Explore the way the characters between different generations is developed in An Inspector Calls

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Explore the way the characters between different generations is developed in An Inspector Calls

In the play An Inspector Calls, written in 1946 by Mr J.B Priestley, there are two contrasting generations, the old and new. These characters are developed as the play unfolds. The play is set before World War 1, in 1912. This period was drastically different to the one in which it was written, 1946, with the social classes being much farther apart and the welfare state being non-existent. In this essay I will look at how the characters Sheila and Arthur Birling change over the course of the play, and how the generation gap affects this. These characters have been chosen because they, in my opinion, differ the most out of any two characters in the play.

I will firstly look at how Sheila is portrayed when we first meet her at the start of the play. In the first act the Birling family is having dinner to celebrate Sheila marrying Gerald Croft, a lucrative decision for both of the families. Sheila is shown as sarcastic and playful when she says “(with mock aggressiveness) Go on Gerald- just you object!” This sentence implies that Sheila likes to joke around with Gerald, which was actually in contrast to how women were supposed to act in that period, showing early on that she is also quite rebellious. The word “mock” means, in this case, means fake and not serious, reflecting the attitude of Sheila at the start quite clearly, as someone who is not very serious about most things. Throughout the entire first act this attitude is continued until she meets the Inspector, with Priestley using such phrases as “Half serious half playful” and “light and easy” to describe her.

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Birling, on the other hand, is shown to be quite arrogant and stuck up, even stupid, at the start of the play. This is shown in act one when he makes a speech to his family and Gerald, and talks about how everyone would ignore all the “silly pessimistic talk” of labour troubles and ironically, how the Germans do not want war. This is met by Eric objecting, and then being told “Let me finish Eric. You’ve a lot to learn yet.” Priestley put the speech in the play to make Birling look stupid, as the First World War started ...

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There is a good understanding of characters shown in this essay and some analysis of language, structure and form. I would like to to see some more in depth analysis of these three areas and more of a focus on the question from the very start of the essay. 4 Stars