"Part ghost story, part murder mystery, part moral lecture." To what extent do you agree with this description of An Inspector Calls?
"Part ghost story, part murder mystery, part moral lecture." To what extent do you agree with this description of An Inspector Calls?
J.B. Priestley’s ‘An Inspector Calls’ is part ghost story and murder mystery, however, what Priestley emphasises on the most is the moral lecture. Priestley demonstrates to the audience that it was the anarchistic society of the past that eventually led to the two World Wars and that this must change in order to prevent another. The play conveys to the audience that no matter your wealth or authority one must not exploit their power to the more disadvantaged and that we must all take responsibility for one another in society or else there shall be consequences.
The play can be described as a ghost story due to the mystery surrounding the Inspector’s identity as by the end of the play the audience discovers that he was not a real Inspector and that he also correctly prophesied the suicide of a young woman via disinfectant. When the Inspector introduces himself he calls himself ‘Inspector Goole’, a potential paronomasia for his ghostly nature. However, it is unknown whether the Inspector is of the mystical or not. As this mystery is not solved by the play’s finale, the audience receives the impression that the Inspector may have been of a more ghostly/divine nature and if so it gives him a higher authority meaning that the things he says holds more truth. The Inspector tells the Birlings that ‘if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish’, this condemnation is of highly prophetic nature and is also potentially comparable to the God of the Old Testament punishing the unjust for their sinful ways with severe harshness. Here we see the Inspector warning the Birlings of this and as the audience knows that his prophecy does happen through WWI and WWII this gives him a more divine and prophetic nature.
The play, additionally, is part murder mystery as the pretext of the Inspector’s visit is
J.B. Priestley’s ‘An Inspector Calls’ is part ghost story and murder mystery, however, what Priestley emphasises on the most is the moral lecture. Priestley demonstrates to the audience that it was the anarchistic society of the past that eventually led to the two World Wars and that this must change in order to prevent another. The play conveys to the audience that no matter your wealth or authority one must not exploit their power to the more disadvantaged and that we must all take responsibility for one another in society or else there shall be consequences.
The play can be described as a ghost story due to the mystery surrounding the Inspector’s identity as by the end of the play the audience discovers that he was not a real Inspector and that he also correctly prophesied the suicide of a young woman via disinfectant. When the Inspector introduces himself he calls himself ‘Inspector Goole’, a potential paronomasia for his ghostly nature. However, it is unknown whether the Inspector is of the mystical or not. As this mystery is not solved by the play’s finale, the audience receives the impression that the Inspector may have been of a more ghostly/divine nature and if so it gives him a higher authority meaning that the things he says holds more truth. The Inspector tells the Birlings that ‘if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish’, this condemnation is of highly prophetic nature and is also potentially comparable to the God of the Old Testament punishing the unjust for their sinful ways with severe harshness. Here we see the Inspector warning the Birlings of this and as the audience knows that his prophecy does happen through WWI and WWII this gives him a more divine and prophetic nature.
The play, additionally, is part murder mystery as the pretext of the Inspector’s visit is