An Inspector Calls
An Inspector Calls "One of the aims of J.B Priestly is to teach us something about society. By examining particular incidents in the play, what lessons can we learn from it?" In your answer you should comment on: * The social, * Political and * Cultural significance of the play. * The role of women * And J.B Priestley's style of writing. An Inspector Calls An Inspector Calls is a play written in 1945 by J.B Priestley. Priestley was born on 13th September 1894 in Bradford, Yorkshire. An Inspector Calls was written within a week of world war two ending in 1945. The play id set in 1912 in the dining room of the Birling family's houses in Bromley, an industrialized city in the North Midlands. All three acts which are continuous takes place in the dining room of the Birling family's home. This play is about a mysterious Inspector called inspector Goole, who unexpectedly arrives at the house of the Birling with news of death. Mr Arthur Birling, Mrs Sybil Birling, Miss Sheila Birling, Mr Eric Birling and Mr Gerald Croft were all the Characters in the house at the time excluding Edna a servant; who had not played a big part in the play. A young woman called Eva smith had committed suicide. Each of the characters denied any participation or involvement of any sort in connection to the death of Eva smith. However the inspector omniscience drives them all to confession. This
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 The play 'An Inspector calls' was written by J.B Priestley in 1945 and is set on an evening in spring, in 1912. This is significant because it would give the audience an underlying sense of unease by the ironic references to the impossibility of war, which of course followed in 1914, and to the progress mankind is making, as represented by the Titanic, which sank after hitting an iceberg. At the beginning of January, when Priestley had just finished writing his script, there were no London theatres available, so Priestley sent the script to Moscow, where it was produced simultaneously in two theatres in 1945. It was then produced in London, the following year, at the New Theatre on the 1st October 1946. This was possible because in 1944 the tide of World War 2 had just changed in favour of the British, so the Old Vic Company (the company who presented the play in London), were able to move back to London because there were no longer any air raids. This play is set out in 3 Acts. The main setting of the play, the Birling's dining-room, in their fictional home in Brumley, an industrial city in the North Midlands, is constant throughout. The main themes in this play are that of Women's rights, class and social responsibility. At first, the genre of the play seems to be that of a simple, detective thriller; however, after seeing the involvement of all the
An Inspector Calls
An Inspector Calls Coursework Essay In the play 'An Inspector Calls' by J.B. Priestley, the inspector is presented as the main character. The plot revolves around the inspector arriving at the household of a prosperous and apparently respectable factory owner of the early 20th century; determined to find out the reason behind the suicide of a girl named Eva Smith. During the course of the play Priestley gives the inspector many roles and purposes to act upon. The inspector's main purpose in the play is to find out who is responsible for the death of Eva Smith. He constantly questions the characters into confession and makes it look part of his job by saying 'it's my duty to ask questions'. The inspector voices the issue of responsibility towards each and every person mutually with the determination to dig out the upper and lower class division. The inspector mentions to Mr Birling 'Public men...have responsibilities as well as privileges' after he tries to play himself up as a man of great importance. Along with this purpose the inspector also promotes the social views of Priestley that all people are responsible for each other. After Sheila returns from her somewhat traumatic departure after seeing the photo of Eva Smith she tells the inspector 'So I'm really responsible' at this the inspector replies 'No, not entirely...But your partly to blame...' This is the inspector
'An Inspector Calls'
'An Inspector Calls' In 'An Inspector Calls' J.B. Priestly captures and maintains the interest of the audience by using shock value and twists in the story. The Play starts at a normal dinner party, with the Birlings sat around a table and Gerald Croft is also there. They are celebrating Sheila's engagement to Gerald. So every thing is normal and just people talking around a table until Mrs. Birling and Sheila go to the drawing room and Mr. Birling gives a speech to Gerald and Eric. In his lecture he says, "...That a man has to mind his own business and look after Himself and his own..." I thought that Mr. Birling didn't know what he was on about now, especially when he said, "All these silly little war scares. There'll be peace and prosperity and rapid progress everywhere." From this you could tell that Mr. Birling didn't know much about how things where going on. In the middle of Mr. Birling's speech there is a knock at the door and Edna, one of their maids, comes in telling Mr. Birling that it's an inspector. So in the audience we would be thinking that something's going on, and then enters the inspector, Mr. Birling expects its just another warrant, him being a magistrate, the inspector inform him its not about a warrant but that a young woman named 'Eva Smith' had killed herself! He says it like this, "...A young woman died in the infirmary she'd been taken
An inspector calls
An Inspector Calls 'The play is a rather simple class play, the middle class being all bad and the working class being all good.' Do you agree with this statement? Discuss. An Inspector Calls is a play set in Edwardian England in the spring of 1912, just before World War 2. The plot of "An Inspector Calls" is about a police inspector who interrupts an elegant engagement dinner to question the family and their guests about an unusual suicide of a young working-class girl called Eva Smith. In 1912, social class was divided into separate classes, working class was one of them. The working women were expected to do long tough days in the factories working by harsh rules and then were still expected to look after the family and do housework. In those times though social class was everything, middle class had power over the working class and the men had power over the women. Eva Smith was a working woman who hadn't had a very fair life, her parents had died, she had no money and when she finally got a decent job she was fired from her work place for asking for a raise. She the afterwards got a new job in Milwards, where she had it slightly easier until Shelia Birling got her fired from there. Arthur Burling is the main man in the Burling family, and seems to control it, i.e. whatever he says goes. Mr. Burling has a selfish attitude towards life, and he seems to only care for
An Inspector Calls.
