“An Inspector Calls” is a play written by J.B. Priestly in 1945. The play, which is set in 1912, illustrates the vast status difference in society at the time. It was a time before equality between genders was addressed. Women still had received the right to vote and were still viewed with a traditional eye.
Priestley uses Mrs. Birling to show the audience what would happen if they continued to live the way they are currently living. Mrs. Birling is the mother of two children, Sheila and Eric, and the supporting wife of a “prosperous manufacturer”. Throughout the play, she is portrayed as a cold woman hardened by the patriarchal society. Mrs. Birling has grown up under the pretenses that a person’s social class defines who the person is,
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and as a result, she will do anything to protect her reputation and status. However, Mrs. Birling’s insensitive nature may be due to the fact that empathy was seen as a weakness in the upper class. If she were seen to be kind and understanding helping people in the lower classes, then it would undermine the little authority that she had as a woman in the 20th Century. So, the cold and hardened personality that she wields, could imply that she is shielding herself from the pain and misery she sees. From the very beginning of Act One, her insensitive and detached nature was highlighted, “a rather cold woman”, the adjective “cold”, is used to highlight her emotionless and indifferent personality. It is also said that she is her husbands, “social superior”, which is again proven when she is appalled that the Cooks name was mentioned at the table. The use of the adverb, “reproachfully”, when Mr. Birling mentions the Cook, shows that she is ashamed that her husband could mention such a time in front of guests. She believes that giving praise to someone in the lower class will lower your reputation, which to her was everything. When the subject of Eva Smiths death came around, Mrs.
Birling gave no sympathy towards her, and called death an “absurd business”. The adjective, “absurd”, shows how little she thinks of the death of someone. She seems to be completely indifferent, and almost irritated that something so ridiculous has spoiled the atmosphere of the evening. She considers the Inspector “impertinent”, in his actions in questioning her family on something so beneath the status Mrs. Birling tries so hard to maintain. Mrs. Birling tries to convince the Inspector that her family isn’t involved in the death of this girl. She moves, “rather grandly”, suggesting that she is trying to emphasize her wealth and thus her class to him, showing that the idea that her family was connected to the death of a girl, “of that class” was ludicrous. The use of (word – a nicer way to say something) shows how Mrs. Birling feels that her reputation will decrease if she said the word ‘lower’. Instead, she emphasizes “that”, showing her immense disgust at the fact that such thing is being mentioned in her house. Instead of showing compassion or someone normal reaction such as shock, Mrs. Birling shows irritation and anger emphasizing her insensitive …show more content…
nature. When Eva came to her charity for help, Mrs. Birling used her “influence”, to convince the members of the board to reject Eva’s appeal. Mrs. Birling openly admits to her prejudiced actions, “one of the things that prejudiced me…” but what is even more surprising is that Mrs. Birling appears to have no remorse for her actions, and instead finds someone else to blame for what happened, “father of the child… his responsibility”. The dramatic irony in Mrs. Birling’s speech provokes the audience to think; what if there is a real Mrs. Birling? Can we just let people make such biased decisions? It makes them look at themselves as for how people of a lower class would view them. Using the inspector as a mouthpiece Priestley cleverly points out that by not standing up for equality and community, we are becoming like Mrs. Birling. The fact the Mrs. Birling is so incapable of displaying any type of love or affection towards her family shows how it would be almost impossible for her to show compassion for someone in a lower class. Mrs. Birling is so selfish that she never realizes that her son has a drinking problem, “staggered. It isn’t true”, the stage direction “staggered” emphasizes her shock at her son’s alcoholism. Nevertheless, it stresses how Mrs. Birling lives in her own bubble without care of how her family is doing. The only thing she cares about is how others view her. She still refers to Eric as a “boy” and is very “bitter” that she only just discovered her son’s problem. It suggests that she annoyed that she doesn’t have a story to cover her son’s problem, and this could affect how other people might view her. Again, emphasizing her cold and insensitive personality. When Eric is revealing his involvement with Eva, Mrs. Birling seems more upset at the idea of a scandal, than the fact that her son didn’t even think about coming to her about his situation, “Oh-Eric”. Furthermore, when it’s revealed that Eric stole money to help Eva, Mrs. Birling was more annoyed at the fact that this was another thing her reputation was going to suffer, “shock.... alarmed”. These stage directions show how now Mrs. Birling has realised that there is no way to prevent a scandal from happening, and she is very upset at that idea. During the engagement party, Mrs.
