’ by J.B. Priestley.

‘A man is a member of a community and the fact that he is a member of a community enlarges his stature and increases his opportunities’

Discuss how Priestley explores and dramatises this belief in ‘An Inspector Calls’?

In J.B. Priestley’s ‘An Inspector Calls’ the themes of community are deep running and are a reflection of his socialist morals and ideals. Priestley uses the word community as a representation of society as a whole. In the Inspector’s final speech, he says, “We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other.” Through the inspector, Priestley is exploring the point that everyone should be a member of a universal community. One that is devoid of social classes and the prejudices and injustices that a class dominated society brings. These feelings about the ideals of community were dominated by Priestley political beliefs and his contempt for the self centred and blinkered upper classes. Priestley explores the theme of community in the Edwardian society of 1912, so he can use dramatic irony to highlight the point that, “if men will not learn that lesson, they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.” The lesson he refers to is that ‘we don’t live alone’ and he uses the image of fire, blood, and anguish as a biblical reference to the apocalypse or perhaps an image of hell. It can also be viewed as a reference the battlefields of the First and Second World Wars, where the self-centredness of society, particularly in the upper classes, led to huge conflict.

Priestley explores the various failings of class dominated society through the personification of it's certain aspects through his characters. He uses the characters of the Birling family to represent the upper classes and their approach to community. He uses Birling and his wife to represent the hypocrisy of upper class Edwardian society of 1912. His portrayal of Birling as a fool, blind to the world around him because of his self centred approach to life, leads the audience to have a dislike for Birling and therefor the aspects of society he represents. Priestley’s opening conversations between the characters in act one highlight his point that the upper classes of society are too concerned with their own lives to take notice of the world around them. One of these lines is, “there’s a lot of wild talk about possible labour trouble in the near future.” Priestley completes his picture of Birling’s ignorant ways when he says, “We hard headed practical businessmen must have a say sometimes… and we know.” This line is perhaps the best line Priestley uses in his mockery of the upper classes because the audience, watching the play in 1945, and so being able to look back retrospectively, know that Birling is wrong. They know that the titanic sunk on its maiden voyage, the know that the ‘silly little war scares’ were proved correct and they know this because everyone watching the play in 1945 had been through at least one world war, if not two. It is this use of dramatic irony which completes his portrayal of Birling and leads the audience to believe that it is the people like Birling that are to blame for the war and this is a powerful idea for people who have just come out of a major conflict. Priestley uses the Inspector as his vehicle for social protest and portrays him as an angel of judgement, in the way he appears omniscient to the characters in the play and to the audience. This idea is backed up by the way he is more concerned with the morality of the situation than the legality of it and his biblical references such as, ‘fire and blood and anguish’ and the way he talks about the past, present, and future in his closing speech. The name that Priestley has chosen for his voice of social conscience is Goole and this gives a mysterious, ghostly image. This makes the Inspector seem like a supernatural figure or the embodiment of the conscience of the characters and a representation of morality. Eva represents the victims of classist society and this is pointed out in the Inspector's closing speech when he says, "One Eva Smith has gone -but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us." Priestley uses Sheila as the voice of conscience for the Birling family and also Edwardian society and this is seen in the line, "I think it was a terrible thing to do. Perhaps that spoilt everything for her." Priestley casts her in this role because she is a member of the next generation, thus implying that there is hope for the future with regard to community and social responsibility. By using a female character in this role, Priestley is implying that the next generation of women will have more of an influence than in the past and that this will have a positive effect on society.

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The stage directions in the play help to dramatise the ideas of community put forward in the play. In the stage directions, Priestley states that the Inspector should create a sense of ‘massiveness’ and ‘solidity’. This helps explain how the false sense of security that has been established at the start of the play is disrupted by the arrival of the inspector and the audience sees that if the Inspector can break this mood he will act as a catalyst and make them confess. This disruption of the mood is Priestley way of saying that if we are to change the ways of the upper classes we must shock them into the realisation of how they are stopping the betterment of society as a whole. Priestley uses stage directions to show how the characters react to their guilt. When Sheila sees the photo of Eva she "gives a half-stifled sob and runs out." It is interesting to see how the characters react to their responsibility, as this is a good reflection of their social responsibility. You have seen that Sheila's reaction shows her remorse and Eric is the one who starts with the truth and does not hide anything. Priestley's deliberate contrasts between the older and younger generations highlight their different approaches to community.

Priestley use of time in 'An Inspector Calls' lets the audience follow the action at a steady pace, ensuring that Priestley’s points about community are taken in. The time span of the play in performance corresponds with the time it would take for the events onstage to unravel in real life so the audience can follow the Inspector’s investigation at a steady pace, without losing the feeling of time. Priestley uses the theme of time in several of his plays including ‘Dangerous Corner’, ‘I Have Been Here Before’, and ‘Time and the Calways’. Similarly to ‘An Inspector Calls’, these plays are about the effects an individual’s actions over a passage of time. Other similarities to the theme of time in ‘An Inspector Calls’ and Priestley’s other plays are found in ‘Eden End’, written by Priestley in1934, but set in 1912 like ‘An Inspector Calls’ and allowing the audience to look back and critically analyse past actions. In ‘An Inspector Calls’ these past actions are those of society’s outlook at the idea of community.

Priestley’s use of dramatic irony can be seen throughout the play, particularly in the first act and the Inspector’s final speech to the Birlings. Priestley uses dramatic irony to show the idiocy of the upper classes and how their actions towards to ideas of community in 1912 led to the problems the audience face in 1946 when it was first produced in Britain. You can see this use of dramatic irony in several lines where Birling says, “the world’s developing so fast it will make war impossible”, “the Titanic… absolutely unsinkable”, and “in 1940…by that time you’ll be living in a world… that’ll have forgotten all these silly little war scares.” He also makes ironic references to the Germans not wanting war when the political climate in at this time was pointing clearly to a war with Germany. In these lines the audience would feel an underlying sense of unease to the ironic references to war, particularly when it was produced in 1946 to an audience who had just come out of a war. In the Inspector’s closing speech he says, “and I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish.” This prophetic suggestion leaves the audience to reflect at how the upper classes adverse feeling towards society led to conflict at how the upper classes adverse feeling towards community led to conflict.

In conclusion, Priestley’s ‘An Inspector Calls’ is essentially a mockery of the upper classes of Edwardian society and their self-centred approach to life. Priestley uses a variety of techniques to display aspects of this society in his play. His mockery of Birling and the society he stands for incited anger in this audience. Anger at how their approach to community and their self-interest led to two wars. The message Priestley conveys in ‘An Inspector Calls’ is that it is the upper classes of society, those who think themselves above others and too important for such things as community, are stopping the moral betterment of society. He is saying that if we do not force change upon them, change will never come, we must show them their own self-centredness and keep showing them until they realise the error of their ways and change. The way forward for community must be led by the masses, not the few.