Theme Of Conflict In An Inspector Calls

Towards the end of act 3 the inspector says “We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other.” He also talks about collective responsibility as he wanted each member of the family to share the responsibility of Eva’s death. He does this by showing that everyone in society is linked in the same way that the characters are linked to Eva Smith. Zooming in on the phrase “one body” it is clear that the Inspector sees society as more important than their individual interests; this shows the inspector to be a mouthpiece for Priestley’s socialist views.

An Inspector Calls is a three-act drama, which takes place on a single night in 1912, and focuses on the Birling family, who live in a wealthy but not particulary homely house in Brumley. The story begins when the mysterious Inspector Goole calls unexpectedly on the prosperous Birling family. The idea of the play, and particularly the role of the inspector, is to try to bring the Birling family to understand that they have a moral responsibility for the death of Eva Smith, if not a legal one. In Act Three, the Inspector tells the Birling family: “The girl killed herself and died a horrible death. But each of you helped to kill her. Remember that. Never forget it.” But who was really the

rest of the family had known about it, or heard about it in some way

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.

“An Inspector Calls” is a morality play by the socialist playwright J. B. Priestley written in 1945 but set in 1912. The play is based on the wealthy Birling family, who is questioned by a police inspector regarding a young woman’s death. Using characters of different ages to represent the contrast of political stances and attitudes, Priestley attempts to educate the audience. He believed that Capitalism was the sole reason for the start of world war one and therefor also the cause of the great economic depression and the second world war. Priestley uses the age in the play, to tell the audience that capitalists don’t have any social responsibility, as they do not accept any responsibility for Eva Smith’s death. The behavioural contrast between the Birling parents and their children demonstrate that if you are capitalist, you can still alter your beliefs and become socialist.

In the play 'An Inspector Calls', many contrasts and paradox's are present and at the centre of them all is the character known as Inspector Goole. However, the inspector is not any ordinary inspector. I believe that the inspector is used as a device by Priestley to explore the wider themes of the play and to depict other characters true personalities. This essay will explore some of the techniques Priestley presents the inspector in An Inspector Calls.

Again, Priestley presents the theme of responsibility to the audience through the structure of the play. Priestley cleverly contrasts the characters who accept their responsibilities and those who don’t, to emphasise the fact that it is a large theme and potential problem in society. The character of Mr Birling is questioned first by the Inspector. “Still, I can't accept any responsibility. If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we'd had anything to do with, it would be very awkward." Mr Birling shows in this way, that he has a lot of power to say if the workers have a steady income or not and does not care about the consequences. This quote shows how ignorant and selfish the older generation of the Birling family are and how they can’t even accept such a serious case as the death of a young girl. They just want to protect themselves from being seen as a lower-class family. By using an upper-class man who runs a factory with

In Act 1 the Inspector enters and the stage directions command that lighting is to change from “pink and intimate” to “brighter and harder”. The use of the comparatives “brighter and harder” creates an image of an interrogation with a “brighter” light exposing the whole family’s misconducts. This is evident when Inspector Goole enters and forces the family to accept responsibility for Eva’s death. Eva drank disinfectant that “burnt her inside out”. The gruesome imagery that comes from the emotive verb “burnt” shocks the Birling family. This contrast from the nonchalant idiom “inside out”. The juxtaposition between these two ideas were purposefully used by Priestley to emphasise the grave nature of this incident, evoking a sense of pathos from the audience towards Eva because they are aware that these events happened as a result of the Birling’s actions. Cleverly, here Priestley draws the audience back to social responsibility and the lack of it within this household. Alternatively, Priestley might have been showing that the Birling family will never learn and it will only be “harder” to redeem from their myopic view. Priestley continues to convey this theme throughout the play through Goole’s impactful messages. As the Inspector was about to leave, he teaches the Birlings that “we don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other”. The anaphora of the repetition of the pronoun “we” emphasises the much-needed care for one another and also preaches the socialist ideal of the community over the individual. It also has connotations of a human body, because if one part of the body, such as the heart, were to stop working the whole of the body would shut down. This links to the Birling’s because if one of them stops caring about the lower class others will follow. The pronoun “we” suggests that the Inspector is

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

Tension is frequently current between the Inspector and Mr Birling due to their contrasting ideas. They are both extremely powerful figures clashing for dominance and status in the household. A major point hidden by Priestley is their political views, Birling represents a capitalists view point whereas the Inspector is a shadow figure of Priestley's ideas and represents a socialist. They are symbols of the global struggle between Capitalism and Socialism in the 40s. The Inspector is prominent to show his power when Birling attemps to interrogate him by warning him that the 'Chief Constable, Colonel Roberts' is 'an old friend of mine' and that they 'play golf together sometimes up at the West Brumley'. In response to this, the Inspector 'dryly'

However, Mr Birling's 'foil', the Inspector - who adopts the socialist ideology - firmly sets Mr Birling in place when Mr Birling tries to intimidate him with his status because 'public men ... have responsibilities as well as privileges'. Here, Priestley accuses Mr Birling of not only acting wrongfully but also failing to see his public position entails a duty of responsibility to the rest of society. Using the stage direction 'massively' to describe the Inspector interrupting

not only asks them to tell him what they did but also guilt trips them

While the Smolinsky family is not literally “hanging on Bessie’s neck for her wages”, this displays to the reader how desperation affected them. The metaphor acts as a bridge between the reader and the event, therefore allowing them to feel the same worry that Sara harbors through the shared experience of “hanging” without support. It is important for the audience to relate to the characters, yet this cannot happen if the author’s portrayal gives little humanity to their characters. Hence, when Yezierska writes that financial help according to Sara and her family is a “stab into our burning shame”, it shows that despite any prior notions of poverty being an “ornament”, they still have human wants and needs. Moreover, it shows that her characters are not emotionless apathetic beings that live only on their faith; they too endure deviations from what is expected of them. At any rate, repeated similes have an analogous consequence on the reader's thoughts. Multiple comparisons within a small section of text compound the anxiety, bombarding the same heavy emotions that Sara feels onto the reader in a way that they can sympathize with her, and in turn, Yezierska herself. Altogether, these literary moves go further than simply entertaining the audience, but informing them about what the world was truly

And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in blood and anguish.” This passage shows that Priestley wanted to make the Inspector the law bringer and the authority in this play because the audience has to agree with what the Inspector is saying for Priestley’s message to be effective. The quote refers to World War 1 and World War 2 and so Priestley uses the power and knowledge of the Inspector to scare the audience by using powerful sentences such as “they will be taught it in blood and anguish” which reminds the watchers of the pain and suffering they have already gone through. The inspector tries to persuade the audience that trying to pursue wealth is dangerous and destructive such as the case of Mr Birling starting the “chain of actions” for Eva Smith. Priestley had completely opposite views on the world to the main characters, mostly Arthur Birling. The Inspector is there to represent the views of Priestley and so is shown to be much of a better person and man than Birling and his family and whereas Mr Birling is shown to be greedy and selfish in his actions, the Inspector is shown to be the opposite. This shows the main role of the inspector is to present Priestley’s ideas.

visit of Inspector Goole. But who is Inspector Goole? And who is the girl whose