"An Inspector Calls" Has Been Called a Play of Social Criticism. What is Being Criticized?

Another criticism in the play is how people take advantage of their position in society to mistreat other people. In the play Sheila used hers and her mothers position to get Eva Smith fired from her job at Millwards just because she looked better in a dress than she did.  Another example of this is when Mrs. Birling refuses to help Eva Smith at her time of most need. Mrs. Birling admits to have been prejudiced against her case. She also says that “ I wasn’t satisfied with the girls claim… I used my influence to have it refused.” This shows how uncaring Mrs. Birling and her daughter were to Eva Smith. If they had known what would happen to Eva Smith at the time it is doubtful that they would have been so uncaring.

A criticism shown at the end of the play is some peoples unswerving believe that money is everything and that it solves all problems. When Eric admits to his father that he has been stealing his money he does not comfort his son and tell him its all right he asks for a list of all the accounts so he can repay the money. This shows that Mr. Birling cares more about the money that his business makes than the welfare of his son.  Another example of money being all important to Mr. Birling is in the end of the play when Mr. Birling says “ I’d give thousands- yes thousands,” to which the Inspector replies he is offering money at the wrong time. This is very ironic because if he had given Eva Smith the three shilling pay rise that she wanted at the beginning this whole chain of events would never have happened. So the Inspector is right he is offering money at the wrong time.

Mr. & Mrs. Birling refuse to learn lessons from their mistakes in the past. This is an important criticism and one of the key themes in the play. At the end of the play after speculation the Birling family realize that the Inspector who visited them was a fraud. At this point Mr. & Mrs. Birling celebrate because they think they are innocent but Sheila & Eric look past this. They see that even if they were not all the same girl and even if a girl had not died they had still all done nasty things to a girl. It does not matter whether they were the same. Their parents though believe they are being stupid because they are feeling worried over something that, to them, never happened. It is irrelevant whether they confessed or not because the person they confessed to was not real. If they do not admit to doing something wrong they will never learn and continue doing bad things like they did before.

I will now look at the dramatic techniques Priestly uses to achieve the effect seen in the play. At the end of each act Priestly puts a cliffhanger into the last section to make sure that the people want to see what will happen next. At the end of the second act the family and the Inspector are talking about Eric’s involvement with the girl when Eric walks through the door and the scene ends. You want to see what happens next you want to see if Eric is the father and what happened. This is seen at the end of the first act as well. At the end of the first act you get the feeling that Gerald has a connection to this girl. The scene ends with the Inspector walking through the door and simply saying “Well?” This one word confirms your suspicions about Gerald and you will continue to watch just to see what he did. It is Priestly’s way with words that keeps you hooked on every word because you want to see what will happen next.

At several points in the play you get the feeling that the Inspector is not who he says he is. For one thing he knows the involvement of every single one of them with this girl.  He also seems to give out an air of strangeness that Sheila notices and questions he says “There is no reason why you should” Another strange thing about the Inspector is that he appears right at the end of Mr. Birling’s pompous speech as if summoned by it. This is also shown later in the play when he leaves and gives a speech exactly opposite to the one Mr. Birling gave earlier.  The suspicions of the audience are seen when it is revealed that the Inspector was not real but the real suspense of the play is left to the real end.

At the very end of the play the Birling Family receive a phone call saying that a girl has committed suicide and an Inspector is coming round to their house to ask them some questions. They were home free and then they are hit with the fact that it did really happen. This is a further backing up that the Inspector is not even human. The Inspectors name is another word for a ghost, ghoul. This last bit of the play is the ultimate cliffhanger because you want to know what happens. Although you do sort of know because the questioning will probably be very similar to the play. This gives the feeling that the events could keep replaying themselves until they learn a lesson.