Social Divisions in an Inspector Calls
An Inspector Calls
John Priestly was born in Bradford in 1894. Priestly had grown up into his father’s circle of socialist friends; he saw women and men, rich and poor, all working together. After the First World War women returned to being housewives, the typical life that the perfect woman was expected to lead. This greatly influenced Priestly’s writing because he didn’t agree with that way of life. In 1940 Priestly presented a popular BBC radio programme ‘Postscripts’, but his show was cancelled after the government decided Priestly’s views were too ‘left-wing’ (i.e. socialist). This may have influenced the audience’s expectations of the play because they already know that Priestly wants to spread the idea of socialism, to convince people to live in equality. He found himself surrounded by “People who read a great deal, cared a lot for at least one of the arts, and preferred real talk and hot argument to social chit-chat.”
J.B. Priestley wrote An Inspector Calls in 1945 towards the end of the Second World War, but he set the play in 1912, this was just before the First World War began. An Inspector Calls expresses the wrongness within society and also the division or ‘barrier’ of the classes. In 1912 society wasn’t equal – people with more money and from a higher class had more power. Priestly used the inequality of 1912 as a setting to ‘hold a mirror’ to society, to show them how they once behaved. The actual story is about a police inspector who turns up at the Birling’s house in Brumley with news of a woman named Eva Smith who committed suicide. Throughout the evening the Inspector indicates that the family’s actions caused the death of Eva. Sheila Birling and Gerald Croft were celebrating their engagement; everyone was in a delightful mood. But as the Inspector slowly unravels the events of the suicide, the mood in the Birling’s household starts to
John Priestly was born in Bradford in 1894. Priestly had grown up into his father’s circle of socialist friends; he saw women and men, rich and poor, all working together. After the First World War women returned to being housewives, the typical life that the perfect woman was expected to lead. This greatly influenced Priestly’s writing because he didn’t agree with that way of life. In 1940 Priestly presented a popular BBC radio programme ‘Postscripts’, but his show was cancelled after the government decided Priestly’s views were too ‘left-wing’ (i.e. socialist). This may have influenced the audience’s expectations of the play because they already know that Priestly wants to spread the idea of socialism, to convince people to live in equality. He found himself surrounded by “People who read a great deal, cared a lot for at least one of the arts, and preferred real talk and hot argument to social chit-chat.”
J.B. Priestley wrote An Inspector Calls in 1945 towards the end of the Second World War, but he set the play in 1912, this was just before the First World War began. An Inspector Calls expresses the wrongness within society and also the division or ‘barrier’ of the classes. In 1912 society wasn’t equal – people with more money and from a higher class had more power. Priestly used the inequality of 1912 as a setting to ‘hold a mirror’ to society, to show them how they once behaved. The actual story is about a police inspector who turns up at the Birling’s house in Brumley with news of a woman named Eva Smith who committed suicide. Throughout the evening the Inspector indicates that the family’s actions caused the death of Eva. Sheila Birling and Gerald Croft were celebrating their engagement; everyone was in a delightful mood. But as the Inspector slowly unravels the events of the suicide, the mood in the Birling’s household starts to