Why Priestly Wrote An Inspector Calls

In this essay I will be discussing why J.B Priestly wrote the play ‘An Inspector Calls’ and how he uses the to influence the social hierarchy in 1946. The play was set in 1912 in the dining room of the Birling’s house in Brumely, an industrial city in the North Midlands. The Birling’s consists of Mr.Birling, Arthur, Mrs.Birling, Sybil and their son and daughter, Eric and Sheila. The play also presents Sheila’s fiance, Gerald, the Inspector and the mention of Eva Smith. In the play the Inspector has gone to the Birling’s house to enquire about a girl, Eva Smith, who has committed suicide. The Inspector is there as he knows each one of the family, including Gerald are involved with the events leading up her death. I think the purpose of the play is to show how the higher classes should not just look out for themselves. Priestly wrote the play because when the war was present all the different classes had to mingle with each other as they needed to all help with making things for
Therefore it was as if classes didn’t exist anymore and Priestly did not want the social hierarchies to go back to what they were like beforehand.

The play was written in 1945 and performed in 1946. This was significant as the second world war had just ended and it was the time when the higher and lower classes where going back to their usual ways. Priestly sets the play in 1912 for dramatic irony as the characters are unaware of such things as the war. For example Mr.Birling says ‘The Germans don’t want war. Nobody wants war,’ which of course turns out to be wrong. Also it reflects how the higher class behaved before the war. This makes the audience realize how it has changed, but changed for the better. Mr.Birling talks to everyone convincing them that it is certain there will be no war. He says ‘The world’s developing so fast that it’ll