J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls Sheila and Sybil Birling are two very different characters, in terms of attitude and behaviour. How far would the audience agree with this statement? The audience would agree 100% with the statement above, because Sheila and Sybil are two very different people, even though they are mother and daughter but their personalities and attitudes are shown to be different by the end of the play. The relationship between the mother and daughter appears to lack mutual respect. The father appears to be perplexed; he cannot understand what it has to do with him. Finally he admits he sacked the girl after a pay dispute but as far as he is concerned, he bears no responsibilities. The Birling family are proud of all the money that they share; they have a lifestyle, which is an early upper middle class. The play opens at the dinner table. A knock on the door is heard. It was an inspector that had come to talk to the Birling family, about a young girl called Eva Smith. She had recently committed suicide. Eva Smith had an alias Daisy Renton, Miss Birling. The inspector informed the whole family about this girl's death. They all felt sorry for her but as they got to know whom this girl was, they felt scared, and guilty. The person feeling most guilty was Sheila. She feels ashamed and regrets her action in getting Eva Smith sacked from her previous job at Milwards. Sheila recognised that she was feeling jealous, because she wanted to buy a hat that she was interested in. Mrs Birling (Sybil) had said no, as the hat didn't look good on her. Eva Smith had showed her how to wear it as a shop girl making Sheila look like a fool. Sheila did not accept this behaviour and told the manager of Milwards to sack Eva Smith. This was unacceptable and childish type of behaviour that Sheila had gone through. At this point it seems Sheila is a stubborn spoilt young lady and must
and say and do. We don't live alone. We are members of a body. We are
the end of the Second World War. The play is set in 1912, just before
especially for a woman. Even if a woman did get a job they would get
they have done even know they do not lead her to her suicide. But a
satisfied. He talks a lot and likes the sound of his own voice. He's a
An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley "An Inspector calls," by J. B. Priestley was written in 1946 and set in 1912. Priestley was a politician and a socialist who believed in equality and equilibrium for all, sex, race and class. Priestley had a long but arduous life, 1894-1984. He lived through both world wars, the unsinkable Titanic sank in 1912, the general strike in 1926, labour government resigning in 1931, and the two destructive atom bombs dropped on Japan in 1945. Priestley deliberately set the play in 1912 because the audience watching the play had to have lived through all of this and would have empathised with him.
into a little house just big enough to stand in. It gives you a great
in jeopardy than how he may have driven a young girl down a spiral to
upon so many levels. On the surface it is a simple tale of how one man
J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls John Boynton Priestley was one of the most popular, versatile and greatest authors of his day. His works of popular history and literary criticism are numerous, ending with the story of Literature and the western woman. However it was as a playwright and as a social thinker that he was especially important. Politically, J.B. Priestley was a patriotic socialist who did not believe in the case of social class or rich dominancy, he believed that people should help each other and not be so competitive towards others. He hated social class because of the way upper class people took advantage of the working classes.
Birlings, as they find out that they have all played a part in a young
the beginning of the play the family is united but at the end of the
the suicide of Eva Smiths death. The aim of the story is to, try to
... Eva Smiths all over the world and that we are all members of one body
... may mean that if a person does not learn from their mistakes the first