Analyzing An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestly

Analyzing An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestly

John Boynton Priestly was born on 13th September 1894. He spent the

first years of his life in a middle class home in Bradford. His father

was a school master. At the age of 16 he left school to work as a wool

merchant. J.B Priestly also fought in the 1st world war, and got

injured when a trench collapsed and was sent home after illness from a

gas attack. He was also very interested in politics, especially

socialism. In 1949 he tried to be elected as an MP but unfortunately

was unsuccessful. During the 1930’s and 40’s he wrote 40 plays. Out of

the 40 plays he wrote ‘An Inspector Calls’ in 1945 which took him only

a week. ‘An Inspector Calls’ is a bit like a murder-mystery except it

is lacking in a murder.

At the time the play was set there was no benefits system. So if you

were out of work and your family was poor there was no system to

support you. The play was written at the end of the Second World War,

Britain was mostly decimated, so people were poor and priestly wanted

to create a sense of being responsible for each other.

The playwright uses a variety of different dramatic devices throughout

the play to influence the audience. Dramatic irony is where the

audience knows or understands more than the characters on stage. The

main example of dramatic irony in Act one is Arthur Birling’s

confidence in the future for example when he talks about the World

War, ‘Germans don’t want no war, no one wants war’. This statement is

ironic because the audience in 1945 was aware historically that the

war had actually started. This statement shows us that Mr. Birling’s

character is of a person who never stops to consider that may be he is

in the wrong, the audience can see and almost laugh at Birling’s

complete lack of common sense and his total focus on his goal of

making money without realising what is going on around him.