[An ‘Inspector Calls’ is a well-made 20th century play and was set in 1912 which was a time of the Edwardian era. It was produced in 1945].
In this essay I am going to pay special attention to how Priestley makes the messages of the play dramatically effective. ‘An inspector Calls’ resorts to the ripping off of masks that we human beings wear. When each member of the Birling family find out that they contributed to the death of Eva Smith, they react in different ways and learn different things from experience.
Mr Birling is an arrogant man who believes whatever he says is the truth, for example “The Germans don’t want war!” and “ Russia will always be behindhand.” We know this statement is incorrect because of the war between Germany and England Stalin’s influence on Russia. Mr Birling is optimistic about the future, yet we know what he predicts will not become true. When the Inspector arrives, Mr Birling tries to use his influence as a hightly placed local to put down and demoralize the inspector. However the Inspector does not take any notice of this and continues with the investigation. When Mr Birlings tells the inspector his side of the story about his involvements with Eva Smith’s death he manages to tell it in a way that makes him seem fair and kind to his workers, however we know that he is just trying to hide his guilt and the inspector and the audience can see that because in reality he is greedy and every penny in his pocket counts. But still he tries to sound caring and that’s when he says “But I care. I was almost certain for a knighthood in the next honour lists.” This shows he does not care about Eva Smith but about his honour list. However he carry’s on and say’s “ I would give thousands.” We now know its all about money and not the caring. Mr Birling is strongly believes that ‘ a man has to make his own way.’ He does not consider the harm he may cause to other people because of his attitude problem. He appears as a typical “hardheaded” businessman who does not care about his workers need but just about how much money they are making him and how little he has to pay them to work.
