The Role Of Women In Mrs. Priestley's Inspector Calls

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When the play was set in 1912, women had lacked empowerment and rights, while men had a higher status in society, despite women had no important role in society. By using Priestley’s Inspector Calls we can identify how women were portrayed in the early 20th century. Priestley has explored this in a variety of ways, by customizing the different types of female character to show an insight on how they have viewed upon the world and importantly on how they were treated differently based on several factors like class, money, and age. For an instance, Priestley uses traditional women and transitional women to contrast their lifestyle when it was set in the Edwardian Era. Provided that when the play was introduced, it can be seen as that Mrs. Birling …show more content…

In the exposition when Mrs. Birling said to Sheila “ When you are married you will realize that men with important work to do sometimes spend nearly all their time and energy on business. You will have to get used to that, just as I had“. This quotation shows that Sybil really obeyed her husband and dared not to challenge or question her husband’s actions, as the phrase ‘just as I had’ could imply that she does not receive enough attention from Arthur. Yet the way it is phrased suggests that she expects that the same kind of treatment should happen to Sheila. This is different to Sheila, as she clearly has voiced out her opinion to Arthur without any hesitation, this defies the social norms that she should have respect Arthur. Furthermore, near the climax where Sheila has matured and is no longer afraid to defy her father or when she withdrew her engagement with Gerald. In the climax, Sheila says “ You knew it then. You …show more content…

That is probably why Priestley had created Inspector Calls as he had believed we are part of one community and that people should help each other to maintain a thriving community. This especially starts with that Priestley think we should give people from the lower class and women more respect if they were to function as a community, so all inequalities would remain absent. This reflects more on the audience to change and realize that they can also change in themselves and try to reduce the inequalities in their

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