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Gender Roles In J. B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls

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‘Inspector calls’ was made in 1944 but set in 1912. As during that, time men were seen to be deemed superior to women, as they would work and represent the family since their last name came from the man. This is shown in the play when Mrs. Birling says to Sheila, her daughter, “when you’re married you’ll realise that men with important jobs to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time on the business”. Priestly writes Mrs. Birling to represent the ‘traditional wife’ although Sheila can be seen as a modern woman as she is the next generation after Mrs. Birling. This suggest that they have different values and ideologies, and how some are better than others, due to the new generation being able to learn from the older generations mistakes. …show more content…

Her lack of intellect can be seen as she “prejudices against” people at her charity, which defies the purpose of a charity. Also the way in which Sheila is spoken to as if she is a child and Mrs. Birling is telling her a certain way her life must be, this can be perceived as brainwashing ao that Sheila become ‘good wife’ and believes she is inferior to males. Priestly antagonises Mrs. Birling throughout the play to show her cold side to make the audience dislike her, and her opinions. I suspect Priestly sympathises with Sheila and the empowerment of women and this is shown by Sheila saying, “We’re all nice people here”. This is sarcasm, which means that she is annoyed with the reaction of the people around her to this certain situation as they are all shown to be bad people. Furthermore, Sheila rejects Gerald’s ring as “It’s to soon” which shows she has changed and is not going back to those ignorant ways. Meaning she is trying to get further away from inequality and other ideologies against

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