Priestley's Use of Characters to Send a Political and Social Message to the Audience in An Inspector Calls
J B Priestly (1894-1984) wrote An Inspector Calls in 1945, right after
the Second World War. The main reason that the play was written was to
give the audience of his time a social and political message. The play
is set in the fictitious North Midlands industrial city of Brumley in
1912. He wrote the play to give his audience a social and political
message. John Boynton Priestly was one of the most popular, versatile
and prolific authors of his day. Though he may not have produced an
unquestioned masterpiece, his work in many fields of literature and
thought, written from the 1920s to his death, is still highly valued.
The best known of his sixteen novels, The Good Companions (1929),
which has been adapted for stage, film and television, or Literature
and Western Man (1960) which shows his works of popular history and
literacy criticism are numerous.
However, it was as a playwright and as a political and social think
that Priestly was as especially important and certainly these two
aspects of Priestly are what matter most in An Inspector Calls.
Politically Priestly was a patriotic socialist whose love of his
country could appear nostalgic, but was passionately convinced of the
need for social change to benefit the poor. This is shown by the fact
that he was proud of his grandparents being mill workers. During the
Second World War his weekly broadcasts were highly influential and
expressed his faith in the ordinary people of Britain. In the last
year of the war Priestly was writing An Inspector Calls, which he saw
as a cont...
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...or is present, nobody challenges his version of events.
Those characters that resist telling the Inspector the truth suffer
more than those who are open. The Inspector says to Gerald:
"…If you're easy with me, I'm easy with you'.
Notice that he deliberately tries to stop Sheila from blaming herself
too much. How ever, he begins to lose patients with Mr Birling:
"Don't stammer and yammer at me again, man. I'm losing all the
patience with you people'.
The Inspector is harshest with Mrs Birling because she resists the
truth:
"I think you did something terribly wrong…"
He does not do this because of prejudice, as you see he persuaded all
the characters to reveal things, which they would have rather not
known, or the truth but some of the characters took this for granted
so they got what they gave.
...are lower class or upper class (‘[W]e don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other.’). Priestley believed in socialism, he uses the Inspector to express his thoughts about this. This is the main message that he wanted the audience to take away.
audience in his play. I will be analysing act one of the play to try
one page 11) this indicates that he is a selfish man and cares for his
she needed more money. So she said to him give me 25/6 because of that
A Comparison of Characters of Mr. Birling and Inspector Goole in J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls
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.
Victorian rich life out to be less than what it seems. I think it was
Priestley's Social Message in An Inspector Calls The play an Inspector Call’s was written at the time of 1945 but is set in 1912. Priestley conveys a lot of social and important messages in this play. He conveys the messages through the character of Inspector Goole. One most important message that Priestley conveys is about Socialism.
Priestley’s Main Aim in An Inspector Calls JB Priestly wrote ‘An Inspector Calls’ to enhance the message that ‘we don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other’. This is something Priestly felt strongly about and he succeeded in representing his views through the character of the Inspector in the play itself. He wanted to communicate the message that our actions, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, always affect others.
member of the family to admit to the fact she did wrong and is willing
JB Priestley was a socialist and strived for a more equal society. So when he wrote An Inspector Calls at the end of WWll he wasn’t just writing a play. He was trying to change the mind set of post war Britain. What class of person you belonged to meant everything and climbing the social status ladder was far more important than helping others or giving to charity. There was no NHS or welfare state and there was a lot of prejudice against you if you worked in a factory for a living. As a socialist Priestley disagreed with the way the rich treated the poor. In an inspector calls he tells almost an Aesop’s Fable or moral play to try and change the opinion the rich had to make Britain wake up.
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.
J.B Priestley’s Use of Language, Character, and Setting for Dramatic Effect in An Inspector Calls
The Birlings are holding a party to celebrate their daughter’s engagement with Gerald Croft. The pleasant scene is interrupted when a rather shady looking Inspector gives them a visit, investigating the suicide of a young working-class girl in her middle twenties. Each family member is interrogated and they all find out that they are somehow linked to the girl’s death.
events such as World War 1, World War 2 and who could forget , the