How does J.B.Priestly expose the social mores in pre WWI society, through events and characters in An Inspector Calls?

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How does J.B.Priestly expose the social mores in pre WWI society, through events and characters in An Inspector Calls?

        In An Inspector Calls, J.B.Priestly exposes the social mores of society, more specifically the conflict between the rich and the poor. The five characters are typical personalities of pre WWI society: Birling is stubbourn, and wants to 'get into' the middle class, and show his worth; Mrs. Birling is a snob, blinded by her sense of self-importance and her husband's success; Shiela has a good heart, but her jealousy causes her to act out against Eva Smith, which she may not have been able to do, had she not been such a good customer at Milwards; Eric drinks and is a womaniser; and finally there is Gerald, whose sense of duty and wealth causes him to leave the woman who loves him, because she is poor. In this essay, rather than refer to all these characters and their situations, I will refer to Arthur Birling, his wife, Sybil, and Gerald.

        Mr. Birling refuses to accept the fact that he may have done something wrong. "I don't see where I come into it... Rubbish! If you don't come down sharply on some of these people, they'd soon be asking for the earth... quite justified... only did what any employer might have done." This is because he is stubborn, and afraid of a scandal.

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        He is pretentious, and has worked his way up, so feels he has to prove his worth. We can see this from his comments to Gerald at the start of act one. "Finchley told me it's exactly the same port your father gets from him... I like a good cigar... just a knighthood of course... benefit of my experience." He wants to be respected by the social class that he feels he now belongs to.

        Another typicality in pre WWI society was cheap factory labour, and J.B.Priestly shows this through Mr. Birling. "it's my duty to keep labour costs ...

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