Explain How Priestley Presents Some Of The Contrast In The Play
Write about how Priestley presents some of the contrasts in the Play ‘An Inspector Calls’
The play ‘An Inspector Calls’ by JB Priestley has many aspects of contrast in it. The aspects of contrast in this play is the differences between the classes with Edna, Eva and the inspector being of a lower class to the rest of the cast, also the contrast of Gender plays a big role in this play with females being treated differently to Males.
The Birlings and Gerald Croft are both of a higher class with Edna, the maid, and Eva Smith being lower class women. As Edna is the maid you would think that she is of low importance to the play but this is not the case as she is the only one in the play of the same social class as Eva Smith and knows what it …show more content…
is like to be treated rotten by the higher class. With the inspector coming this could vastly improve Edna’s life as The Birlings and Gerald have now learnt that their actions that they don’t think about actually hurt people, this could help Edna as they may think more about how they treat her now in case she ends the way Eva Smith does and they have to go through all of this again.
Another way the aspect of the contrast of working class is shown is between the Inspector and the Birlings.
The inspector, although of quite a high class, is of a lower class than the Birlings and Gerald. We can see this from when he says ‘I don’t Play Golf’, this may be because only people of a very high class play golf because of the expense of it, so by the inspector saying this it gives us the idea that the inspector is lower class than the rest of them. Another way we can see that the inspector is of a lower class is the way that they treat eachother, The inspector talk in very short sentences but getting out what he needs whereas the birlings talk in long sentences with bigger words showing that they are of a better education and class. Even though the inspector is of a lower class to Birling, he doesn’t treat him how I would be expected in society for a working class man to teach a higher class man, the Inspector looks down on the Birlings because of what they have done but this would usually be considered as rude and not appropriate. The inspector is also very sure of what he is saying and gets down to the point, and often interrupts Mr Birling showing that even though Mr Birling is of a higher class, the Inspector is way more
important.
Another aspect of contrast in this play is how Gender is treated, in this Females are treated very differently to Males with them not being important to the family or society. The Female that is worse affected is obviously Eva Smith as because of the behaviour of others, mostly men, she has come to commit suicide which would not have happened if Mr Birling did not fire her in the first place. Eva Smith is very looked down upon in society not only because of her class but also her gender. Being a female means that she is only really wanted for something if she is pretty, which she was, this lead to her being taken in by Gerald and getting pregnant by Eric, I am sure neither of these would have happened if she was of a more unattractive nature. Another female treated badly in all of this is Sheila Birling, Sheila is treated like a child by her mother and father and is still seen as though she isn’t old enough to understand what is happening and what the circumstances are. We can tell this from when Mr Birling says ‘and now there isn’t the slightest reason why my daughter should be dragged into this unpleasant business’, this could also be related back to the contrast of classes as Mr Birling does not care about Eva Smith and did not protect her whereas he is adamant on protecting his daughter even though there is no difference between the two girls apart from social status. I also feel as though Sheila is treated worse than the males in this play because she is only seen for her way of making the family of a higher social status, Mr Birling is only happy with her engagement to Gerald because he is off a higher class to the Birlings and could bring a higher social status to the family, I am sure that if she was marrying someone of a lower class then the engagement would be looked down upon by Mr Birling.
In conclusion from this play I can see how different kinds of people were treated in the Edwardian Era compared to now and it was down to what you were born into, to whether you would be accepted by Society or not.
The play ‘An Inspector Calls’ by JB Priestley has many aspects of contrast in it. The aspects of contrast in this play is the differences between the classes with Edna, Eva and the inspector being of a lower class to the rest of the cast, also the contrast of Gender plays a big role in this play with females being treated differently to Males.
The Birlings and Gerald Croft are both of a higher class with Edna, the maid, and Eva Smith being lower class women. As Edna is the maid you would think that she is of low importance to the play but this is not the case as she is the only one in the play of the same social class as Eva Smith and knows what it …show more content…
is like to be treated rotten by the higher class. With the inspector coming this could vastly improve Edna’s life as The Birlings and Gerald have now learnt that their actions that they don’t think about actually hurt people, this could help Edna as they may think more about how they treat her now in case she ends the way Eva Smith does and they have to go through all of this again.
Another way the aspect of the contrast of working class is shown is between the Inspector and the Birlings.
The inspector, although of quite a high class, is of a lower class than the Birlings and Gerald. We can see this from when he says ‘I don’t Play Golf’, this may be because only people of a very high class play golf because of the expense of it, so by the inspector saying this it gives us the idea that the inspector is lower class than the rest of them. Another way we can see that the inspector is of a lower class is the way that they treat eachother, The inspector talk in very short sentences but getting out what he needs whereas the birlings talk in long sentences with bigger words showing that they are of a better education and class. Even though the inspector is of a lower class to Birling, he doesn’t treat him how I would be expected in society for a working class man to teach a higher class man, the Inspector looks down on the Birlings because of what they have done but this would usually be considered as rude and not appropriate. The inspector is also very sure of what he is saying and gets down to the point, and often interrupts Mr Birling showing that even though Mr Birling is of a higher class, the Inspector is way more
important.
Another aspect of contrast in this play is how Gender is treated, in this Females are treated very differently to Males with them not being important to the family or society. The Female that is worse affected is obviously Eva Smith as because of the behaviour of others, mostly men, she has come to commit suicide which would not have happened if Mr Birling did not fire her in the first place. Eva Smith is very looked down upon in society not only because of her class but also her gender. Being a female means that she is only really wanted for something if she is pretty, which she was, this lead to her being taken in by Gerald and getting pregnant by Eric, I am sure neither of these would have happened if she was of a more unattractive nature. Another female treated badly in all of this is Sheila Birling, Sheila is treated like a child by her mother and father and is still seen as though she isn’t old enough to understand what is happening and what the circumstances are. We can tell this from when Mr Birling says ‘and now there isn’t the slightest reason why my daughter should be dragged into this unpleasant business’, this could also be related back to the contrast of classes as Mr Birling does not care about Eva Smith and did not protect her whereas he is adamant on protecting his daughter even though there is no difference between the two girls apart from social status. I also feel as though Sheila is treated worse than the males in this play because she is only seen for her way of making the family of a higher social status, Mr Birling is only happy with her engagement to Gerald because he is off a higher class to the Birlings and could bring a higher social status to the family, I am sure that if she was marrying someone of a lower class then the engagement would be looked down upon by Mr Birling.
In conclusion from this play I can see how different kinds of people were treated in the Edwardian Era compared to now and it was down to what you were born into, to whether you would be accepted by Society or not.