Compare the pre twentieth century ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens with the twentieth century play ‘ An inspector Calls’ by J.B. Priestly focusing particularly attention on plots, character and authorial intent; why do you think

There are a lot of similar features that appear in the two stories. One of these the similarities is between Scrooge and Mr Birling. Both of these men don't seem to care about other people and just think about them selves. Birlings shows this when he says "Community and all that nonsense." This also shows how narrow minded he really is. In Scrooges case things are even worse as he does not even care for his own nephew "It's enough for a man to understand his own business and not to interfere with other peoples." These two both think that people who are poor have to work all around the clock and don't understand that everyone is equal and some people (the rich) are more fortunate than others.

Another example of their similarities as they look for any that could lead to a business opportunity. In 'IC' Birling shows that he looks at Sheila and Gerald's marriage is not a moment of joy but a huge business opportunity. This would greatly benefit him in the long run. "We look forward for the day when Croft's and Birling's are no longer competing but working together." This compares well with when Scrooge in 'CC' says "He was an excellent man of business, on the very day of the funeral" on the funeral of a long life partner, which would usually be very upsetting but instead jumps at the chance to keep his business going on his funeral. It is also shocking that he doesn't even show any sympathy towards him.

One main reasons that these two men are so narrow minded is their generalisation. They resort to picking on people who ever they but they only see them as they do in their heads not who they truly are. Scrooge announces strictly "I can't afford to make people to make idle people merry" to one of young man who is trying to collect money for charity. He thinks that as some people are poor they cannot be happy. We assume that he thinks that people have to be rich to be happy. A good example of this is when Scrooge says to his nephew "What have you to be merry?" Scrooges nephew replying, "What right do you have be dismal?" sharply. This shows that just having family and friends with you at Christmas should be enough to make you happy. In 'IC' Birling announces, " If you don't come down sharply on these people then they'd soon be asking for the earth." Here he generalises his factory workers as greedy. This brings through his experience that he actually has of 'normal' people.