Kirsty Morgan
What does An Inspector Calls tell us about the class system and attitudes towards woman at the begging of the twentieth century?
The play “An Inspector Calls” is set just before World War One at the beginning of the twentieth century and tells us about the class hierarchy and attitudes towards women at the time.
The Inspector starts his enquires with Mr. Birling, who is a prosperous business manufacturer. He is not from the same social class as his wife, Sybil. He is confident but betrays his lack of social graces, we see this when his wife corrects him, “Arthur, you’re not supposed to say such things” We can also see that Mr. Birling is aware of business advantages from the union of the two families. Mr. Birling’s business aspirations come into the open when he tells Gerald about his knighthood, “there’s a fair chance that I might find my way into the next Honour’s List. Just a knighthood, of course.” These are all good examples of how being higher up the social hierarchy in this era was regarded as being extremely important.
Mr. Birling also shows us the attitude towards women at the time. His involvement with Eva Smith goes back two years. He employs hundreds of women so is obviously a successful businessman. He sacked her because she asked for a pay rise; he did it without consideration of personal consequences for Eva Smith and refuses to accept responsibility. As his impatience grows we see his true colours, “obviously it has nothing whatever to do with the wretched girls suicide.” This is a good example of how women in the lower or working class meant nothing to the upper class. He does not seem to be at all bothered about what has happened to this girl and finds it all a complete nuisance. We also see later on that the only reason this was a nuisance is because if it were to get out in the open it would be a great threat to the chance of Mr. Birling getting a knighthood. This once again shows how important climbing the class hierarchy was to people of this era, even more important than a woman’s life.
