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How Does Priestley Create Tension In An Inspector Calls

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As a result of the Birlings' capitalist viewpoint, Priestley clearly shows the disparity between the upper and lower classes in An Inspector Calls, which leads to Eva Smith's tragic suicide as a result of the Birlings' capitalist viewpoint on life. There is no doubt that Priestley focused on the patriarchal nature of British society at the time, doing so to emphasise the need for change to take place in Britain, especially for families like the Birlings, who are represented by Priestley's work. At the start of the play Priestley highlights the Birlings' desire to portray their lives as "pink and intimate," an idealised vision of what life should be like. Essentially, what Priestley is trying to convey is that he wants the audience to overlook …show more content…

The family's flaws and the fact that they are not really who they seem to be are brought to the attention of the audience by the "brighter," "harder" light, which acts as a spotlight. The light also underlines the look of a police interrogation lamp, demonstrating that the Inspector's goals are to ensure that the family admits their mistakes and takes responsibility for their actions as well as to voice Priestley's own socialist opinions. Additionally, Priestley is trying to highlight the flaws in capitalism and the advantages of …show more content…

The fact that Sheila is described as "a lively good-looking girl" and is "twenty-four" years old, just like Eva, is also significant. Only class and money separate Eva and Sheila, who are both young, attractive, and vivacious. This is a deliberate choice by Priestley to show how what happened to Eva could have happened to Sheila if she had no money—something he believes to be abhorrently unfair. Eric comments to his parents that they are "starting to pretend now that nothing's really happened at all" at the conclusion of the play after the Inspector departs. and Shelia confirms this, attesting to the fact that they are "just starting to pretend all over again." In this case, it is conceivable that Priestley's use of time in the play was influenced by the theories of Piotr Ouspensky. According to Ouspensky, after we pass away, we begin our lives over again. The same parents give birth to us again, and the same things happen in our lives over and over again. If we didn't make any significant changes, we would continue living identical lives. He is demonstrating to us throughout the play that people like the Birlings are content to continue existing within the same destructive cycle of egotistical greed in which they

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792 Words | 4 Pages

An Inspector Calls is a morality play, filled with controversial political viewpoints attempting to persuade the audience that socialism is the way forward. Such views are voiced by The inspector, Priestley's mouthpiece. The play is set in 1912, A year followed by world war 1, the miners' strike and the sinking of the Titanic, therefore, supplying the writer with the opportunities to use dramatic irony, which Priestley does, to further influence his audience in act 2 to reconsider accepting a capitalist society. Sybil Birling is one of Priestley's characters that lack development in their attitudes towards society, particularly the lower class.

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1425 Words | 6 Pages

In An Inspector calls, Priestley uses The Inspector to present injustice in society through his questioning of the Birling family and Gerald Croft. The Inspector gradually uncovers the selfish and unjust acts which the family enacts upon the lower classes through their abuse of their power and status over people, not showing the slightest bit of care for their wellbeing, barely treating their workers as individual beings with their own lives and emotions, just caring about the money they are making for them, and treating the lower class in general as lower beings in general, not being worth the time to understand or sympathise with. The Inspector exposes the acts of injustice by the upper class towards the lower classes through his questioning

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994 Words | 4 Pages

How does Priestley Present Gerald in An Inspector Calls In his didactic play ‘An Inspector Calls’, Priestley presents Gerald, and the upper class as a whole, to be extremely callous and unwilling to accept the opportunity for redemption. He explores themes and ideologies such as patriarchy in order to excoriate those for living protected in an ‘ivory tower’ of wealth, luxury and, most significantly, denial. The methods used by Priestley to do all of this encourages the audience in a contemporary society to look at themselves with an inverted eye and strive for equality.

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605 Words | 3 Pages

An Inspector Calls written by J. B. Priestly was first published in 1945. It is a play which has a strong focus on the themes of social responsibility, age, gender, and class. Priestly uses these themes to remind us that not being aware of our actions can sometimes lead to other receiving them as consequences. He wants us to be responsible for both the welfare and behaviours of ourselves but also of others. In the play, we find that some characters tend to be more immersed in either themselves or money/business and this leads them to being a lot less of an admirable character than the ones who are willing to recognise and acknowledge their mistakes.

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626 Words | 3 Pages

Each member of the Birling family contributed and made some poor decisions of their own part, however, there is one interesting character, Eric who arguably may have tipped her over the edge after abandoning her, pregnant. Act 1 During Sheila’s engagement party, the family is gathered together and Sheila says to Eric: “You’re squiffy”. There is a shortness to this quote, as if it was not the first time that Sheila had noticed this behaviour within Eric. Word choice is used in the word ‘squiffy’ which at this time is referred to as drunk.

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1417 Words | 6 Pages

She becomes more mature. In Act 3, after the inspector has left the Birlings’ house, Sheila mentions, ‘… The point is, you don’t seem to have learnt anything…’. This quotation indicates that Sheila is a dynamic character who is willing to change. Through her interactions with the inspector she goes on a learning journey. Sheila has matured and she is now more responsible.

