An Inspector Calls Context

An Inspector Calls Context

1. what was life like?

   • Priestley deliberately set his play in 1912 because the date represented an era when all was very different from the time he was writing.
   • In 1912, rigid class and gender boundaries seemed to ensure that nothing would change.
     • Yet by 1945, most of those class and gender divisions had been breached. Priestley wanted to make the most of these changes. Through this play, he encourages people to seize the opportunity the end of the war had given them to build a better, more caring society.

2. setting

   • During the 1930's Priestley became very concerned about the consequences of social inequality in Britain
   • ‘An Inspector Calls’ was written in 1946 but is set in 1912.
     • Put historically, it was written just after the Second World War and set just before the First World War.•
       • J.B. Priestley had lived through both wars, which must have had a huge impact upon him.•
         • By setting the play in the past, Priestley can make use of dramatic irony – the audience knows what happens after the events in the play but obviously the characters don’t.

3. Author's Background

   • in 1942 Priestley and others set up a new political party, the Common Wealth Party, which argued for public ownership of land, greater democracy, and a new 'morality' in politics.
     • The party merged with the Labour Party in 1945, but Priestley was influential in developing the idea of the Welfare State which began to be put into place at the end of the war.

4. written in 1945

   • The Second World War ended in Europe on 8 May 1945. People were recovering from nearly six years of warfare, danger and uncertainty
     • Class distinctions had been greatly reduced as a result of two world wars.
       • As a result of the wars, women had earned a more valued place in society
         • There was a great desire for social change. Immediately after The Second World War, Clement Attlee's Labour Party won a landslide victory over Winston Churchill and the Conservatives.

5. set in 1912

   • The First World War would start in two years. Birling's optimistic view that there would not be a war is completely wrong.
     • There were strong distinctions between the upper and lower classes
       • Women were subservient to men. All a well off women could do was get married; a poor woman was seen as cheap labour.
         • The ruling classes saw no need to change the status quo.