Social Responsibility in An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley

How does JB Priestley present the older and younger generations differently throughout the play ‘An Inspector Calls’ (45 mins)

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.

John Boynton Priestley was born in Bradford, Yorkshire on September 13th 1984. The play “An Inspector Calls” was written by him in 1945, and came onstage in 1914. An Inspector calls, is a play that revolves around the apparent suicide of a young woman called Eva Smith. In the play, the unsuspecting Birling family are visited by the mysterious Inspector Goole. Priestley uses a variety of different techniques, especially language and quotations, to contrast and elicit differing responses to Mr Birling and Inspector Goole.

He wanted to communicate the message that our actions, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, always affect others. He uses the downfall of Eva Smith and a chain of events to demonstrate this. This leads to a very convincing and well-devised play, which puts across JB Priestley’s views clearly and precisely. In Edwardian Britain there was a

The moral of the play is that everyone is part of a community, and everyone is responsible for each other, it does not matter whether they are lower class or upper class (‘[W]e don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other.’). Priestley believed in socialism, he uses the Inspector to express his thoughts about this. This is the main message that he wanted the audience to take away.

By constructing the Inspector as just and omniscient, Priestley encourages the audience to view left-wing values as morally virtuous. Through the Inspector's authority, commanding presence and stature Priestley makes a direct jab at the audience with the Inspector's last

One of the ways Priestley presents the inspector is through his physical appearance. In the play, we are given a very detailed description of what the inspector should look like and act on stage. Priestley says "the inspector need not be a big man but he creates at once creates at once an

Throughout Priestley’s play, ‘An inspector calls’, a main theme runs about responsibility and differentiation between classes. Each character is accountable of doing something that brought about the death of Eva smith. All the characters contribute to her death in one way or the other, and all of them are at fault for the death of

This is evident in “We are responsible for each other.” The inspector implies that everyone is responsible for one another, utterly contradicting Mr. Birling’s speech before he came in. The inspector is the most conflicting character in the entire play as he stands cool and hard before the Birlings and the audience and unveils the consequences of their actions on those below them. The dramatic irony reinforces that the inspector is in fact voicing Priestley’s message out, therefore emphasizing the effect. Furthermore, the inspector is presented as the figure of authority in the play. This is reinforced in "massively taking charge as dispute erupts between them." He is the only character that calms down the household when an argument breaks. He also expresses no interest towards Mr. birling’s authoritative friends and disregards his threats. The stage directions reinforce that when capitalism destroys everything, socialism is the only answer. Both contemporary and modern audience is left in a conflicting situation as he creates conflict in the play between other

Priestley explores responsibility through the behaviour of the Birlings and Gerald towards Eva Smith. Strongly believing that 'a man has to mind his own business' in addition to dismissing community as 'nonsense', Birling explicitly states he 'can't accept any responsibility' for Eva's death. Through these words, Priestley conveys how selfish Mr Birling is due to his capitalist ideologies, which is shown when his philosophy of 'lower wages higher prices' leads to workers striking and Eva being fired; this triggers the 'chain of events' to her ultimate death. The chain of events is a metaphor to show that everybody within society is responsible for each other. His clear statement shows how is an obstinate believer in his

Throughout the play An Inspector Calls by J B Priestley, it is clear that Priestley strongly believes in the importance of a caring society and the consequences of our actions. He presents these views on inequalities through the presentation of Sheila Birling. This is done in various different ways using numerous techniques.

An inspector calls was written by John Priestly in 1945, a play writer who was born during the height of the industrial revolution. John was very passionate about the gap between the rich and the poor but more importantly about the fact that the rich refused to take responsibility form them. J. B. Priestley was a socialist. He was a vehement political commentator and playwright. He wrote plays for radio broadcasts so that he could reach a wider audience.

Overall Birlings reaction to the inspector is very different to the other characters reactions. Instead of being affected by the confrontation with inspector over the effects his actions had caused, he was more angered by the inspectors presence. This was due to loss of control he had when the inspector entered. After loosing his control and authority Birling becomes intermediated and threatened and this resulted in him speaking rudely and snapping at the inspector. Another way in which Birlings selfish character comes across is how he treats his daughters engagement party. He claims the party "is one of the happiest nights of my life." But is this because Sheila will be happy, or perhaps its down to a merger with Crofts Limited will be good for his business.

“All mankind… being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his

Priestley uses the subordinate clause “Mr Birling” to make it sound like it is more important which is a trait of the inspector, as he makes things sound important because of the way he talks. Also, the use of the phrase “as well as privileges” is a way of reassuring the reader of the way that Mr Birling has privileges that maybe the audience and Inspector themselves do not