An Inspector Calls

Page 1

Plan

1. 'half shy, half assertive' - differing personalities and attitudes inside and outside the home, in the home he is shy as he is of a lower status of his father and mother and therefore has no power in the home, also feels very uncomfortable and incongruent to the family and therefore does not have a close relationship with them. reinforced by the stage directions in which Eric has his back to the audience and is farthest away from his family suggesting a lack of a close relationship.

'half assertive' could suggest that outside the home he tries to compensate for the lack of power he has in the home and therefore is more assertive elsewhere and therefore on Eva Smith, Eric's aggressive and over-assertive nature towards eva smith is presented as a result of his upper class family's lack of relationship and of the presence of a 'cold' rather than loving maternal figure.

2. Eric is further presented as incongruent to his family through the parallelism in the two characters Eric and Eva's way of coping with society's pressures, both Eva and Eric use dangerous substances as a form of escapeism from society, Eva cleanses herself with bleach and Eric cleanses his mind from the memory of his family using alcohol.

3. As Mr. Birling's foil character, eric presents Priestley's socialist views as throughout the play he shows social awareness and interrupts his father in his capital rant about war which to the audience would confirm the importance of socialism due to the dramtaic irony. Eric's views starkly contrast those of his parents and portray him as incongruent to his family as they focus on social status however Eric presents the change in society Priestley wants to see by focussing more on the girl. Also contrasts the common belief in nihilism at the time by confirmng that Eva matters.

Page 2

Plan

1.