Themes in An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley

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Themes in An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley

Inspector Goole acts as a conscience for all members of the Birling

family. His role is to teach the Birlings that every action has its

consequences and that thinking about only yourself, without taking

anyone else into consideration could result in dramatic consequences,

putting the family in a position that they’d rather not be in.

Priestly’s main concerns that he put across in the play were that

people didn’t realise that each uncaring action and or statement is

backed up with ensuing consequences. Priestley's main point is that

people must learn to feel a sense of personal responsibility, not just

for their own actions, but also for the way their actions affect

others. Whether they like it or not. The play actually goes further

than this, though, by pointing out that we all have such

responsibilities forced upon us: we do not have any choice about this;

it is a duty which we cannot shirk.

An Inspector Calls shows how the family each help to destroy a young

woman's life - Eva Smith through their selfish and callous attitudes

which results in her death. The characters in this play are archetypes

representing stereotypes of each section of society on a smaller

scale. We are shown the flaws in society allowing the disadvantaged to

live alongside the privileged. This play runs parallel to what was

happening to society at that time. Each uncaring action/statement is

backed up with ensuing consequences seen through the chronology of

events between 1912 and 1945.

An Inspector Calls was written in 1945 within a week of World War Two

ending but set in the year of 1912. This was the a...

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...Sheila. This puts

the first suspect into the audiences head, pushing them to read on,

trying to find out more about the families involvement in Eva’s death.

Conclusion

The audience’s interest is sustained not only by the progressive

revelations but by their desire to find out who, ultimately, was

responsible for driving Eva Smith to her suicide. Using his skilful

use of climaxes within the carefully controlled plot and enduring that

the audience are left on tenterhooks by each conclusion of every act,

Priestly manages to heighten the audience’s suspense throughout the

play.

I think the message JB Priestly is trying to get across in this play

is about the responsibility of people, who separately inflict on

another person offences, the sum of which drives that person to

suicide. A theme that always applies.

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