An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley

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An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley This play confuses the audience in so many ways. It tells the story of an upper middle class family who together, with the power of the mysterious Inspector Goole confess their parts in an apparent suicide which took place earlier in the day. The play is set in 1912 in a place called Brumley, an industrial city in the North Midlands. This was a fictional town which Priestley had created in order to show what towns were like during that period. e.g. Bradford and Bromley(north London). The play is set in an industrial Midlands town in 1912, just before the First World War started. The play focuses around the mysterious death of a poor young working class girl called Eva Smith. I think that each character in the play is a stereotypical representation of a certain social class and certain generation, they show the different attitudes that each class of person has. There are 5 main characters, other than the inspector. These are Mr and Mrs Birling, their children Sheila and Eric Birling and Sheila´s fiancé Gerald Croft. All of them are upper class citizens and believe themselves to be somewhat part of the social elite. Priestley uses this class group for his play because Priestley himself believes that the upper class attitude is wrong and uses this play as a way to show his anger at the way this country worked. He very cleverly produces this concept into a play, because he knows that mainly upper class people will see the performance, so the message will definitely get across to the right category of person, the people who need to change their ways. The play begins in "The dinning-room ... ... middle of paper ... ...rom their mistakes, the inspector had a big impact on them, as the inspector said, "we often do on the young ones. They´re more impressionable." I think Priestly is saying how the next generations can be changed as long as they are taught what not to do. The fact that the inspector didn´t really exist isn't anything to do with anything really. The fact that they effected a young girl´s life the way they did still remains a fact. Mr and Mrs. Birling don´t think they have done anything wrong once the inspector is disproved. Priestly leaves the play unclosed leaving the audience to think about the play and draw their own conclusions. This is a very good tactic by Priestly as it make people think about what they saw and hopefully make them realise that aspects of their life should be changed for the good of humanity.

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