GSCE: English Literature
Paper 2 Modern Texts and Poetry
Thursday 23 May 2019
01 How does Priestley present selfishness and its effects in An Inspector Calls?
Write about:
• examples of selfish behaviour in the play
• how Priestley presents selfishness and its effects.
[30 marks] AO4 [4 marks]
J.B. Priestley set the play ‘An Inspector Calls’ in 1912, uses two prominent juxtaposing themes - selfishness and social responsibility - to an audience in 1945 to criticise the upper and middle classes’ flaws, in particular, those who follow capitalist ideologies, which ultimately leads to promoting socialism to the audience. Through each character’s involvement in Eva Smith’s case, the interrogation of the Birling family highlights traits of selfishness, which then ultimately summarises the upper and middle classes as a whole.
At the beginning of the play, the stage directions bring this trait just very faintly to the audience. The lighting is described to be “pink and intimate” to “brighter and harder” once the inspector has arrived. Here, the use of a light pink lighting connotes to warmth and happiness, suggesting that the Birlings lives through “rose-tinted glasses” - meaning they live with absolute disregard to the struggles of the lower and working classes - perhaps, to some characters this was intention and done unconsciously, which is as to why the inspector has come to the Birling family. Priestley’s use of lighting is indeed very effective as once the inspector has arrived, the lighting became “brighter and harder” - keeping in mind that it was Mr Birling who ordered Edna, the housemaid, to adjust the lighting to become more interrogative, almost a much clearer red colour which then connotes to danger. As the audience, we can then infer that they live in luxury as well as comfort, and their lies and secrets are about to spill through the inspector’s interrogation, which could ruin this engagement celebration they are having. The lighting is a key part of the play, especially for the first part of it as it does not change or was later mentioned in the stage directions. This is because it sets the atmosphere and tone for the audience so that they will be able to fully understand and engage with the whole of the play.
Moving onto characters, the first, as the audience, we hear from is Arthur Birling, also known as Mr Birling. Within the stage directions, he is positioned to be “at one end” of the table; this shows his power and authority over his family as a man and middle class men of society. He is a “heavy-looking, rather portentous man in his middle fifties with fairly easy manners but rather provincial in his speech.” Firstly, “heavy-looking” is symbolically for his wealth as he is able to afford a full meal and even invite someone to a celebration, suggesting he is of a middle or upper class member, but it could also imply that he is full of himself which does link to the next phrase “rather portentous”, which is perhaps used to show his arrogance. Then, he is also “rather provincial in his speech” which indicates that he lacks education as of his original social status as a working class member who climbs to higher status due to his business and secures it by marrying Mrs Birling. Selfishness can be seen strongly in the character of Mr Birling, despite someone who had experienced practical hardship and climbed the social ladder. Clearly, Mr Birling has overfilled himself with greed and selfishness as presented before the inspector’s arrival, during the inspector’s interrogation and even after the inspector left. His obsession with the economics and greed for “increasing prosperity” can be seen in Act One whilst the family celebrates the engagement between Sheila Birling and Gerald Croft, who is of a higher social class than the Birlings: he talks a lot about himself and business, especially when it could potentially impress Gerald. For example, “there's a fair chance that I might find my way into the next honours list. Just a knighthood, of course.” which is later repeated, “very good chance of a knighthood” after mentioning the fact the royalty had visited them before. Now, just before the inspector arrives he states his own view on how society should be: “that a man has to make his own way – has to look after himself – and his family too”, criticises socialism “as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive – community and all that nonsense” and then reiterating his capitalistic opinion “– that a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own – and -” which is interrupted by the “sharp ring of the door bell.” From the first, he seems to have some care towards people other than himself, which is his family; to the audience, it might not mean a lot as it’s only natural for family to look after other members of the family. However, when he begins to criticise socialists in society, this is where the audience begin to see selfishness and lack of compassion from Mr Birling as he does not seem to care about people other than his family. Dislike is developing within the audience as he calls socialism “community and all that nonsense” as though it lacks significance. He reiterated his opinion - this time the audience develops distrust towards Mr Birling as clearly he has no intention to help others - and then gets interrupted by the door bell of the inspector’s arrival. Priestley used the “sharp” noise to exaggerate that Mr Birling is wrong and uses the character of the inspector to challenge his views. After admitting he had “discharged” Eva out of his business, he states that he “can’t accept any responsibility.” The use of the adjective/adverb “any” shows he lacks the ability to feel even the slightest bit compassion towards other people other than his family and the personal pronoun “I” and modal verb “can’t” highlights his absolute refusal to accept the girl’s death as part of his life. He even goes as far to express this situation as “the wretched girl’s suicide”, where the adjective “wretched” and the determiner “the” shows his lack of attention and sympathy towards the girl that has just died - ultimately being heartless. His selfishness is then revealed after Mr Birling had explained why he had fired Eva Smith out of the works: “They wanted the rates raised so that they could average about twenty-five shillings a week. I refused, of course.” This shows that he cares only about the money rather than the welfare of the employees. The last sentence “I refused, of course.” suggests that he expects everyone to agree with him as of the decision he has made but, alternatively, it emphasises his selfishness for choosing money over the lives of others. This is reiterated as he explains “it’s my duty to labour costs down.” - ultimately his job is to earn profit by making the working class work for less earnings. He continues to reject social responsibility throughout the interrogation and even becomes cheerful after finding out that the inspector wasn’t real.
