An Inspector Calls

Context
1. During the 1930's Priestley became very concerned about the consequences of social inequality in Britain, and 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.
2. He believed that further world wars could only be avoided through cooperation and mutual respect between countries, and so became active in the early movement for a United Nations.
3. 1912-1945
4. An Inspector Calls is set in 1912
  1. The First World War would start in two years. Birling's optimistic view that there would not be a war is completely wrong.
  2. There were strong distinctions between the upper and lower classes.
  3. Women were subservient to men. All a well off women could do was get married; a poor woman was seen as cheap labour.
  4. The ruling classes saw no need to change the status quo.
5. An Inspector Calls was written in 1945.
  1. The Second World War ended in Europe on 8 May 1945. People were recovering from nearly six years of warfare, danger and uncertainty.
  2. Class distinctions had been greatly reduced as a result of two world wars.
  3. subservient to men. All a well off women could do was get married; a poor woman was seen as cheap labour. As a result of the wars, women had earned a more valued place in society.
  4. There was a great desire for social change
6. 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.
Dramatic Effect
1. Setting
  1. Priestley describes the scene in detail at the opening of Act 1, so that the audience has the immediate impression of a "heavily comfortable house." The setting is constant (all action happens in the same place).
2. Lighting
  1. Priestley says that the lighting should be "pink and intimate" before the Inspector arrives - a rose-tinted glow - when it becomes "brighter and harder." The lighting reflects the mood of the play.
3. Subtle Hints
  1. Early on we wonder whether the happy atmosphere is slightly forced. Sheila wonders where Gerald was last summer, Eric is nervous about something, Lord and Lady Croft did not attend the engagement dinner. This arouses interest in the audience - we want to find out what is going on!
4. Dramatic Irony
  1. For instance, the audience knows how wrong Mr Birling is when he makes confident predictions about there not being a war and is excited about the sailing of The Titanic: famously, the ship sank on her maiden voyage. This puts the audience at an advantage over the characters and makes us more involved.
5. Tone
  1. There is a lot of tension as each member of the family is found to have played a part in Eva's death. New pieces of information contribute to the story being constructed. The audience is interested in how each character reacts to the revelations.
  2. Mr Birling's confidence is soon replaced - first by self-justification as he tries to explain his part in Eva's death, and then by anxiety.
6. The Inspector himself adds drama
  1. He controls the pace and tension by dealing with one line of enquiry at a time.
  2. He is in command at the end of Act I and the start of Act 2, and the end of Act 2 and the start of Act 3. He is a brooding, inescapable presence, very much in control.
  3. He is very mysterious and seems to know what is going to happen before it does.
7. Timing
  1. Timing of entrances and exits is crucial. For example, the Inspector arrives immediately after Birling has told Gerald about his impending knighthood and about how "a man has to look after himself and his own."
8. The Ending
  1. The ending leaves the audience on a cliff-hanger. In Act 3 the Birlings believed themselves to be off the hook when it is discovered that the Inspector wasn't real and that no girl had died in the infirmary. This releases some of the tension - but the final telephone call, announcing that a real inspector is on his way to ask questions about the suicide of a young girl, suddenly restores the tension very dramatically. It is an unexpected final twist.
Themes
1. Responsibility
  1. Each member of the family has a different attitude to responsibility. Make sure that you know how each of them felt about their responsibility in the case of Eva Smith.
  2. The words responsible and responsibility are used by most characters in the play at some point.
  3. The Inspector wanted each member of the family to share the responsibility of Eva's death: he tells them, "each of you helped to kill her." However, his final speech is aimed not only at the characters on stage, but at the audience too.
  4. The Inspector is talking about a collective responsibility, everyone is society is linked, in the same way that the characters are linked to Eva Smith. Everyone is a part of "one body", the Inspector sees society as more important than individual interests. The views he is propounding are like those of Priestley who was a socialist.
  5. He adds a clear warning about what could happen if, like some members of the family, we ignore our responsibility
  6. Priestley would have wanted his audience to think of two things when the Inspector warns the Birlings of the "fire and blood and anguish"
    1. partly about the world war they had just lived through - the result of governments blindly pursuing 'national interest' at all costs.
    2. the Russian revolution in which poor workers and peasants took over the state and exacted a bloody revenge against the aristocrats who had treated them so badly.
2. Class
  1. Apart from Edna the maid, the cast of the play does not include any lower class characters.
  2. We see only the rich, upwardly mobile Birlings and the upper class Gerald Croft. Yet we learn a lot about the lower class as we hear of each stage in Eva's life and we see the attitude the Birlings had for them.
  3. Priestley is trying to show that the upper classes are unaware that the easy lives they lead rest upon hard work of the lower classes.
3. Sex
  1. Because Eva was a woman - in the days before women were valued by society and had not yet been awarded the right to vote - she was in an even worse position than a lower class man.
  2. Even upper class women had few choices. For most, the best they could hope for was to impress a rich man and marry well - which could explain why Sheila spent so long in Milwards.
  3. For working class women, a job was crucial. There was no social security at that time, so without a job they had no money. There were very few options open to women in that situation: many saw no alternative but to turn to prostitution.
4. Age
  1. The older generation and the younger generation take the Inspector's message in different ways. While Sheila and Eric accept their part in Eva's death and feel huge guilt about it, their parents are unable to admit that they did anything wrong.
    1. The Old
      1. The old are set in their ways. They are utterly confident that they are right and they see the young as foolish.
      2. The old will do anything to protect themselves: Mrs Birling lies to the Inspector when he first shows her the photograph; Mr Birling wants to cover up a potential scandal.
      3. They have never been forced to examine their consciences before and find they cannot do it now - as the saying goes, 'you can't teach an old dog new tricks.'
      4. Mr and Mrs Birling have much to fear from the visit of the 'real' inspector because they know they will lose everything.
    2. The Young
      1. The young are open to new ideas. This is first seen early in Act 1 when both Eric and Sheila express sympathy for the strikers - an idea which horrifies Birling, who can only think of production costs and ignores the human side of the issue.
      2. The young are honest and admit their faults. Eric refuses to try to cover his part up, saying, "the fact remains that I did what I did."
      3. Sheila and Eric have nothing to fear from the visit of the 'real' inspector because they have already admitted what they have done wrong, and will change.
      4. Sheila and Eric see the human side of Eva's story and are very troubled by their part in it. They do examine their consciences.
  2. Gerald Croft is caught in the middle, being neither very young nor old. In the end he sides with the older generation, perhaps because his aristocratic roots influence him to want to keep the status quo and protect his own interests.
  3. Ultimately, we can be optimistic that the young - those who will shape future society - are able to take on board the Inspector's message.

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An Inspector Calls

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	Created by lauren.pritchard almost 11 years ago