An Inspector calls
English Coursework for Inspector Calls I think Inspector Calls is written in three different levels between a political play, a morality play and an inspector play. Mr. Birling is the main character in the play and really brings out the political aspects in the play Inspector Calls. We can see this when he says 'Your engagement to Sheila means a tremendous lot to me.' He also says 'Your father and I have been friendly rivals in business for some time now - though Crofts Limited are both older and bigger than Birling and company - and now you have brought us together, and perhaps we may look forward to the time when Crofts and Birlings are no longer competing but are working together - for lower costs but higher prices.' So he doesn't really care about there marriage, he cares more about the money. Priestly uses the seven deadly sins very well as we can see in the play. We know that Mr Birling is used with avarice by his eager for money and leadership. He thinks money is more important than any thing else. Priestly also uses Mr Birling with pride he thinks too much of himself, as we can see when he is talking to Gerald and he wants to make himself less important to Gerald so they can join and have great success in his job. Eric has three of the seven deadly sins used on him they are: sloth, lust and intemperance. We can see in the play that he is excessive for sex when they
An inspector calls
An Inspector Calls 'An Inspector Calls' is a play set in the mystery/ detective thriller genre. It is set in 1912; however it was written by J.B Priestly in 1945 and first staged in Moscow. As he lived through both wars he could see what had actually happened in the time the play was set. This allowed him to contradict the ways in which people lived and the way the political parties governed the country as he had an insight to the outcomes and consequences to their decisions. He was a realist, challenging its cause-and-effect structure and its closed system of action with a series of plays that used the dimension of time in unconventional and surprising ways. Priestly uses the characters to express his views on the issue of social responsibility, morality and about class divisions with many themes including greed, regret, guilt and blame. In the opening of 'An Inspector Calls' the audience learns of the Birling family who are wealthy. They are celebrating their daughter's engagement with her fiancé, Gerald. The Inspector arrives and breaks up the party, questioning the family on the death of a young Eva Smith, who had killed herself by drinking disinfectant. Upon questioning each member of the family seems to be involved in her death and is slowly forced to confess. When the Inspector finally leaves they find out that he is a fake. However at the very end they get a phone
An Inspector Calls
An Inspector Calls 'An Inspector Calls' was a play very much written to make a clear point and to convince the British public into a labour election victory after the war (as happened in 1945). Written in 1945 but set in 1912 in a fictional town called Brumley, the play is a series of events around one family (the Birlings) that lead to a girl drinking disinfectant to end her life. The author J.B. Priestly chose to set the play before the First World War and the sinking of the Titanic, there are several hints of irony as a result of this throughout the play. Written as a morality play, 'An Inspector Calls' still has as much relevance today as it did then - with its teachings of equality in the classes. In this essay I will be discussing the themes and characters in the play and how my understanding of these has been enhanced by watching a production of the play. A major theme of the play is responsibility; every member of the Birling family is some what responsible for Eva's death. This sense of responsibility is brought out by the different reactions of the family members. Some, such as Sheila, feel greatly responsible for Eva's suicide and learn to accept responsibility for her actions and this imposes a great change. In the production this is made very clear by the way Sheila chooses to run over to the darker side of the stage, when the Birlings house, in the light, is
An Inspector Calls
John Boynton Priestley was a socialist play write who wrote "An Inspector Calls", a thought-provoking murder mystery in 1945. "One Eva Smith has gone - but there are millions of Eva and John Smiths still left with us". Priestley's strong views on "acting like a community" were cleverly put into the character of the inspector and the opposite was given to the more Laissez Faire opinionated characters such as Mr and Mrs Birling. The play was such a success because Priestley not only entertained his audience, but educated them as well. In this essay I will show how he used different techniques and involved different issues when writing the play. One of Priestley's themes was based around generations, and the idea that "hope is with the young". He gave this message by conveying the younger generation as the potential heroes, the older generation as the dismissive, with a "live what you have" attitude and the Inspector as the character to drag out the other characters true feelings. "You don't realise yet all you've done. Most of this is bound to come out. They'll be a public scandal" When the curtain rises at the beginning of the play, we see Birling in his usual upper class, loud, high-status manner. However, when the Inspector leaves in Act three, Birling's pride is taken. Here, Priestley has effectively and dramatically changed the whole characteristics of Birling by the
An Inspector calls.
