In What Ways Does Priestley Show His Message of Social Responsibility in the Play

In What Ways Does Priestley show his message of social responsibility in the play “An Inspector Calls”

In the play “an inspector calls Priestley shows him message of social responsibility in 5 ways, through The Inspector himself, my Birling, the younger generation, Eva smith and the actual ending of the play itself. Social responsibility is where the community needs to care about each other or does care about each other but this wasn’t around before the wars. Priestley puts forward his message through The Inspector as a voice of himself. He uses The Inspector to say in the play what he would want to say in real life except he can’t actually walk onto the stage himself and say these things, or it wouldn’t be a play it would be a speech. Some people say that The Inspector is a ghost or a ghoul represented by his name inspector Goole. Priestley gives the inspector knowledge of what the family has done, he already know what the family has done but he makes them all tell each other in an unsuccessful attempt to make them learn their lesson, he makes a reference to the bible in a few ways the most important is that of 1st Corinthians, chapter 12, which is a letter from Paul to a church in Corinth, this church was always fighting each other so Paul wrote a letter to them saying about and it means that everyone needs to work together and every member is the church is needed like the legs are needed to walk and the hands are needed to feel and the eyes and the nose and all of the other parts of the body are needed to ensure a good lifestyle which is the same with the church, everyone is needed from the priest to the cleaners to ensure a good church. The inspector is not impressed and will not be bribed out of this, he also does not bother with threats such as “I’ve been lord mayor for a couple of years ill have you know and I’m still on the bench” which is announced by my Birling before he finds out about Sheila and Eric’s involvement. He has also used Mr Birling as a messenger of social responsibility but in a negative way, in comparison The Inspector that preaches this message in a positive way. He uses birling to show how not to react or to take something, Mr. Birling is obsessed with status, his knighthood and the fact that he was once lord mayor shows his selfishness. He also shows his selfishness by saying this like “look inspector, id give thousand, yes thousand” which shows even after this very long discussion about the girl he still doesn’t care about her only himself getting found out, he also mentions things like “you’re not leaving this house, not until I have my money anyway” which shows his lack of interest only the money is wanted. He attempts at one point to bribe the inspector to go away, he is all cocky and “all mighty” until he finds out that his children are involved in this then he offers money but Sheila (daughter) interrupts and says not to. Priestley has the power of hindsight, which means he knows the what will happen as this play is written in 1945 but set in 1912 so priestly makes him look foolish by making him say that there’s an unsinkable ship “the titanic” and that “all this scare about a war isn’t going to happen” but we all know that there wasn’t a war... there was two and that the titanic did sink and on its first journey to. Birlings main reason for being in this play is to look foolish and to represent capitalists which mean he gives his own view on society and that he can do what he wants. Priestley puts forward his message through a girl named Eva Smith who acts as a symbol of the working class. The name Eva has a close resemblance to the first woman in the Christian bible Eve which is a holy symbol, the second name, Smith, is possibly the most common name in England therefore she is meant to represent all working class woman and man in the world that are being treated badly by not just this family but all middle class families. The inspector Sais in act 3 “one Eva Smith has gone – but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva and john smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chances of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, and what we say and think and do.” Eva is used and exploited in this sexually, she is used as a thing my the family (Eric and Gerald) and the main point is that Eric realises what he has done and regrets it but Gerald on the other hand doesn’t understand the concept of what he has caused and still wants to get together and marry Sheila. You never actually see this girl in the play because she isn’t meant to be, if you were to see her it wouldn’t make sense or you would realise before the time that you are meant to that it’s a hoax. Eva could be more than one girl as explained in the play (ACT 3) because you never see her so nobody knows. The younger generation in the play (Sheila and Eric) feel sympathetic and don’t seem to fit in with the family, they either want to take the blame or understand and show forgiveness where as the rest of their family just play on like nothing ever happened even though they did what they did. These two people represent the younger middle class generation, this shows the changing of time as it were, where the arrogant age fades away and the new more caring age is coming into power. The ending of the play is very important because he is talking to the middle class audience he can mention little thing, quoting from the bible and things like this e.g. the inspector preaches to this audience by saying “ If men will not learn their lesson then they will be taught it in fire blood and anguish!” which mean that if they do not learn they will go to hell but in this case another real inspector comes to speak to them about a girl swallowing disinfectant which is what the real hoax was all about anyway, this in possibly because they did not learn their lesson but it is impossible to really know the reason for this.