Dear Mr. Anthony Hopkins Thank you for accepting the role of the inspector in my production of J B Priestley's play 'An inspector calls'.The play is set in the

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COURSEWORK TASK

‘AN INSPECTOR CALLS’ BY J B PRIESTLEY

54 Hannibal Lane

Beverley Hills

Los Angeles

USA

12/09/02

Dear Mr. Anthony Hopkins

        Thank you for accepting the role of the inspector in my production of J B Priestley’s play ‘An inspector calls’.

The play is set in the early 1912 before the First World War in a time when there was a relative period of economic and social stability. The play is set in a fictous North Midlands industrial city of Brumley.

The play is about a family, the Birlings who are celebrating their daughter’s engagement to a young man called Gerald Croft whose family also own a business or factory similar to that of the Birling family business. Gerald Croft and all the members in the Birling family which include Arthur and Sybil Birling (the parents), Eric Birling (their son) and their daughter Sheila Birling who is engaged with Gerald Croft are all sat round at the their dining table having a dinner party to celebrate the fact that Sheila and Gerald are both engaged. Just after Mr.Birling has completed his pompous speech, there dinner party is interrupted by the arrival of Inspector Goole, who announces that he is making enquiries about a young woman called Eva Smith who has committed suicide by swallowing disinfectant. The Inspector first shows Mr Birling a picture of Eva Smith that Mr Birling recognises straight away because Eva Smith use to work in Mr.Birling’s factory, but was sacked because she was one of the ringleaders of a strike that was demanding a pay rise. Mr Birling tries to talk the Inspector in to leaving them alone by making threats to him and trying to impress him with his high social status. The Inspector is still determined to interrogate all of them hinting to them that they are all connected to Eva Smith’s death. He talks to Sheila next telling her that Eva Smith use to work at a big well known shop called Millward but lost her job due to a complaint that was made by a jealous and petty-minded customer, that customer was Sheila who now feels very guilty about Eva Smith’s death. We now also find that Gerald was also involved with Eva Smith, who at that time went by the name Daisy Renton. Gerald had had an affair with Daisy Renton (alias Eva Smith) the previous summer; she was his mistress until it no more suited him. Sheila admires Gerald for his honesty but doesn’t seem to keen on continuing her relationship with Gerald, Gerald d leaves the house to go for a walk. Mrs Birling is then also found to be responsible for Eva Smith’s death since Mrs. Birling refused to help Eva Smith through the Brumley woman’s charity organisation in which she was a prominent member, the only reason she didn’t help Eva Smith was because she didn’t like her and thought she was telling “a pack of lies”. Then we find out that Eva Smith had become pregnant and that is why she had gone to seek help from the charitable organisation, the father of Eva Smith’s child turns out to be no other than Eric, who is very upset about his mother not helping Eva  Smith. Eva Smith had refused to marry Eric because he had stolen money and did not really love her. After the Inspector proves that all the Birling family shared responsibility for the death of Eva Smith and gives a final moralising, talk he leaves them. After the Inspector leaves Gerald comes back and convinces Mr and Mrs. Birling that the Inspector was not really an inspector, and they were probably talking about different girls and there really had not been any suicide. Sheila and Eric still guilty for what they have done and, feel they have been changed by the experience and still don’t feel right after they phone the infirmary and are told no girl that has swallowed disinfectant has been bought in.

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Then the phone rings and, Mr Birling picks it up and gets quite a shock, It s police and they’ve sent an inspector over to their house to make an enquiry about a girl who has just died on her way to the infirmary because she swallowed some disinfectant.

The inspector is what the writer J B Priestley uses to express his views regarding socialism and Capitalism, Priestly seems to feel very strongly in support for socialism, since the characters we don’t like very much are the ones who are capitalists, like Mr Birling who is a very ...

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