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476 Words | 2 Pages

In the opening of the play the Inspector begins to question Mr Birling after dinner about a photo of a young girl. Mr Birling is shown to be narrow minded in the opening of an Inspector calls. He is displayed as this through his poor political understanding , his business minded views as well as this distancing him from people. Firstly, Mr Birling is shown as narrow minded through his poor political understanding.

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414 Words | 2 Pages

In 1912, the difference between upper and lower class was very distinctive and noticeable to everyone in that society. The upper class were sophisticated, traditionally intelligent and had recognisable titles for other classes to identify them and to give themselves pride ,although the lower class usually worked cheap labour and struggled greatly to have a decent quality of life. In An Inspector Calls, the Birling family represent a typical upper class family but they are still aware of Gerald’s families status above them and Priestley represents the character of Arthur Birling to be very mindful of this and his ambition is portrayed in many ways throughout the play. Arthur Birling addresses the lower class as “these people” when talking about the issues with Eva Smith, this represents his capitalist views as he does not believe that a man like himself, a “hard-headed businessman”, should be looking after the poorer members of society.

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1175 Words | 5 Pages

'An Inspector Calls' was written by 'J.B Priestley' in the year 1944/45 and it was set in 1912 before the first World War and the sinking of the 'unsinkable Titanic. The play was first produced in 1946 after the war. The play is about the Birling's that are celebrating their daughter's engagement with Gerald Croft and the Inspector interrupts them with the news about a girl's suicide. The girl seems to be driven to suicide due to the actions of the family and the Inspector wants the family to know the consequences of their choices and actions. Priestley uses the Inspector to convey his socialist ideas in the capitalist setting of the play with the theme that we are all responsible for each other, i.e each character's action led to the evitable

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504 Words | 3 Pages

At least, I’m trying to tell the truth.” Sheila acts devastated by the death of Eva which according to her is entirely her fault, thing which is proven wrong later in the play; nonetheless her genuine regret and bravery in accepting culpability is admired by the

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546 Words | 3 Pages

In “An Inspector Calls,” Priestley presents Mr Birling as a selfish, arrogant, proponent of capitalism who is consistently inconsiderate to other people’s feelings in favour of business or money. This is especially present when regarding the lower class. The play is set pre-World War One, in 1912, before the world went into a time full of social change and unrest. During this time, new politics emerged, including the rise of the Labour Party. This might show Mr Birling’s age and stubbornness as his beliefs can be seen as outdated and ignoring the changing times.

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2909 Words | 12 Pages

The character's moral growth serves as a reminder that change is possible, and that personal accountability is a crucial component of societal progress. Overall, Eric's journey in An Inspector Calls is one of self-discovery and moral development. While the play offers a critique of capitalism and the upper class, it also offers hope for the future through characters like Eric who are willing to take responsibility for their actions and strive for a better society. The audience may feel a sense of sympathy and understanding towards Eric, recognizing the struggles he faces as a young man trying to navigate a rapidly changing world. Priestley's message is clear; personal responsibility and moral growth are the keys to creating a more just and equitable society, the future is full of

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505 Words | 3 Pages

What dramatic techniques does Priestly use to create tension and suspense in “An Inspector Calls”? To understand the theme and the complexity of “An inspector calls”, a play where a young lady called Eva Smith dies and an inspector , with a strong and aggressive personality and tone, makes a whole family realize what they’ve all done to affect or cause Eva’s suicide; first we need to understand how the personal traits of each character affects the way in which they behave and we need to take in consideration the dramatic devices the author uses to keep us interested and wondering what happens next. Throughout the play the character development is notorious because we can notice that as the play advances, the characters start changing their

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1041 Words | 5 Pages

She says after they find out that the Inspector was nothing but a hoax, “but now you’re all beginning all over again to pretend that nothing much has happened.” Sheila being the most intelligent out of the characters is aware that even though the Inspector wasn’t a real one, they still did break moral values and acted callously towards a person. The pronoun and repetition of “all” suggests Sheila is removing herself from her family of capitalists and is becoming her own person. Sheila towards the end of the play says, “And it frightens me the way you talk, and I can’t listen to any more of it.” The adjective “frightened” shows to the audience that she is shocked at how her parents seem to think of it all as a joke rather than events that have actually taken place, this is the process as role reversal as Sheila (and Eric) are admitting to their faults whereas her parents’ morality has not changed.

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838 Words | 4 Pages

In ‘An Inspector Calls’ by J.B. Priestley, the actions of the Birling family and Gerald are factors in Eva Smith’s death. Their lack of social responsibility and feelings of superiority cause them to treat those they see as inferior with little thought and compassion. As a socialist, Priestley may have been attempting to comment on the injustice of class systems in the 1900s and the negative impacts of Capitalism on society. In the first act of the play Sheila is naive and petulant.

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