An Inspector Calls An Inspector Calls, by J.B. Priestly, is the story of the visit by an Inspector to an apparently normal family, the Birlings. They are celebrating Sheila Birling's engagement to Gerald Croft, who is also present, when the Inspector arrives telling them of the suicide of a young girl called Eva Smith. At first they deny any knowledge of the girl, but as the play goes on the Inspector manages to show that they all helped kill her. Mr Birling had her dismissed from his factory for demanding a small increase in wages; Sheila ordered her to be dismissed from her job in a shop simply because of her pride; Gerald Croft kept her as his mistress before leaving her suddenly; Eric Birling (Mr & Mrs Birling's son) also had an affair with the girl and stole money to keep her living; and Mrs Birling used her influence to deny help to Eva Smith when she needed it most, driving her to suicide. After the Inspector's visit we can see which of the characters have learned their lesson from what the Inspector has said and which are steadfastly clinging to their old beliefs. The differing attitudes between the older and younger characters are shown by their conversations following the Inspector's departure. It is Birling's speech in Act 1 that sets the scene for the action in the play. Birling is confidently talking to Eric and Gerald about what he thinks about the future. He
An inspector calls
An inspector calls By Makez Rikweda 'An inspector calls' is a moral play about the Birling family and their guest Gerald Croft who are having dinner in celebration of the engagement of Sheila Birling and Gerald Croft. They are all happy and gleeful until they are suddenly interrupted by an inspector who is investigating the death of a girl named Eva Smith. The play slowly progresses from ignorance to knowledge as the inspector slowly unravels the involvement of each member of the family to the girl's suicide. Time, place and action are significant factors of the structure of the play. Priestley highlights the significance of time and the consequences of people's actions by using well known references to events in history such as the sinking of the Titanic and the world wars. He cleverly sets the play before the Second World War yet he wrote it after the Second World War. By doing this it enabled him to put forward his socialist views of social responsibility and use examples of horrors the world faced due to ignorance of social responsibility and selfishness to help influence the audience's opinions and views. The play is set in the Birling's living room and this setting is continuos throughout the play. This may be because Priestley wants people to focus on the moral behind the story rather than the fancy stage setting and props. The play starts out as a straightforward
An Inspector Calls
An Inspector Calls Analysis of Inspector Goole J.B Priestly started to write in 1911; his plays usually exposed a hidden message or moral. One of the two, this was used to get his message across. He had an immense amount of courage, as he was not at all afraid to speak his mind; he enjoyed and got a thrill from political arguments and debates on capitalists and socialists. This could be due to Priestly being brought up with his father and friends who would debate a lot on capitalism and socialism, never the less Priestly grew up to be a socialist. The story "An Inspector calls" was set in 1912; it mirrors the affects a typical capitalist family can cause, it also shows just how unfair and unjust their views are. This projected with the Birling family and the death of Eva Smith. In addition it illustrates how a socialist minority can help the economy, and how very different socialist views are. I am writing an essay on the role of the Inspector, in An Inspector Calls. I will look at how he appears on stage, how he affects the other characters and how he is used to influence the audience and put across Priestly's view. Inspector Goole is an inspector; he's brought out to be a socialist. He's also a major character in this morality play, as he's the character who reveals how each of the characters participated with the death of Eva Smith. Before the inspector enters the
An Inspector Calls
An Inspector Calls By Katie Cook 10S1 J. B. Priestly was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, 1894. After surviving the First World War, he went on to study literature, history and political science at Bradford and at Cambridge. Priestly wanted to ensure life after the First World War was better than before and he hoped that through his writing he could influence people's ideas and change society. 'An Inspector Calls' is a play set in 1912 about the capitalist Birling family who are visited one night by an Inspector, Inspector Goole, who reveals that a young woman, Eva Smith, has died after swallowing a lot of strong disinfectant. He questions all the Birling family who are all revealed to have played a part in Eva's downward spiral of depression and ultimately, suicide. J. B. Priestly wrote 'An Inspector Calls' in 1945 but deliberately set it in 1912, a time where socialism was often losing out to capitalism. He was particularly concerned about the living conditions of the lower classes, represented by Eva, and the way the upper classes behaved, represented by the Birlings' and Gerald Croft, Sheila Birling's fiancé. Priestly believed that we should all help each other, which is the total opposite from what the Birlings believed. Priestly set the play 33 years after he'd wrote it, this gives the audience a knowledge that the characters don't have. Priestly often uses this
