Priestley(TM)s Aims in An Inspector Calls

Priestley’s Aims in “An Inspector Calls”

The main aim of drama is to entertain but drama can also be used for educational purposes and to convey a moral message to the audience. The audience can relate to these moral lessons by realizing how it relates to them in existent situations. Drama allows people to be attentive of different events that take place in life, in addition to that in drama people are capable of using their imagination to then act as a dissimilar person. An example of a drama play is ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by William Shakespeare. This play is significant because it is an extremely heart touching play and the importance of true love is expressed. J.B. Priestley’s aims in the play, ‘An Inspector Calls,’ are that he wants to communicate to the audience the responsibilities of people in society and the rights of women in 1912.

Entertainment is the most essential element of drama because after watching the play the audience decide whether they like it or not. Priestley successfully achieves the goal of entertaining the audience because he includes numerous events in the story which the viewers are able to relate to. He does this by making all of the characters have different opinions concerning the death of Eva Smith which then shows whether they have responsibility for the actions they perform or not. Priestley wants to bring across the message that in a society everyone is connected, he shows this in the play by making all of the characters guilty of having something to do with the death of Eva Smith. This is shown in the text when the Inspector says, “each of you helped to kill her.” (Priestley 55) One of the messages that Priestley wants to deliver is that people should take responsibility for their actions.

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Another message that Priestley wants to communicate to the audience is that the status of women has changed dramatically. Priestley wrote the play after the Second World War and the story takes place in 1912 which was subsequent to the First World War. During this time period women did not have the right to vote, they were not allowed to work and did not have the privileges that the men possessed. After World War One, women were working in factories, teaching and many other jobs which only men did before. Priestley expresses how the status of women changed through Sheila because she is a young lady who likes to state how she feels. This is shown by Priestley because the stage directions that he added for Sheila’s character include things such as; “cutting in” and “with irony,” meaning that she is not scared of showing how she feels. (Priestley 38) Irony is one of the literary features that Priestley uses to show that women had developed a mind of their own by that period of time and that they were smart enough to say something but mean something completely different. Another literary feature that Priestley uses in the play is mood. At various times during the play he wants to create a particular mood which in a play can only be generated by the actor. An example of this is when the Inspector says; “I warn you, you’re making it worse for yourself” and in the stage direction, Priestley wrote ‘”sternly” meaning that the Inspector should be speaking to Mrs. Birling in a demanding manner. (Priestley 47) By the middle of the twentieth century the legal status of women was present in all aspects of political, social and cultural life. Priestly communicates to the audience the change of behaviour and beliefs of women after the legal status significantly changed.

The structure that Priestley uses to arrange several events is suspense. He likes to construct the play so that the audience are anxious to know what will happen next. An example of when Priestley does this is at the end of Act Two where Mrs. Birling says; “I don’t believe it. I won’t believe it” and Sheila replies; “Mother – I begged you and begged you to stop.” (Priestley 49) After Sheila speaks the curtain

falls and the audience are left to wonder about what will happen after that. Priestley wants the audience to think about what they would do in certain situations, he includes suspense throughout the story and then ends the story at a cliff-hanger. The last part of the play is a telephone call and Mr. Birling brings the play to an end by saying; “That was the police. A girl just died on her way to the Infirmary after swallowing some disinfectant. And a police inspector is on his way here to ask some questions.” (Priestley 72) Priestley’s intentions are to let the viewers decide on their own opinion about the play and then create their own ending.

In conclusion the message that Priestley wants the audience to learn after watching or reading the play is that they should take responsibility for their own actions and men should accept the fact that the women are also considered a vital part of society. He also wants people to think about a variety of events that have happened in their lives and analysis if the decisions they made were correct and how they could have changed them.

Word Count – 857

Bibliography

Priestley, J.B. An Inspector Calls. 1947. Oxford: Heinemann Educational
Publishers, 1992.

"Women in the Early to Mid-20th Century (1900-1960)." enotes. 3 Nov. 2006
<http://www.enotes.com/feminism-literature/
women-early-mid-20th-century-1900-1960>.

"Drama." Wikipedia. 5 Nov. 2006. 5 Nov. 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Drama>.