An Inspector calls Priestly has set this play called "An inspector calls" in 1912 maybe because there was not only the opportunity for predictions, but also for a more drastic look at the relationship between the rich and the poor. The class gap of 1912 was much larger then that of 1945 and so was more noticeable to the audiences, even though he wrote it in 1945, he has used his own experience to write a famous novel which has be forwarded as a West end musical and Movie form, The play is set after the second world war, around the time when titanic sinks, we also learn that rich and poor were divided into different classes back in those time as Priestly shows, They were different worlds, which hardly ever met. 8 million poor people had to live on 25 shillings a week, which is roughly £1.25 not a lot. They were under housed under fed and under the thumb. Working women were at the top of the pile. They had little education, no sanitation, no dull and no NHS. The women of the higher working class relied on marrying the right man. Poor people had to live their lives struggling until they were sent to workhouses, until they died because they had no pensions. I think that the messages of the play was particularly effective to the audiences of 1946. I think Priestley knew that the message of his play would reach the war-weary audiences f the era more effectively then it would
An Inspector Calls Essay
January 2004 An Inspector Calls Essay by Alex Edwards John Boynton Priestley was one of the most popular, versatile and greatest authors of his day. His works of popular history and literary criticism are numerous, ending with the story of Literature and the western woman. However it was as a playwright and as a social thinker that he was especially important. Politically, J.B. Priestley was a patriotic socialist who did not believe in the case of social class or rich dominancy, he believed that people should help each other and not be so competitive towards others. He hated social class because of the way upper class people took advantage of the working classes. "An Inspector calls" was written in 1912 and based in Brumley; it was one of Priestley's most famous plays and is remembered as a soliditary message to the people of that time. The play was a dramatic combination of action and mortality, action because of the conversations had are exciting and pulsing with emotion and mortality because of the way it sets out a message to people like the Birlings. At the beginning of scene 1, the Birling family and Gerald are having a dinner celebration for the engagement of Sheila Birling and Gerald Croft the son of the man who has been industrially competing with Mr Birling as Crofts Ltd. The dinner gets off to a start as Mr Birling holds a toast mostly consisting of more
An Inspector Calls
How does Priestley make Act 1 tense, dramatic and interesting? J.B.Priestley's play: 'An Inspector Calls' is extremely tense, dramatic and interesting. Priestley makes his play this good by using a very wide array of clever techniques. These include: dramatic irony, snide comments and a true understanding of the people he has based the play on. During this piece of writing I shall be evaluating these techniques as well as giving a brief insight as to what actually happens in Act 1. It is hoped that by the end of this essay that the reader will have a better understanding of the wide variety of techniques Priestley uses and simply a better understanding of the Act in general. One example of these techniques is stage directions. Priestley uses them time and time again to a fantastic effect. The initial stage directions are critical to the play as without them the characters may have came out very different. For example they could turn out to have very different opinions on things such as Mrs.Birling liking Inspector Goole. Before the audience had even bought the tickets for their seats Priestley had given a huge amount of stage directions. He wanted each and every aspect of the play to be perfect, to be exactly how he wanted it. Priestley gets everything precisely how he wants it by not leaving anything to the imagination. One example of just how precise he wants
An Inspector Calls
AN INSPECTOR CALLS My first reactions to the start of play 'An Inspector Calls' was boring and when would it get more interesting but once the inspector came and I started playing with the Birling's it started to get interesting and I really got into the book. My reaction to the end of the film were shocking I really didn't see that coming at all I could only say one word and that was "oh my god" if I was Mr Birling I would of wanted to shrivel up and die. That's one of the reasons why I liked the play because of the dramatic scenes. At the beginning of the play the family are sitting around a table all happy celebrating Shelia and Gerald´s engagement. The atmosphere was carefree and joyful. The Birling´s appeared to be an upper class family of the time enjoying the evening and the luxury of their wealth. Priestley is setting the scene for the start of the play, trying to make the characters look like a nice warm welcoming family. Mr. Birling and the Inspector are very different in many ways, Mr. Birling is very uncaring and selfish, however the Inspector is very open hearted and understanding. Priestley has deliberately made a clear difference between these two characters, to create a better contrast. Mr. Birling is only interested in his business and his family, he doesn't even consider anyone else, we can see this in Act one page 9: "a man has to look after himself
An Inspector Calls
Dear Keira Knightley, I am writing to you about a film I would like you to play a part in. It's called An Inspector Calls, it is set in Brumley, an industrial city in the north midlands, 1912. The play is about a young woman named Eva Smith who commits suicide after an unfortunate line of events. An inspector talks to the whole family one by one as they are all involved one way or another. Priestley was trying to show his audience that we can not go on being self obsessed and should think how our actions affect other people. He uses the Birling family as an example of a capitalistic family in the upper class in 1912, who had no care for other people. Shelia is a pretty girl 22 years old, she doesn't have a job as her parents (Mr. Arthur Birling and Mrs. Sybil Birling) are quite well off. In act one Shelia beings the play as a self-centred and likes attention. She recently got engaged. When she is first shown the picture of Eva Smith she recognises her with a little cry and then runs out of the room, as she is upset that she played a part in an innocent girls death. Shelia first met Eva when she was at Milwards to try on some dresses for a party she was going to. As she tried on a gorgeous dress she caught sight of Eva ( who was working at Milwards at the time, as a shop assistant ) she saw Eva smiling at the other shop assistant as if to say " doesn't it look awful ". This
An Inspector Calls
Twentieth Century Drama October 2007 Priestley wanted to entertain and educate his audience. Explore the ways in which he does both of these in Act Three of 'An Inspector Calls' You should include reference to other parts of the play in your response. In 'An Inspector Calls', the playwright, J.B. Priestley, uses several methods in order to arouse and sustain interest as well as entertain and educate his audience. Some of the techniques that he uses are dramatic irony, language, and stage directions. He also uses the Inspector as a device, particularly in Act Three, to convey his strong social message to both the contemporary audience and those of the present day. The play was written in 1944-1945 but first performed in theatres in 1946, after World War II. Priestley deliberately chose to set the play in 1912 in order to help communicate his message. He utilizes Mr. Birling's optimistic view to make ironic references that 'there isn't a chance of war' and the 'Titanic is...unsinkable', which the audience would find entertaining, as well as offensive because they were struggling to re-build their lives after the war. As the audience know that his comments are incorrect, they begin to doubt his judgements right from the start and anticipate his fall. At that time, Britain was also in an uneasy state, with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. This
