The Edwardian Era Exposed in An Inspector Calls Essay

The character Mr Birling in ‘An Inspector Calls’ by J.B Priestley is a greedy, arrogant and selfish ‘hardheaded businessman’, father of two, Sheila Birling and Eric Birling. Through Mr Birling Priestley shows what upper middle-class men were like in 1912. I believe Priestley set the play in 1912 and first performed it in 1946 because this date represented an era where everything was different. In 1912 there was a strict class system and gender roles, Priestley took the chance the end of the war had given them to create a different, more equal society.

Towards the end of act 3 the inspector says “We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other.” He also talks about collective responsibility as he wanted each member of the family to share the responsibility of Eva’s death. He does this by showing that everyone in society is linked in the same way that the characters are linked to Eva Smith. Zooming in on the phrase “one body” it is clear that the Inspector sees society as more important than their individual interests; this shows the inspector to be a mouthpiece for Priestley’s socialist views.

Writers do portray characters in several way; some are portrayed as bold and courageous while others come out weak and gullible. This essay focuses on the play ‘An Inspector Calls’. This is a play written by J.B. Priestley. It gives an account of how an inspector known as Poole investigates the apparent murder of a young working class woman known as Eva Smith. When the Inspector Poole visits the Birling family, he slowly reveals how every member of that family might have taken part in the murder of Eva. The main issue under discussion is how Priestly strikingly portrays Birling in Act 1 of the play. The main argument is that the author portrays the Birling as a self-centered, selfish and hardheaded businessperson, who does not take care of social responsibility and thus is anti-socialist.

An Inspector Calls is a three-act drama, which takes place on a single night in 1912, and focuses on the Birling family, who live in a wealthy but not particulary homely house in Brumley. The story begins when the mysterious Inspector Goole calls unexpectedly on the prosperous Birling family. The idea of the play, and particularly the role of the inspector, is to try to bring the Birling family to understand that they have a moral responsibility for the death of Eva Smith, if not a legal one. In Act Three, the Inspector tells the Birling family: “The girl killed herself and died a horrible death. But each of you helped to kill her. Remember that. Never forget it.” But who was really the

The audience can see this when she says “Sorry! It's just that I can't help thinking about this girl – destroying herself so horribly…” When she begins to show compassion for Eva Smith, this is when Sheila is already starting to change. She empathises with Eva Smith immediately because she is able to relate to her as a result of their similar age, hopes and dreams, this helps her understand how much pain and misery that Eva experienced. In other words she identifies sympathetically with Eva Smith, even before she learns of her own involvement in the death she is trying to overcome her lack of understanding: she sees the girl as a person rather than a cheap labour which her father believes, “But these girls aren't cheap labour – they are people.”. Some could say that Sheila is seeing the world through the inspector's eyes. In Act 1, when Sheila unveils her part in Eva Smith’s suicide, she feels very guilty for the suicide and believes that she was partly responsible for the suicide, the audience can see this when “…but I feel rotten about it at the time and now I feel a lot worse.” And “How could

Mr Birling is very selfish towards the other characters, and believes he is in control. However as the play continues, his behaviour becomes increasingly different and he starts to lose control and power over his family. He becomes agitated and uncomfortable, and displays anger towards his children. An example is when Mr Birling responds (angrily) to Eric ”Don't talk to me like that. Your trouble is – you've been spoilt--”. To contrast with Mr Birling’s behaviour, Inspector Goole remains calm and collected throughout the play. Unlike Mr Birling, Inspector Goole asserts his authority successfully over the other characters. He is an authority figure. An example is when the inspector yells “Stop!”, and all the characters are suddenly quiet, looking at him. Looking at both of their behaviours and how they interact with the other characters, can make the audience form an opinion about them both, and can make them place a liking over one character more than the

Priestley mainly uses the characters in the play to present his views, especially Mr and Mrs Birling, to present his ideas about class and society. In the Birling family, Mrs Birling is the most upper class, and is always referring to the lower class female factory workers such as Eva Smith as ‘girls of that class’. She seems to think that working class people are not humans at all.

