We don't live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. What is Priestley's main aim in "An Inspector Calls" and how successfully does he achieve it?

We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. What is Priestley’s main aim in “An Inspector Calls” and how successfully does he achieve it?

A play wrote by John Boynton Priestley to explore many morals and aspects of human thought and behaviour. “An Inspector Calls,” is a play written in 1945 but has been deliberately set in 1912, the reason for this may have been as a way of making the audience look back at their past and would help them engage with the issues of responsibility and guilt emphasized in the play; another reason may have been as the period from 1912 onwards was a time in society that many people wanted to forget. The moral issues that Priestley is trying to convey are those of guilt and responsibility and are sustained throughout the play. The play revolves around the interrogation of a seemingly upper class family (the Birling’s and Mr Croft.) and how they have all been part of a “domino,” effect that has led to the death of Eva Smith.

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“An inspector calls,” is a book that has been written under a lot of influence; many events that are described or revealed throughout the book are from Priestley’s own experience. Priestley left school at the age of 16 and found himself a job at a wool merchant. During the First World War he became involved with a regiment and served on the front line in France. He went through a colossal amount of anguish. He was buried alive and injured and later was gassed out of his home. He never forgot what had happened to him during that war. Just like the events in the book Priestley suggests that you can never forget the past it will always be a part of you. Gerald’s relationship with Daisy Renton (Eva Smith.) is a very accurate display of Priestley’s love life. In 1925 Priestley’s wife died, the following year he married Jane Wyndham Lewis a woman who he had been having an affair with and was pregnant with his daughter, you can see the link between this relationship and the one portrayed by Gerald in the play.

“An inspector calls,” is set in an industrial city of Brumley. The play opens with a conversation between Birling and Gerald. The Birling’s are celebrating the engagement of Sheila Birling to Gerald croft, a wealthy businessman with a social status higher than that of the, Birling’s. Mr Birling makes a pompous speech outlining his views on technology and industrial relations. He says that “A man has to make his own way look after himself-and his family too of course.” and that you should ignore the “Cranks,” who claim that everybody has a responsibility for everybody else. His comments show us how wrong he can be, as he mentions about the unsinkable Titanic which sank on its maiden voyage and that there wasn’t a chance a chance of a war; although in a space of less than 50 years there were two wars, also the use of dramatic irony shows us how much of a fool Mr Birling is. This makes our conscience question his thoughts on responsibility and whether they are wrong as well.

The timing of the inspector is quite prominent part of the play and is very striking as the family’s feeling of self satisfaction shown by Birling’s comments about responsibility coincides with the moment of the Inspector’s arrival. This is ironic since the inspector is there to try and teach them about responsibility towards one another.

The first person the inspector decides to question is Arthur Birling. He is the owner of “Birling and company.” At the start of the play Birling is described as a “rather portentous man.” He was the ex lord mayor and is a potential for the knighthood, this shows us that he has an influential status in society and uses the same influence to later intimidate the professor. When the inspector begins to question him he denies that he knows the girl and has ever met her. Inspector: “Her original name was- Eva smith.”

Birling: “Eva Smith?”

Inspector: “Do you remember her…?”

Birling: “No- I seem to remember hearing that name-Eva Smith…but it doesn’t convey anything to me.”

TO BE CONTINUED

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