At the beginning of the play, during the
At the beginning of the play, during the
Priestley shows us that the older generation –Mr and Mrs Birling - are less ‘impressionable’ (as the inspector said) than the younger generation – Eric and Sheila. This means that they are less able to learn for their actions and change their ways. In the middle of the generations is Gerald, who portrays traits of both age groups at different times during the play.…
As soon as they meet in act one, Birling attempts to show his social superiority to the Inspector, boasting about his contacts in the police force, this shows Birlings character and the type of person he is, big headed and boastfull. Within the play Mr and Mrs Birling seems to be the only characters that are unable to accept the fact that they helped in the death of eva smith. In contrast to Mr and Mrs Birling Sheila has total opposite views and realises what she did was wrong, and wishes that she could go back and never get Eva sacked-…
After Mr Birling, the next character the Inspector questions is Sheila. Although Sheila is a young girl, she is of a high class, so she does therefore have some power. She too abuses her power and orders to have Eva Smith fired from her job when shopping because Sheila thought Eva was laughing at her. She says ‘If she was a pathetic looking…
J.B Priestley was born in Bradford, Yorkshire on 13th September 1894. He firm believer of socialism which is a political theory or system in which the means of production and distribution are controlled by the people therefore he disagrees firmly with capitalism. Priestley set his play in 1912 because the date symbolized an period when all was very unusual from the time he was writing. In 1912, inflexible class and gender restrictions seemed to guarantee that nothing would change. However by 1945 the majority of class and gender divisions had been infringed. Priestley wanted to make the most of these changes. The Inspector wants to teach the Birling Family to care about other and not only themselves and he wants to show that social status and wealth are not significant factors. One of Priestley’s major concerns was that even that the war has ended people were living in poverty and living depressed lives. I think that J.B Priestley is trying to tell people that they shouldn’t rejoice after the war because several people have been killed. Priestley shows that there shouldn’t be a division between people of different class. In 1912 the Birling family lead a comfortable life Birling is a prime example of a capitalist, J.B Priestley is keen to highlight the selfishness of him in the play. J.B Priestley wanted to highlight what was right and wrong in society as it is a morality play .In this essay I am going to investigate how J.B Priestley uses dramatic devices to intrigue the audience.…
In play 'Inspector Calls' written by J B Priestley, Mr Arthur Birling is a prosperous manufacturer as well as father of Eric and Sheila. He is married to Mrs Birling and lives a stable social life. But does this explain everything? We do not know his character, his appearance or any deeper information about his habits. And yet at the end of the play everything is clear. So the question is how did the author let us know about Mr Birling's inside?…
The playwright of 'An Inspector Calls' John Boynton Priestly was alive between 1894 and 1984, in this time he served in the First World War where in 1916 he was badly injured. It wasn't until the end of the Second World War in 1945 that he wrote 'An Inspector Calls'; he chose to set the play thirty years in the past before either wars had happened- in 1912. Priestly was a renowned socialist and highly respected in his time- with his own radio show which around twenty million tuned into each week. Unfortunately, Priestley was seen as too popular- for the conservative government at the time- and taken off air for fear that communities would listen to his left wing ideas more then the prime minister, Winston Churchill. Priestley's ideas of socialism and morality are…
'An Inspector Calls' is a play which explores social inequality in postwar Britain. Priestley uses many dramatic devices such as stage directions, dramatic irony, lighting and setting to expose what he perceives to be the ills of excessive Capitalism. Eva Smith personifies the victimisation of the British working class and women.…
In the book An Inspector Calls the character Sheila has more of an impact and changes her views on things. The writer, Priestley, uses Sheila as someone who helps the audience follow the play by what she says.…
An Inspector Calls is a definitive play written by J.B Priestley. It explores the many themes that wove through society before the first world war, such lack of social responsibility, social disparity between different classes and the gap of understanding and contemplating between the two dissimilar generations – the young and the old. In this essay, I will be exploring the character Sheila Birling and how and why does she change in the play, in response to the Inspector and to her family.…
Class politics are introduced to the story when the Phonies arrive in Stella Street. The Phonies are disliked as soon as they arrive in Stella Street because of the renovations they make on Old Aunt Lillie’s house and the children of Stella Street make fun of the fact that the Phonies refurnish the house (p.13). Henni encourages the reader to make fun of the high class Phonies about the…
guilt is not the major issue put forward in the play. The major issue is that of…
Priestley uses Sheila to show that even though most rich people are snobby people who don't care about anybody but themselves there are some exceptions. Sheila is one of these exceptions.…
We also realise later on in the play that Sheila is very perceptive, and a lot clever than she may have seemed on the surface, much more so than her parents. We see this when Mrs Birling is blaming the father of Eva Smith’s child (who we soon find out to be Eric Birling himself) for her suicide. Sheila tries to stop her mother from speaking out because she realises before anyone else the horrible situation that her mother is putting the family in. This shows the audience a huge contrast between Sheila and her mother that the Inspector has drawn out, and how she is altogether more perceptive and open than her parents. She understands the consequences of not cooperating with the Inspector and whilst the realisation about Eric exposes her mother as a hypocrite, it shows us that Sheila has intelligence and awareness that we have never seen before, and we, as the readers, warm to her.…
Inspector Goole's role was clearly to make this family aware of the impact of seemingly trivial things they did in life. Sheila's immediate reaction when she was at the store was to complain to the manager, but she realized how silly it was once Goole had pointed it out. Gerald and Eric saw messing around with "women of the town," as they were kindly put, as merely a fun distraction, but Goole showed them how that led to pregnancy and how that can destroy a woman's life. The husband and wife were so used to dismissing people in life that they didn't think dismissing Eva Smith from a job and help, would matter anymore than anyone else they had brushed off. This was a family who simply acted with no conscience, and Goole was there to give them a conscience. Goole is right, "we are all responsible," and this play served to teach their family, and the audience, a lesson. Every action we take in our lives is because of a choice we make, and we have to make sure those choices aren't ones we are going to regret in years to come. Whether we are making fun of the autistic boy down the street, or making racist jokes, it is ultimately ourselves that we have to look in the mirror each day at and realize what we have done in our lifetime.…
In ‘An Inspector Calls’ Gerald Crofts ‘easy manner’ is disrupted by the Inspectors interrogation, as he begins to feel ‘distressed’ by his realisation of his part in Eva Smith’s/Daisy Renton’s life and death. Mrs Birling however remains entirely untouched by the Inspector’s questioning and she refuses to see how Eva’s death can have followed as a consequence of her actions. There are many similarities and differences between Mrs Birling and Geralds reaction to interrogation. This is the first similarity I notice, both mrs Birling and Gerald tried to deny that they knew Eva/ Daisy Renton as at first Gerald initially pretends that he never knew Daisy when the inspector informs him of the girls name is ‘startled’. He may of never even opened up to knowing her if Sheila didn’t convince it out of him, she figures out Gerald ‘not only knew her but he knew her very well’ from his guilty expression. After must persuasion from Sheila and the inspector he finally admits; ‘all right, if you must have it. I met her first, sometime in March last year’.…