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An Inspector Calls By J. B. Priestley

472 Words2 Pages

An inspector calls was written in 1964 by J.B priestly when World War 2 was ending. However priestly set the play in 1912 which is 2 years before the titanic sank. In 1912 the world was very set on what class you are meaning if you were in the working class, you would not be very wealthy but if you were in the upper class, you would be very wealthy, and this gets shown in the play with Eva smith and mr Birling . Mr Birling is presented as capitalist in the play and does not accept any responsibility for the death of Eva smith.

Priestly uses a dramatic effect of using the lighting in he play to show the audience things. At the start of the play the lights are described as ‘pink and intimate’ this shows that the birling family don’t have any cares in the world. When inspector enters the lights changed to ‘bright and hard’ which shows that he is important but when the lighting gets put onto the …show more content…

This gets shown when Shiela is marrying Gerald because mr birling wants them to get married since Gerald has a a wealthy family and if they were to get married, they could Join family businesses so they can get lots more money.

Mr birling does not react well to Eva smiths' death he refuses to take any responsibility towards the death of Eva and shows in the play that he does not care about her and that she is just one of many women who have worked for him. He also shows that it's not his fault because he doesn’t care if he fired Eva because she was just someone, he didn’t have to pay a lot of money to.

By the end of the play mr birling does not change at all, he still doesn’t take responsibility of Eva’s deaths and only cares about money. He is happy when he realises the inspector wasn’t real at the end of the play. Priestly shows that capitalist men lie mr birling are too selfish to

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In act 2, Mrs. Birling is inspected as she refused her responsibility to give Eva the charity she needed as a result of being pregnant at the hand of her son. Mrs. Birling claims the inspector "look for the father of the child as it is his responsibility". As the audience are aware of the situation yet Sybil Birling is not the dramatic irony is allowed to play out as Mrs. Birling further pushes away her responsibility. She regrets her recommendations of who the inspector should really correct after knowing her son (Eric) is the father responsible. This regret after knowing the truth shows she was not true to what she said and only made these suggestions because she is a capitalist who will say anything to not be held

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Having money makes him overconfident and feel important therefore he becomes greedy and always wants more. Additionally, Birling is corrupt, addressing the inspector he says ‘I’ll give thousands - yes thousands’ offering money only because he does not want his reputation ruined even if the method is not legal, he will do anything to protect what makes him money. He is a mouthpiece of capitalism and serves as a warning about the dangers of unchecked greed and ambition. His character highlights the corrupting influence of money and the lack of concern for the welfare of others. Eva smith rebrands herself as Daisy Renton as she turns to prostitution as her last resort to making money to survive.

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Mr. Burns has multiple instances of the lighting affecting the overall mood of the play. As previously mentioned, the first act has a generally somber mood, and the lighting of the first act is very tactically dim. The lights would shift to focus on the speakers but would strategically be low so that our main focus was on the actors and not everything around them. The second act requires a lot from the set so there are a lot more lighting, and it’s a lot brighter all across the board. The third act has more serious tone so the lighting is brighter than the first act but very minimal.

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The repition of "I am a hard headed man of business" shows his arrogance and his capitalistic and emotionless mentality. "I say there isn't a chance of war" show his stubborn and arrogance. Priestly uses this dramatic irony to persuade the audience to side against Birling as they will think that he is foolish, unsympathetic and untrustworthy. As of portraying their stubborn and heard headed personality was not enough, Priestly makes it sure that the audience is able to clearly see mentality and coldness that capitalism brings to a human by making men emotionless and unsympathetic. "Well, we've several hundred young women there, y'know, and they keep changing.

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642 Words | 3 Pages

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