An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley In the introduction of Act One, we are given a few brief details about Mr Birling by the author. We are told that he is a 'heavy-looking, rather portentous man in his middle fifties with fairly easy manners but rather provincial in his speech.' So we already know that Mr Birling is a man of some meaning who is quite well mannered. Although, just by the way in which the author has mentioned that even though all those things are visible, the way he speaks shows him up. He is not a highly intellectual man of upper-class grace, but a man who still speaks with limited interests and narrow-minded views, a man who may well have moved up a level or two in social grouping but still lacks refinement and good taste. At the start of the play, we discover that the Birling's are in the middle of a dinner party, to celebrate the engagement of Mr Birling's daughter, Sheila to Gerald Croft, the son of a rival factory owner. Mr Birling behaves in a very high-spirited manner and is extremely overjoyed because he is pleased about his daughter's engagement. Some Fathers would be saddened to see their daughters married off and others maybe quite pleased because they are safe in the knowledge that their daughter has found a nice partner to care for them. However, Mr Birling appears to be more enthusiastic than the couple in question! He is very brave and aggressive. He would gain a great deal from this marriage as well. Now we know he is a brave but improperly self-assertive man who always declares himself to be true. 'Oh-come-I'm treating Gerald like on... ... middle of paper ... ...r Birling here conveys his self-obsession and becomes rather frantic about what other people will think of him and his public image. He doesn't want his reputation destroyed. 'You! You don't seem to dare about anything. But I care. I was almost certain for a knighthood in the next Honours List - ' He is again being a hypocrite, he cares about a titles medal but not a young girl's life, most certainly because she was a lower-class worker, and she tried to defy him. In conclusion Mr Birling is selfish, arrogant, self obsessed, and incompetent. He has no care for annoy other person around him, including his own family. He doesn't even know his children or even his wife. All he cares for is his own well being, his social status and playing up to other people's lives to be accepted which shows he leads a sad live.
There would be more of an effect on the audience at the time, as it
J B Priestley clearly had a strong moral conscience which led him to hold socialist beliefs wanting to bring about change against the capitalists who were exploiting the poor working class. In 'An Inspector Calls' Priestley cleverly uses dramatic techniques, lighting and stage directions to produce an emotionally charged setting to bring home a very important message to the correct society of his day and remains a challenge to the society in which we live in now.
and say and do. We don't live alone. We are members of a body. We are
for each other. And I tell you that a time will soon come when if men
This coursework focuses on how each character contributes to the suicide of a poor girl Eva Smith/Daisy Renton.
J.B. Priestley's Inspector Calls. An Inspector Calls is a play set in spring 1912. The writer, J. B. Priestly, tries to build up a view of Mr Birling through the set. stage directions and in his speeches.
Examine Priestley's use of dramatic techniques to create tension in the play. Priestly was a socialist writer, and 'An Inspector Calls' is one of the plays in which he tried to display his socialist ideals in. The play was written in the 1940's, a little after the end of the Second World War, and it was first performed in 1946, in Russia, then later in England. Priestly had served in World War 1, and the terrible scenes he saw lead to him having socialist views. He was inspired by other writers whose views he shared, especially George Orwell and H.G.
JB Priestley’s intent in ‘An Inspector Calls’ was to convey the attitudes of socialism to the minds of the society in the Edwardian Era as he was a passionate believer of the concept. Priestley has attempted this through the employment of ‘Inspector Goole’ in the play. In the play drama is displayed through a variety of methods for the interest of the audience and the communication of personal views from JB Priestley.
Priestley’s Main Aim in An Inspector Calls JB Priestly wrote ‘An Inspector Calls’ to enhance the message that ‘we don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other’. This is something Priestly felt strongly about and he succeeded in representing his views through the character of the Inspector in the play itself. He wanted to communicate the message that our actions, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, always affect others.
especially for a woman. Even if a woman did get a job they would get
The Inspector, straight form his introduction, is commanding and authoritative. Upon his entrance he creates, “…at once an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness.”(PG.11) The Inspector continues to create this impression as he progresses through his speeches and through his interrogation of the family. The Inspector remains confident, sturdy and composed, while people around him crumble and fall to pieces. His ‘solidity’ is proven by the fact he remains on task despite numerous attempts from Birling to digress from the points he is making. The Inspector is told to appear ‘purposeful’; this is shown where he explains to Birling that Birlings way of thinking “Every man must only look out for himself,” is not the case, and all warps of society are interlinked. The view is best illustrated in the Inspectors final speech, where he says, “We don't live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other.”(p.56). This idea is one that Priestley, himself believed in deeply, and many of Priestleys writing shared this very theme.
in jeopardy than how he may have driven a young girl down a spiral to
Birlings, as they find out that they have all played a part in a young
J.B. Priestley wrote the play "An Inspector Calls" in 1945 and set it in 1912. These dates are both relevant because he wrote his play in a world emerging from the Second World War, at a time when people were getting nostalgic about pre-world war one. Priestley used his play to try and show people that the idea of a community in 1912 was gradually being washed away by the upper classes and that the world needed to change rather than return to the egotistical society that existed in pre war England.
In act 1, while Arthur Birling was giving advice to Eric and Gerald, an Inspector gives them a visit to investigate a young working-class girl’s suicidal death. This is very important because later on, we find out how J. B. Priestley has linked the girl’s death to all the Birling family members.