In Act one of 'An Inspector Calls', how does J.B Priestly use dramatic devices to convey his concerns and ideas to the members of the audience as well as interest and involve them in his play?

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In Act one of 'An Inspector Calls', how does J.B Priestly use dramatic devices to convey his concerns and ideas to the members of the audience as well as interest and involve them in his play?

John Boynton Priestly was born in Yorkshire in 1894. He left school at 16 in order to gain life experience and joined the army at the outbreak of world war one. During his time in the army, he witnessed much suffering. This heavily influenced his writing to question the morals and responsibilities of society, which is a main theme in 'An Inspector Calls'.

Priestly's main concerns at the time of writing 'An Inspector Calls' was the state of society and social inequality- there was a huge gap between the rich and the poor. Priestly was also a socialist (politically left wing) and most of the characters who Priestly is trying to convey to the audience as bad people are capitalist (politically right wing). This makes it even easier for him to put across his ideas as he can give the characters very stereotypical personalities.

The story opens up with the arrival of Inspector Goole and when he starts asking the characters questions. However, he is much more than just an inspector. Priestly uses him to reveal the moral conscience of the characters and the responsibilities that they have.
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The play was first performed in 1945, but it is set in 1912. Priestly has done this for a reason. It is important that he has done this as it allows him to use dramatic irony. This is where he can use something in his play which the audience will know about but the characters wont. For example, "the Titanic - she sails next week absolutely unsinkable". the audience already know that the Titanic sank, but the characters don't. This allows Priestly to make the characters look more ridiculous .

'An Inspector Calls' belongs to the ...

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