Social Inequality In J. B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls

Born in 1894, Priestly thought that social inequality would bring the downfall of Britain and was afraid of its consequences. In 1942, Priestly set up a political party, the common wealth party to argue for a greater democracy and the equality of people of all classes. He felt that his political beliefs about socialism were very significant and to a large extent shows this throughout an inspector calls. He uses different characters to portray different sins, as well as the inspector as a dramatic contrast when he manifests his beliefs. In an inspector calls, Priestly’s message is to members of society’. He says people should be equal and that ‘we are all responsible for each other’. The play was intentionally set in 1912 to represent
the previous society from 1945, before the first world war. In 1912, there were strong inequality between gender and the upper and lower classes. Thus by 1945, gender and class inequality had been greatly reduced. Through this play, Priestly encouraged people to grasp the opportunity after the end of the war to rebuild a socialist community.