Arthur Birling says: “If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we’d had anything to do with‚ it would be very awkward wouldn’t it?” How does Priestley present ideas about responsibility in An Inspector Calls? In An Inspector Calls‚ one of the main themes is responsibility. Priestley is interested in our personal responsibility for our own actions and our collective responsibility to society. The play explores the effect of class‚ age and sex on people’s attitudes to
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KEY FACTS Full Title: An Inspector Calls Genre: Mystery drama Setting: 1912; a comfortable home in Brumley‚ England Climax: Gerald returns to the Birling home after Goole has left‚ to report that the Inspector wasn’t actually a real inspector‚ and to hypothesize that the whole thing was a hoax—that there was no single girl that all of the Birlings had offended‚ and no suicide that they precipitated. HISTORICAL AND LITERARY CONTEXT When Written: 1945 Where Written: England When Published: 1945
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time the play was set. J.B Priestley uses the characters to express his views on the issue of social responsibility‚ morality and about class divisions with many themes including greed‚ regret‚ guilt and blame. ’’An Inspector Calls’’ is about the Birling family who are quite wealthy. They are celebrating their daughter’s engagement to her fiancé‚ Gerald. Then an inspector arrives and breaks up the party and starts to question the family about a young girl called Eva Smith who had killed herself by
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that he is the father of Eva Smiths baby and everyone with the exception of Sheila finds out that he also drinks alcohol Mrs Birling shows that she knows nothing about Eric or any of her children for that matter "But I didn’t know it was you - I never dreamt it. Besides‚ you’re not the type - you don’t get drunk" this quotation from Mrs Birling proves that she doesn’t know her children as well as a mother should. Mr Birling who is a dictator in his household is suddenly silenced on page 53 as the
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respect for all. Inspector Goole and Mr Birling are two of the main characters and have perhaps the most noticeably opposing views of any two characters in the play. Priestley displays this through the constant conflict between the pair‚ and notably in their vastly contrasting speeches delivered separately in the play. In addition to the subtle details of their opposing views‚ this conflict successfully shows the contrasting diffenences between Birling and the Inspector in both how they look‚ how
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Eric’s entrance just as Mrs Birling has claimed that the father of Eva’s unborn child should take sole responsibility for the suicide. Priestley creates this dramatic tension at the end of act two in order to set up eager anticipation for the continuance of the action in Act three. At the beginning of Act two the audience expects the story to move onto Gerald’s confession. But instead‚ Priestley delays the action by shifting the audience’s attention to Sybil and Sheila‚ insisting that they should
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by Mr Birling‚ "Just because the Kaiser makes a speech or two‚ you’ll hear some people saying that war is inevitable. Well I say to that - fiddlesticks" This play was first published after the second world war and so the audience will know just how wrong Mr Birling really is. Mr Birling also makes a statement about the ill-fated Titanic. "Unsinkable‚ absolutely unsinkable." The audience should know the tale of the Titanic very well and this just demonstrates again how wrong Mr Birling can be
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Birling‚ which showcases a collision of personal ideologies. Priestley uses this conflict to involve his own ideological critique‚ questioning the morality of capitalist values through Eric and Mr Birling’s dissent. In particular‚ when Eric asks‚ “What about war?” and attempts to express his thoughts‚ Mr. Birling interrupts with: “Just let me finish‚ Eric. You’ve got a lot to learn. And I’m talking as a hard-headed
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conflicts. For example: He uses Mr Birling and the Inspector to show conflict within society and the continuous arguments between Sheila and Mrs Birling present the conflict within the family. When we first meet the Birlings in Act 1‚ everything seems calm and they look like a perfect family. However‚ nearer the end the family gets left behind in a mess after the Inspector leaves. At the start Gerald says ‘You seem to be a nice well-behaved family’ and Birling replies ‘We think we are’. These lines
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“An Inspector calls” is written by the author J.B Priestley‚ all three acts are taken place in the dining-room of the Birlings’ house in Brumply‚ an industrial city in the North Midlands. The time it was set was an evening in spring‚ 1912. The play was first produced at the New Theatre in October‚ 1946. The story contains the characters: Arthur Birling‚ Sybil Birling‚ Eric Birling‚ Gerald Croft‚ Edna and INSPECTOR GOOLE. The detective thriller really gets the audience’s attention‚ from the build up
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