Examine The Way Priestly Gets His Socialist Message Across In The Play An Inspector Calls

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Examine The Way Priestly Gets His Socialist Message Across In The Play An Inspector Calls

John Boynton Priestly was born in Bradford on the 13th of September 1894. He grew up in his fathers group of socialist friends; he became a socialist, and uses the characters of the Inspector, Eric and Sheila Birling to highlight his views in this play. The play is set in early 1912, before the two world wars, the government at this time were conservative capitalists, and the general attitudes of the older generation was every man for himself and his family and that no-one should worry about their actions and the effects they have on other people. When the play was written, in 1945, attitudes had change after the two world wars. The separations between the classes had been lessened, and people had started to care more for others. In this essay, I will discuss the socialist message represented by the actions of the characters in the play, and conclude whether the views were expressed well. When you start to read the playa and the title, it seems to be like any other detective novel, but when you reach the end, you discover it isn’t really from a certain genre, but was written to express an opinion.

  In An Inspector Calls, the play starts in the Birling’s dining room. The Birlings are a middle class family, who live in the fictional town of Brumley in Yorkshire. Mr Arthur Birling owns a factory, Mrs. Birling is his social superior, and they have two children Sheila and Eric. The play opens with a party to celebrate Sheila’s engagement to Gerald Croft, the son of a wealthy factory owner. Mr. Birling discusses with Gerald and Eric his ideas for the future, then a mysterious Inspector calls. It turns out that a girl has died, all the Birlings and Gerald are in some part responsible for her downfall. The Inspector tries to get them to accept responsibility, and through that educate them in socialist ideas. All seems well, but when the Inspector leaves, they discover he is a fraud, and the older generation forget everything they were taught.

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  The role of the Inspector in the play is to express Priestly’s socialist views; he explains his message best in the speech

“With their lives, their hopes and fears, their sufferings and chance of happiness all intertwined with our lives and what we think and say and do. We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come when if men will not learn that lesson, they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish.” This explains that everyone should care for ...

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