Birling shows little affection towards her daughter’s engagement. She hesitates when she is offered the Port and needs convincing that this occasion is worth drinking to, “special occasion…. Go on mummy”, showing how little she regards her family. As well as this, she dismisses all of Sheila’s worry, that Gerald may have lost interest in her over the summer. Mrs. Birling expects Sheila to behave normally in these situations, and proceeds to lecture her on it, “When you’re married…. Get used to that, just as I had”. Not only that, Mrs. Birling is very annoyed at Sheila for being shocked at the death of Eva Smith. In her opinion, no regard should have been given at the death of this girl, “annoyed… affecting great surprise”. These stage directions emphasize Mrs. Birling’s detached and emotionless
personality. From the beginning till the end of the play, Mrs. Birling’s’ social status and reputation took precedence over her family. When the inspector left, the first thing she said was she was very “ashamed” of Eric. The irony that Priestley presents here shows the extent of Mrs. Birling’s foolishness. She is “ashamed” that her son has ruined her reputation when in fact it was her own self- centered and egocentric nature that was the downfall of her status.
This is the concept of collective responsibility. Priestley says, 'things could really improve if only people were to become more socially responsible for the welfare of others'. We have to confront our mistakes and learn from them. The play starts off with the Birling family celebrating their daughter's engagement to Gerald Croft. The family included Mr Birling, Mrs Birling, Eric Birling, Sheila Birling and Gerald Croft.
The play "An Inspector Calls" was written by J.B Priestley in 1945, when the British people were recovering from over six years of constant warfare and danger. As a result of two world wars, class distinctions were greatly reduced and women had achieved a much higher place in society. It was due to this and a great desire for social change that Labour's Clement Attlee won a landslide victory over the conservative Winston Churchill. He nationalized the gas steel and electrical industries, established the NHS and introduced the Welfare State. The play was set in Brumley, a fictional industrial city, in 1912.The playwright believed passionately in the left wing perspective and his message is overtly political. He uses techniques such as "dramatic irony" and "direct mouthpieces", which define the genre of the play as non-illusory, to impart his left-wing message.
Priestley explores the relationships between men and women as he shows that the Birlings look at people's gender to judge them. Sheila is a representation of stereotypical girls during that time period, who obsess over pretty clothing and expensive things. As when she gets the ring, she describes it as "a beauty". Moreover, Priestley shows that men have a higher status than women and they make all the decisions as Sheila asks Gerald "is it the one you wanted me to have?" Furthermore, in the play, it's shown that the expectations of women were to act innocent and pure and that they should seek protection from "unpleasant and disturbing" things. In addition, Priestley shows the stereotypical traits of women as when Sheila gets sacked, it's because
Priestley mainly uses the characters in the play to present his views, especially Mr and Mrs Birling, to present his ideas about class and society. In the Birling family, Mrs Birling is the most upper class, and is always referring to the lower class female factory workers such as Eva Smith as ‘girls of that class’. She seems to think that working class people are not humans at all.
An Inspector calls were written by J.B Priestly whom had added hidden meanings and ideas of the patriarchal society of how the divide of class and gender was shown. in the early 20th century everyone acted according to class, for example the Birling’s whom was upper class had looked down on the social class and women and men were expected to marry before they have children: only men were allowed to work and women had to stay at home go care for the children and the household those who did not keep these ideas were not accepted in society.
On overall, Priestley has presented the two characters, Arthur and Sheila Birling as completely differently. He wanted to match the story to the historical context of the 1910’s, but he has done this differently with Sheila. This is because the play was written in 1946 and the world had two wars and has started to comprehend the strength of community. She is the young generation of the 1910’s this means in a few years down the line, a war is going to break out and if they keep making the same mistake over and over again, it’s not going to turn out any better, by this, we see what happens in the second world war. This is why Sheila has been presented so that she understands consequences of what might happen if we don’t pull ourselves together.
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.
He uses the downfall of Eva Smith and a chain of events to demonstrate this. This leads to a very convincing and well-devised play, which puts across JB Priestley’s views clearly and precisely. In Edwardian Britain there was a great difference in the roles of men and women in society and the outlook of what and was not accepted differed substantially. A prime example of this in the play is when Mr Birling says ‘Nothing to do with you, Sheila.
