A CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE PLAY “AN INSPECTOR CALLS” BY J. B. PRIESTLY The play‚ “An Inspector Calls” by J. B. Priestly deals with the underlying themes of social responsibility and moral conscience. It tells of how a wealthy‚ middle class family’s actions affect the life of a young‚ working class woman‚ Eva Smith‚ eventually resulting in her suicide. The play shows how every person plays a part in the community‚ and how selfish actions can lead to the death of an innocent person. These themes are
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the fin-de-siècle literature strived to accommodate the spiritual and paranormal within the domain of science and reason. At the same time‚ the Victorian era was marked by the rising awareness of the foreign influence and its consequences. In The Hound of the Baskervilles Conan Doyle explores both subjects to depict guilt as a force that stems from within and is spurred from without. As far as the family history goes‚ the Baskervilles are an old and cursed line haunted by the sins of their ancestor
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Inspector Goole in Priestley’s play An Inspector Calls’ is arguably the most important character. An agent of change and a voice and a voice of personal and social conscience he delivers the main message of the play in his parting speech challenging the Birlings‚ and the audience‚ to “Remember” that there are “millions and millions” of people like Eva Smith‚ all “linked” in some way. Clearly at this stage his examination of the Birlings behaviour and the investigation of the suicide of Eva Smith
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An Inspector Calls In act one of ‘An inspector Calls’ how does J.B. Priestley use dramatic devices to convey his concerns and ideas to the members of the audience‚ as well as interest and involve them in the play? ‘An Inspector Calls’ is a thriller‚ written by J.B. Priestley in 1945 at the end of World War II but it was set in 1912 two years before World War I. Priestley was concerned about social conditions for working class people in Britain at the time he wrote the play and he wants his
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Examine how the inspector is so successful in his methods of investigating the Billings for their ‘crimes’ against Eva Smith. In An Inspector Calls the Inspector plays a very important part‚ if not the most important of them all. He is the only man who‚ in one night‚ managed to tell the family all that the family itself had been ignoring and pretending not to see for a long time. He barges in on them when they are celebrating the engagement of Sheila Birling and Gerald Croft therefore a very
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Jeong 1 Ji Won Jeong Ms.Santos English 9 Honors 21 October 2015 Sir Henry Baskerville The Hound of the Baskervilles is a fictional‚ mysterious book written by Arthur Conan Doyle. The story takes place in the eighteen hundreds London‚ and in Devonshire‚ Baskerville Hall as the story progresses. The mystery begins when Sherlock Holmes finds a cane left in his office by an unknown visitor along with his assistant‚ Dr.Watson. The cane’s owner later appears to be James Mortimer‚ as he entered the office
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The Hound of the Baskervilles is a mystery about who was trying to kill Sir Henry. Holmes used disguises and clues to figure out who was trying to kill Sir Henry. When Holmes is told of the curse of the Baskervilles‚ a big crazy dog that could kill someone he got suspicious. I really liked this movie and thought it was really interesting. In the movie multiple character are suspicious. Dr. James Mortimer was not very found of the idea that Sir Henry was going to visit his ancestors estate‚ because
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What is the significance of Inspector Goole in the play? The audience are first introduced to Inspector Goole half way through act 1. He is a mysterious character from the very beginning‚ but we see that he is confident and has an air of authority about him and he is determined to make the family face their guilt. He claims that he has seen the dead body of Eva Smith who died earlier that day after she had ‘swallowed a lot of strong disinfectant’. He is of much significance throughout the play
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The Inspector had a huge effect on the whole Birling family‚ however I think the two characters that he had the biggest impact on were Sheila and Eric. Sheila starts out in the play as a very spoilt girl‚ and also seems rather shallow. Several things give us this impression in the first scene‚ for example her reaction to her engagement ring: “Oh Mummy – isn’t it a beauty?!” She also appears quite naive‚ despite her curiosity as to where her fiancé Gerald spent his summer last year. However‚ as soon
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In ‘An Inspector Calls’‚ dislike for the character of Mrs Birling is created in numerous ways. A number of techniques are used throughout the play in order to portray this negative image to the audience. For instance‚ her naivety is repeatedly mentioned and her class conscious attitude is prominent in the play. From the outset‚ Priestley uses Mrs Birling’s persona to create an unlikeable character‚ a woman who is described as ‘cold’ in the stage directions‚ displaying the attitudes she will show
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