An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley JB Priestley, the playwright of 'An Inspector Calls,' chose to highlight the death of an innocent girl in order to show the audience how important it is that we take responsibility for our actions in our community. It is 1912, a labour shortage seems imminent and war inevitable but somewhere in upper middle class England a family is being confronted with a tragedy of their own. Each of the Birlings; Arthur (Mr. Birling), Sybil (Mrs. Birling), Sheila and Eric as well as Gerald Croft somehow affect the life of Eva Smith until she is forced to commit suicide. Of the five characters, Sheila and Eric change for the better while their parents, Arthur and Sybil, remain their old selves taking no responsibility for the death of the girl. Gerald Croft seems to be capable of changing but takes the easy route and denies responsibility after it appears the inspector was a 'fake'. It is very easy to notice how the Birlings and Gerald change (or how they fail to) because of their distinctive characteristics before the inspector arrives. The family have just celebrated Gerald and Sheila's engagement and are 'pleased with themselves'. Mr. Birling, a self described 'hard-headed business man,' is especially happy that his daughter is marrying Gerald Croft because Gerald's immediate family run a rival business 'Crofts Limited'. He sees the marriage as a potential business opportunity and seems more concerned with this than the love that the two should share. This shows that Mr. Birling's character is very greedy and selfish, as he is looking to make more money, not too concerned with how suitable Gerald Croft... ... middle of paper ... ... his daughter's marriage, being more concerned about a public scandal and his knighthood being in jeopardy than how he may have driven a young girl down a spiral to suicide. To conclude, the clear message set by the ambiguous character of the inspector is that we all have a responsibility in our society to look after each other. It was written in a time when much hope had to be placed on the future; the end of a war had left millions killed and people clearly didn't want to see history repeated. The drastic changes shown by Sheila and Eric give hope to a new world and the message given is still relevant in today's society where much emphasis is placed on avidity and one's own benefit; most people do not see the need to help those they do not know, but we must treat others as we would like ourselves to be treated.
This coursework focuses on how each character contributes to the suicide of a poor girl Eva Smith/Daisy Renton.
J. B. Priestly was born in 1894 in Bradford and he died on the 14th of
An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley In the introduction of Act One, we are given a few brief details about
... is far more than he seems. He is also a 'mouthpiece' for the writer of
In this essay I will examine how Priestly ends each act on a note of
worked for him and asked for a pay rise and was fired from her job by
J.B. Priestley's Inspector Calls. An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley is set in an industrial city. Brymley in 1912, just before the First World War. The Inspector's dealings with the Birling family cause some of the characters in the play to re-evaluate their position in society, whilst others remain.
or two, or a few German officers have too much to drink and begin to
his speech' showing he is not from the class he now is in. He is
listen to him, then they do. Sheila even says about him " I hate to
J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls "An inspector calls" was written around 1944 and is set around 1912. Arthur Birling, used to show the capitalist view, is self-indulged and says; "A man has to look after himself" when they are talking about a community, showing he is selfish and only cares about his family and himself. He is also shown as a fool who thinks he knows everything about anything but clearly doesn't. When he talks about the "unsinkable Titanic" and that "there isn't a chance of war" shows he doesn't know much because there were two wars between the setting of the play and the date it was written, and the Titanic also sunk. When the family learn about the death of Eva, Mr Birling is the first to be questioned by the inspector.
been a hoax, he is happy to believe that everything is as it was a few
make him a better writer, and he felt that he 'must spend at least the
Eric Birling seems to be a lively young man who likes his drink. He is
one – and so long as he does that he won’t come to much harm. But the