What would Priestley's ideal world be and how does 'An Inspector Calls' show this

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Isabelle Hawker                An Inspector Calls by J.B.Priestley

What would Priestley’s ideal world be?

‘An Inspector calls’ is a play, set in 1912, which works on many different levels. On the surface it is a play about an inspection in to the suicide of a girl called Eva Smith and how everyone in the play is involved in the down fall of this girl. However, if you look deeper into the play there is another meaning. It is about the characters having an inspection of their consciences. If you look deeper still, it is a play is not only about Eva Smith alone but about all the people that get hurt by other people’s actions. It is about how people abuse their power, status and use their money to achieve what they want and do not think or care about the consequences of their actions. It gives us an idea about what Priestley’s ideal world would be and how we should and shouldn’t act, by showing the mistakes that the characters make.

Priestley makes it very clear that he doesn’t like the way that the characters abuse their power and status. Mr Birling abuses his power because although he could have given a pay rise to Eva Smith and the other girls he decided not to. He says ‘They wanted the rates raised to twenty shillings a week. I refused, of course.’ This shows that although it was in his power to give the girls a raise and make their lives easier he decided that they had enough already. He then goes on to sack the girls who came to him asking for the raise, saying ‘she’d had a lot to say – far too much – so she had to go.’ Again he abuses his power because he decides that she had spoken out so he was going to discharge her. Although Eva Smith had done nothing wrong, Mr Birling decided that he would prove that he was the person with the power and that when they tried to speak out and ask for a raise, he would not allow it and he proved this by making sure that the ‘four or five ringleaders’ did not come back, although he did let back the people that went on the strike but were not the ones who actually asked for the raise. This is another example of how the people who spoke out were the ones who were punished. He tries to threaten the inspector by saying that the chief constable ‘is an old friend’ of his. Mr Birling tries to intimidate the inspector by saying ‘I’ve half a mind to report you’. He does this because he doesn’t like the way that the inspector has the power and is controlling the situation where as Mr Birling likes to be the one in charge and with the power.

We know that Priestley doesn’t like the way Birling acts because from early on in the play Priestley establishes that Birling is some one to be ridiculed and that he is someone whose words mean nothing. For example, when he says ‘there isn’t a chance of war’, however, the audience knows that this is not true because ‘An Inspector calls’ was written soon after the second world war.

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Similarly, Mrs. Birling tries to intimidate the inspector by reminding him that her ‘husband was Lord Mayor only two year ago and that he’s still a magistrate.’ She tries to abuse the power and status that comes with the post of magistrate and Lord Mayor in an attempt to make sure that the inspector knows that she has more power than him. She also uses her power to sway the Brumley Women’s Committee to refuse Eva Smith help when she asked for it. She says ‘I used my influence to have it refused’. Mrs. Birling could have helped Eva Smith; ...

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