Focus on Mr. Birling's Speech and the Characters' Reactions at the End of the Play

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‘An Inspector Calls’ is a play written by J.B. Priestley. It was written in 1945 after World War 2 but is set in 1912 before World War 1. The play was set before World War1 because back then there were three different classes of people, (upper, middle and lower) and each of them treat the lower class worse than their own, but Priestley wanted them to realise that different class or not we should treat each other the same. J.B. believed society should care for each other, and hoped that by writing the play people would see the error in their ways and change them. The play is set in a fictional industrial town called Brumely; it takes place in the Birling’s living room. The play centres around the Birling family and the way they treat people. The Birlings are celebrating Sheila Birling’s engagement to Gerald Croft until ‘An Inspector Calls.’

        Mr. Birling’s views on social responsibility are ‘a man has to look after himself- and his family too’ and that community is nonsense ‘community and all that nonsense.’ His views represented many people’s views at the time. Priestley wrote the play to challenge these views because Priestley’s views are the opposite of Mr. Birling’s views and he expresses his views through the Inspector. The Inspector arrives to challenge Mr. Birling’s opinions. His arrival is significant and ironic because he arrives to teach the Birlings about the influence they have on other people.

        As the play progresses the Inspector cleverly interrogates the characters and each reveal their involvement with the dead girl, and consequently how they could have been responsible for her death. Mr. Birling fired Eva from his factory because she wouldn’t stop insisting she should get a pay rise. ‘She’d had a lot to say far too much so she had to go.’ He was a bit worried when the Inspector came but he changed further down the line towards the end where his reaction was that it was all a joke. ’That man definitely wasn’t a police officer at all. As Gerald says we’ve been had.’ I do not think he feels responsible, though, because when he finds out the Inspector isn’t an Inspector he says ‘This makes a difference y’know. In fact, it makes all the difference.’

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Sheila is one of the most involved characters in the death of Eva/Daisy. Sheila is also one of the most sympathetic characters at the end of the play. She is the one that got Eva fired from Milwards because of her jealousy which led to her money shortage. Sheila said she was in a bad mood already so, anything would upset her, she complained to the manager that Eva was laughing at the way she couldn’t make the dress look good on her. ‘I caught a sight of her smiling at the assistant and I was furious with her. ...

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