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Hyperbole In An Inspector Calls

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J.B. Priestly's play, 'An Inspector Calls' explores the theme of responsibility using effective use of characterisation and dramatic structure. The play revolves around the upper-class Birling family and their involvement in the suicide of a young working-class woman. Through their actions, Priestly demonstrates that everybody has a responsibility to look out for each other and that we must consider the consequences of our actions.

The play is set in 1912, just before the events of the first world war, in a small industrial town named Brumley. It opens with a dinner party in the Birling household. The laid-back atmosphere of the party is disturbed by the arrival of a police inspector who informs them of the death of a young woman who had intentionally …show more content…

The hyperbole 'asking for the earth' implies that Birling believes they ask for unreasonable pay rises and instead should be thankful for their current wage. Priestley demonstrates to his audience that his attitude is unsympathetic and cruel. The phrase 'these people' is insensitive and rude, dehumanising and equating the workers to expendable factory machines. It indicates that Birling believes the lower classes are insignificant and unworthy of equal treatment from the wealthier upper class. Priestly tries to show that this attitude is wrong and that people should be caring and responsible for helping each other, regardless of whether someone is rich or …show more content…

Sheila is also materialistic. Sheila places great importance on the ring. It symbolises her engagement with a man of high class, which raises her status in society. Sheila says, 'Now I really feel engaged', proving that she requires material proof to identify her love. The ring conveys both materialism and social class rather than the notion of true love. She refers to her mother as 'mummy', highlighting her immature, unaware, childlike attitude. As the play progresses, she formally calls Mrs Birling her 'mother'. Sheila does not feel as intimate with her mother and has lost respect for her due to her behaviour. Sheila's change in language stems from her increasing

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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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Priestley's play "An Inspector Calls" is a complex one, and opinions differ on whether or not he is a hypocrite. Some argue that he is inconsistent in his behavior and actions, while others believe that his actions are justified by his overarching mission to expose the hypocrisy of the Birling family. In this essay, we will explore the evidence for and against the idea that Inspector Goole is a hypocrite. On the one hand, there are several instances in the play where Inspector Goole's actions could be seen as hypocritical.

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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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The dramatic masterpiece ‘An Inspector Calls’ is arguably a mouthpiece to express the playwrights political views. Priestley uses many techniques to hyperbolise the older generations selfishness and the younger generations empathy as well as their acceptance of all views. Mr birling states “The Germans don’t want war. Nobody wants war” Priestly uses dramatic irony to portray Mr birling as delusional as we know there are 2 world wars after this play was set.

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Priestly attempts to exemplify in Mr Birling’s character into the type of mentality that majority of upper class capitalist business men had in the early 1900s in England. It is extremely ironic that the Inspector rings the bell of the house just as Mr Birling is telling Eric and Gerald that people must look out solely for their own interests ("a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own - and - “ act 1): throughout his interrogation, the Inspector champions the very opposite idea - that "we are all responsible for each other.” The Inspectors view on community as a whole is considered a very socialist view. Notably, Priestly was socialist after all and used the play as a more socially acceptable way of stating his opinion on social responsibility, politics and labour rights. The

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