Essay on An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley

In the play An Inspector Calls, Priestley uses different characters to portray women. At the start of the play, Sheila is seen as fragile, materialistic and inferior to the men in her life, which is typically the view of higher-class women. This is followed by the perspective of lower class women having excellent morals yet being disposable, which is seen through Eva Smith’s character. This contradicts to Mrs Birling’s control on others and her strong social class views.

Comparison of The Attitudes Of Arthur Birling And Sheila Birling From An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley

You feel that the Inspector knows everything already, and that by telling him, you are not giving information, but confessing to what you have done- which he already knows. This makes Sheila and Eric in particular give a lot more information than is necessary to the questions that the Inspector asks. The Inspector sets up a scene, and then inserts snippets of information that two parties will both be able to individually interpret, and will reveal more than necessary. The Inspector makes the information he gives ambiguous in order to draw the largest reaction. In this way, he is able to play off their response and extract more information from them. In some aspects, Inspector's character seems to be ahead of his time. The manner in which he conducts his questioning seems to be more advanced than the way in which they are received. Also the way in which he conducts himself gives the impression of being ahead of the family that he is questioning. He also has the sensibility of someone who lived during the 1945/46, after the wars. The Inspector does not ‘fit' in with the way in which things where done during the time of this play. Priestley makes the Inspector seem ahead of his

Birling tries to shirk off all responsibility of Eva Smith’s death by saying ‘obviously it had nothing to do with the wretched girl’s suicide’ (When he was referring to the sacking of Eva Smith and the link to her death)

He wasn’t very responsive to the Inspector and didn’t like being questioned. When Mr Birling was answering to the Inspector, didn’t appear very regretful about the death of one of his workers, he just tried to shift the blame and make out like he hadn’t done anything wrong. He felt that it was normal for people of his class to do what he did. We can see from other comments he makes to the Inspector that he doesn’t have a good relationship with any of his workers, 'I have a couple of hundred workers under me, who keep changing.’ This comment Mr Birling makes shows us that he often fires and gets rid of this workers, just like the case of Eva

This was written in 1945 but was set in 1912. The play is written about a girl called Eva Smith who dies of a suicide consequently, The Birling family are questioned about her death. Mr Birling is shown as a capitalist because he only cares about himself and his business rather than his workers and his community around him. 'An Inspector Calls' is a play about morality which teaches the character and the people who are watching or reading the play, not only to care about themselves and how to treat others around them. J.B Priestley uses An Inspector Calls play to show how in 1912 the class system was very strict and always associated with the higher classes.

Mrs Birling is one of the principle characters in An inspector calls – she is used to portray the idealistic views held by the upper-class at the time. Mrs Birling is presented by Priestly as the body of Capitalism – by portraying her in a negative light allows the reader to draw assumptions between the negative characteristics portrayed by Mrs Birling and the negative aspects of a capitalist society, which is what Priestly intended to do.

the end of the Second World War. The play is set in 1912, just before

In the play ‘An Inspector Calls’, written by J.B. Priestley, there are 6 main characters. Sheila Birling, daughter of Sybil and Arthur Birling, is a childish young lady who’s engaged to Gerald Croft, the son of the owner of a successful business. Eric Birling, the youngest out of the family, is a seemingly quiet and insecure man who is consistently ignored and thrown back by his father who in comparison is a highly selfish, egocentric businessman. He only considers himself, money and reputation. His stubborn wife, Sybil, regularly attempts to portray herself as an upper class woman.The Birlings are a very wealthy capitalist household, meaning that they believe in responsibility for themselves and no one else. On the other hand, Inspector Goole,

Mr Birling in J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls Works Cited Missing Written in 1946,by J.B.Priestley, "An Inspector Calls" leads us into

has now been removed. To him, now that she is no longer a threat to

An Inspector Calls is an immediate post-war drama written by J.B. Priestley in 1945. The play surrounds the wealthy Birling family in the fictional town of Brumley. The storyline follows each of the Birlings and their individual part in the ultimate suicide of a young girl named Eva Smith. Even though the play was written after the second world war, Priestly made the decision of setting the story to take place in the Edwardian Era of 1912. This decision was a significant one as it allowed Priestley’s audience to reflect on the political climate and moral issues that were subject to the time. His success could be attributed to his accurate portrayal of the selfish and pessimistic views of people going into the First World War. Priestley’s choice of location and demonstration of severely-lacking social responsibility in the Birling family accurately reflects the political climate of 1912 and the attitudes of the higher-class.

J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls I think that an "Inspector Calls" is about the discriminations between different classes and sexes, it conveys a lot of messages about these topics and uses An Inspector - a mysterious, curt individual who makes an unexpected call on an upper middle class, very opinionated family named the Birlings. The inspector seems to invade their own little world - upsetting a celebration of theirs, forcing them to realise the truth - they all contributed to the death of a young, working class girl with what should have been years ahead of her, instead these were snatched away by a greedy, insensitive and selfish chain of events, all down to the Birlings. The girls name was

Priestley presents the Inspector in a variety of negative and positive ways to show the quiet power of the character. Priestley introduces the Inspector at the moment where Arthur is extremely happy and full of pride. One way in which the writer presents the character of the Inspector is as deliberately ungracious and negative. This is because when he is telling the rest of the family about Eva Smith’s death, he is not very sensitive. The Inspector includes the unnecessary, gruesome details about the young lady’s death.

He does not let the inspector finish what he is saying and calls people like the inspector ‘cranks’. He finds it difficult to care about other people. His lack of compassion makes it hard for the audience to sympathise for him. He does not believe in ‘community and all that nonsense’. Birling sees the people as cheap labour.