-  -        Alex Carr

Priestly was a socialist writer. Through the characters of Mr Birling and the inspector, how does his play, ‘An Inspector Calls’ encourage the audience to see Socialist philosophy as morally right and capitalism as wrong?

‘An Inspector Calls’ is set in 1912 although it was written in 1945, after World War II so Priestly lived through both world wars which probably influenced or strengthened his belief that Capitalism didn’t work and that Socialism was the way forward.

It is obvious that Mr Birling represents Capitalism because he hardly cares when he hears the inspector say that one of his former employees, Eva Smith, has died horribly. His excuse is one of loss of profit and about his business. Capitalism is a philosophy of profit and industry: capital is another way of saying money. In Capitalism community is a word not used often: the rich are the ruling class; they have the influence and power while the working class are little more than slaves.

The Inspector represents Socialism: he has strong moral views on how there should be equality and a community. “With no work, no money coming, and living in lodgings, with no relatives to help her, few friends, lonely, half- starved, she was feeling desperate.” Priestly had Inspector Goole say this to convey his own opinion on how life was for the lower class and what capitalism put the lower class through. Throughout the play the inspector expresses his views that Capitalism does not work and how Socialism should be put into effect. Socialism is all about equal rights, the redistribution of wealth and power amongst the populous as defined by Karl Marx: “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” In Britain at that time there was many different types of socialism, Marxism, Christian socialism, Ethical socialism, Fabianism and Cooperatism. All the different branches of British socialism had slightly different opinions but one thing that remained throughout is that they wanted to bring equality and redistribute wealth.

Mr Birling’s character is a “heavy looking and rather pretentious looking man in his middle fifties” according to the stage directions. In the play he has an arrogant and self-righteous manner; like many upper class men he thinks he can get away with anything either through influence or money, and being upper class he has plenty of both.  Perhaps I ought to warn you that he’s an old friend of mine,2 referring to colonel Roberts and using this information as a threat. He is an ex-mayor and “still on the bench” He thinks he has certain privileges because he once held a seat of power, privileges others do not have. The audience would probably dislike Birling because their parents and grandparents were likely to have been exploited as the workers had been in the play, by such a man as MR Birling, at the time the play is set. Others would dislike Birling because either they were jealous of his lifestyle or they would see his arrogant and selfish ‘capitalist’ way of life and view as a main cause for the events that occurred between 1912 and 1945 such as the world wars, Black Thursday and the world wide depression ect.  

Priestly uses Birling to say dramatically ironic things corresponding to World War I, World War II and the Titanic. For example, he states: “I say there isn’t a chance of war. The world is developing so fast that it will make war impossible.” I think he uses this to outline the point that Capitalists are self confident, arrogant and wrong. He implies that the World Wars are the consequence of Capitalism since the fundamental tenet is greed. The events that led up to World War I were based in greed: the arms race, the fight for military supremacy, empire building and the race for increased wealth, forming alliances to build power and bully other nations. Even after millions had died in the War, the victors Britain, France, America and Russia, only seemed to care about the financial cost of war. They demanded Germany should pay reparations for the damage they caused, further substantiating the view that Capitalists were greedy and loath to accept the blame for anything.

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Mr Birling’s language also demonstrates the Capitalist view on community: “a man has to make his own way – has to look after himself – and his family too, of course – and so long as he does that he won’t come to much harm.” This is a typical Capitalist view and it is interesting to compare with a later well-known Capitalist prime minister, Margaret Thatcher who stated that “There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families.” This philosophy was prevalent in America at the time and leading on to ...

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