“An Inspector Calls” is a morality play by the socialist playwright J. B. Priestley written in 1945 but set in 1912. The play is based on the wealthy Birling family, who is questioned by a police inspector regarding a young woman’s death. Using characters of different ages to represent the contrast of political stances and attitudes, Priestley attempts to educate the audience. He believed that Capitalism was the sole reason for the start of world war one and therefor also the cause of the great economic depression and the second world war. Priestley uses the age in the play, to tell the audience that capitalists don’t have any social responsibility, as they do not accept any responsibility for Eva Smith’s death. The behavioural contrast between the Birling parents and their children demonstrate that if you are capitalist, you can still alter your beliefs and become socialist.

Birling enters “briskly and self-confidently”, with her social superiority to the Inspector being made very apparent following her social and easy tone. She then proceeds to deny responsibility for Eva’s death, which besides leading audience to form a negative bias towards her, also prompts Sheila to interrupt her and warn her about saying or doing “something that (she’ll) be sorry for afterwards.” This brings about Mrs. Birling’s protective side, with her first instinct being to send Sheila to bed, proclaiming her beliefs and statements to be “nothing but morbid curiosity.” This statement at first glance appears to be a mother sheltering her child from what may be a matter too gruesome to discuss, however, when Sheila denies the request, it is made obvious that the suggestion was made only to get Sheila out of the way, who at this point in the story, according to Mrs. Birling’s beliefs, is greatly impressioned by the Inspector. She conducts in the same manner later in the play, when talking about Eric’s drinking habits, using euphemism to explain his behaviour as “an excitable silly mood” and calling him “only a boy” and also when suggesting that “it would be much better if Sheila didn’t listen” to Gerald’s account of his affair with Eva. This leads the audience to believe that Mrs Birling either does not pay attention to her kids and their

The play ‘An Inspector Calls’ is set in the North Midlands, the industrial city of Brumley in 1912. The play revolves around the death of a young girl named Eva Smith and the wealthy, middle class Birling family. The Birling family consists of four main members. In addition, there is Gerald Croft who is engaged to the daughter of the family, Sheila Birling, and the maid Edna who plays a small role in the play.

Again, Priestley presents the theme of responsibility to the audience through the structure of the play. Priestley cleverly contrasts the characters who accept their responsibilities and those who don’t, to emphasise the fact that it is a large theme and potential problem in society. The character of Mr Birling is questioned first by the Inspector. “Still, I can't accept any responsibility. If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we'd had anything to do with, it would be very awkward." Mr Birling shows in this way, that he has a lot of power to say if the workers have a steady income or not and does not care about the consequences. This quote shows how ignorant and selfish the older generation of the Birling family are and how they can’t even accept such a serious case as the death of a young girl. They just want to protect themselves from being seen as a lower-class family. By using an upper-class man who runs a factory with

soon find out that Eva worked in his factory, and how she was fired by

Throughout the play An Inspector Calls by J B Priestley, it is clear that Priestley strongly believes in the importance of a caring society and the consequences of our actions. He presents these views on inequalities through the presentation of Sheila Birling. This is done in various different ways using numerous techniques.

And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in blood and anguish.” This passage shows that Priestley wanted to make the Inspector the law bringer and the authority in this play because the audience has to agree with what the Inspector is saying for Priestley’s message to be effective. The quote refers to World War 1 and World War 2 and so Priestley uses the power and knowledge of the Inspector to scare the audience by using powerful sentences such as “they will be taught it in blood and anguish” which reminds the watchers of the pain and suffering they have already gone through. The inspector tries to persuade the audience that trying to pursue wealth is dangerous and destructive such as the case of Mr Birling starting the “chain of actions” for Eva Smith. Priestley had completely opposite views on the world to the main characters, mostly Arthur Birling. The Inspector is there to represent the views of Priestley and so is shown to be much of a better person and man than Birling and his family and whereas Mr Birling is shown to be greedy and selfish in his actions, the Inspector is shown to be the opposite. This shows the main role of the inspector is to present Priestley’s ideas.

The next class during the Victorian Era was known as the middle class. This was the class to which novelist H.G. Wells was a part of. The middle class consisted of factory owners, lawyers, engineers, merchants, traders and other professionals (Bishal, 2008). While the individuals within this class received more money and more rights as citizens, they were still considered to be of no importance compared to those of the higher class.