How does Priestley use his characters in "An Inspector Calls" to criticise the society in which it is based

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How does Priestley use his characters in “An Inspector Calls” to criticise the society in which it is based?

J.B Priestley wrote ‘An Inspector Calls’ in 1945. However, the play was set in 1912. Priestley used this play to criticise the society in which it was based. The play focuses on the themes of lies, love, guilt, pride, responsibility and status. The characters are from a middle/high class family. The story was set in Brumley, an industrial city in the North Midlands. The story is based on a family who is celebrating Sheila’s engagement to Gerald Croft, when inspector Goole arrives at the door and tells them about a girl’s (Eva Smith) suicide. The inspector questions all the characters one by one, and it turns out that all the characters are involved in Eva Smith committing suicide, (more or less responsible for this sad death).

Mr Birling (Arthur Birling) is a wealthy factory owner, who worries about the reputation he has and the only thing he wants in life is money and power! Nevertheless, he abuses his power to classes below him. Although he was powerful, he was arrogant, selfish, and disrespectful to everyone that is in the lower class than him. This shows middle class people used to treat lower classes like dirt. Mr Birling was first to be questioned. The inspector asks him if he knew Eva Smith, but Mr Birling refuses to know her and tries to avoid the questions being asked by the inspector. However, the inspector keeps questioning him about Eva Smith. Mr Birling soon becomes frustrated and comes open that he is not responsible for Eva’s death, even though he sacked her from work in the early September of 1910. The reason why Arthur sacked Eva from Birling & Co. was that she wanted a little bit of more salaries for her and her family to survive. Form this, the audience can see that the early society in which it was based in was selfish to people in lower class to them. This gives an affect to the audience that middle class and upper class use to rule the country, when every human deserves the same sort of respect and every should love each other like they love their family.

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After, Eva being sacked from Birling & Co. she went to Milards (she got a job there in the late December 1910). She was happy with her work and did not have any hesitation at all. Until, another Birling family got her sacked from Milards, just because she looked more pretty and beautiful in a hat than Sheila did. This shows Sheila was jealous of Eva; Priestley uses her to show the readers that jealousy can make other people suffer. She is the daughter of Mr Birling. J.B Priestley uses Sheila as a tool of changing from a horrible ...

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