An Inspector Calls is a play with lots of political messages as well as social messages. J. B. Priestley believed in socialism and he used large amounts of his plays to try and convince people to his way of thinking. It was written in a time when Britain was ruled by a Labour government and socialist policies were seen to be a good way to go. It was a common way of thinking at that time so Priestley's aim for the play was to influence the unconvinced in society.
...there is also a sense of formality and distance between the family members as he writes that ‘men are in tails and white ties’ and that it is ‘not cosy and homelike’. He also highlights the distance between Mr and Mrs Birling by positioning them at opposite ends of the table.
He was particularly scathing about the class system and the extreme contrasts of wealth and poverty prevalent at that time. He also disapproved of the selfishness within the individual and the fact that many people were only concerned with their own power, profit and gain. Priestley powerfully highlighted the exploitation of women and through the character of Eva Smith, he illustrated the rights that women were beginning to voice in society. Finally, Priestley used the different characters in his play to show the how the sins of greed, pride and selfishness have so corrupted society that the individual has become oblivious to the consequences of their actions, in this case culminating in the death of Eva Smith. Although 'Inspector Calls' is set in 1912, it was first written in 1945 and produced on the lst October 1946, just after World War 11.
Despite being unplanned, these discoveries play a major role to the audience’s understanding of the character’s attitude towards the human order. Mansfield’s, The Garden Party, explores Mrs. Sheridan’s commanding figure and matriarchal perspective on society. The bildungsroman short story illustrates Mrs. Sheridan insensitive self, through the events that follow Mr. Scott’s death. Her dominating personality is emphasised through, “Mrs. Sheridan's voice floated down the stairs. "Tell her to wear that sweet hat she had on last Sunday,” where she speaks mostly in imperatives, assuming an authoritative quality and appears to control everything. Her command, along with “forget i am your mother,” comes from a disembodied voice that floats down from above, demonstrating the disruption of the great chain of being, furthering the supernatural elements of the story, as well as suggesting that Mrs. Sheridan has ultimate power and authority to manipulate all the pieces of the event. Sadie’s immediate reaction to the florist’s arrival is to “Ask Mrs Sheridan,” for guidance, despite her declaration that she will leave the arrangements for the children. Mansfield again emphasises Mrs. Sheridan’s authority here, where her powerful presence looms over her children, regardless of her proclaimed desire to be treated as merely “an honoured guest.” Succeeding the sudden death of Mr. Scott, an inferior ‘black’ man who “had no right to be in that neighbourhood at all,” and her daughter Laura’s request to cancel the garden party, Mrs Sheridan replies with "People like that don't expect sacrifices from us. And it's not very sympathetic to spoil everybody's enjoyment as you're doing now." This shows her view of lower social classes and emphasises how subordinate they are represented as being. Both Shakespeare and Mansfield represent the outlook of superior classes on those lower in the divine order as being
'An Inspector Calls' by J B Priestley is a play set in 1912 revolving around the apparent suicide of the young woman Eva Smith, and the visit of the mysterious Inspector Goole to the Birling family who slowly unravels the events leading to the woman's death. Mr Birling is the head of the Birling household and a hard-headed confident businessman from a working-class background with old-fashioned and arrogant ideas.
Women have lived for generations being treated as nothing more than simple-minded creatures who were able to do little more than take care of their husbands and maintain a home, but that idea is dangerous. The years of abusing women by withholding their rights, belittling them, and keeping them in the home was sometimes detrimental to not only the female sex, but to the males sex as well. Susan Glaspell is the author of the short play “Trifle” , in which Mrs. Wright, the housewife of a local farmer, is being investigated for the murder of her husband. As a local county attorney, sheriff, and male neighbor scour the house for motive and proof that Mrs. Wright killed her husband, the men spend much of their time criticizing the housekeeping skills of Mrs. Wright and belittling every woman in the play for their simplicity. Their assumptions about the female sex, prevents them from seeing the crime scene for what it really was. Meanwhile, Mrs. Peters, the sheriff’s wife, and Mrs. Hale, the neighbor man’s wife, are able to relate in many ways to the loneliness and loss of self that Mrs. Wright felt while spending her days alone tending to her home and husband.
In the play ‘An Inspector Calls’ it is clear that Priestly uses all of the characters to relay a message to the audience, the Inspector included. Although he initially appears nothing more than an ordinary inspector, he soon proves to be something more mysterious and enigmatic. None of the Birlings have committed a crime, but the Inspector questions their morality and contradicts Birling’s speech about only looking after yourself.