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Social Responsibility In An Inspector Calls By J. B. Priestley

888 Words4 Pages

In J.B Priestley’s didactic play ‘an inspector calls’ responsibility is a theme shown throughout the play, as Priestley believed society needed to take on more social responsibility, this is shown through the inspector who acts as Priestley’s mouthpiece in the play, for his socialist message; with the play first being premiered in socialist Russia in 1945 it is clear to see Priestley wanted to teach an audience about socialism through the importance of responsibility.

At the the start of the play we are introduced to the Birling family who are an upper-middle class family who made their money through the capitalist system, an ideology that Priestley is highly critical throughout the play. Its a sensible view to say that Mr Birling is a personification …show more content…

We see this during her interrogation with the inspector “i did nothing i'm ashamed of” the adjective nothing illustrates to the audience the gross lack of responsibility Mrs Birling has, as she hold a vital role in the Brumley women’s council yet still undermines Eva’s pleas for help and dismisses her simply telling her to find the father. Not only was this Eva being turned away from some “pitable” amount of money, but also a denial and an abandonment from those who are meant to help women in the early 20th …show more content…

Without the financial support of a man and being turned away from jobs by Sheila and Mr BIrling, its clear to see Eva had little choice getting involved in what's alluded to as prostitution; as in the play its accounted on two seperate occasions, with Gerald and Eric she was in the palace bar, known as “a frequent haunt for women of the town” with ‘women of the town’ being a euphemism for

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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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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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1401 Words | 6 Pages

As a result of the Birlings'' for all intents and purposes capitalist viewpoint, Priestley clearly actually shows the disparity between the for all intents and purposes upper and definitely lower classes in An Inspector Calls, which basically leads to Eva Smith\'s very tragic suicide as a result of the Birlings\' kind of capitalist viewpoint on life in a subtle way. There specifically is no doubt that Priestley focused on the patriarchal nature of sort of British society at the time, doing so to emphasise the need for change to basically take place in Britain, especially for families like the Birlings, who mostly are represented by Priestley\'s work, which basically is quite significant. At the start of the play Priestley actually highlights

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514 Words | 3 Pages

In Inspector Calls, Priestley explores and engineers the character of Mr Birling as a clear representation of the avaricious upper classes. Priestley constructs Mr Birling as a character and how he symbolises the corrupted capitalist society in 1912.Priestly exposes Mr Birling through The quote ‘a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own’. This clearly demonstrates how Mr Birling is implying that we are all responsible for ourselves. This could suggest how Mr Birling is acting dismissive towards the working class, as we inferior. This quote may also suggest that Mr Birling is trying to spread a message by saying that charity begins at home, which is entirely untrue as the less fortunate are suffering and are in need.

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1072 Words | 5 Pages

In J.B Priestley's novel ‘An Inspector Calls’ Priestley uses a range of techniques to highlight the divergence between the upper and richer classes compared to the working poor classes. Their attitudes are represented through the characterisation of its characters significantly Mr Birling and Sheila during their first encounter with Inspector Goole. From the beginning Mr Birling is characterised as an embodiment of the social ideology capitalism and displayed all the negative consequences this belief has. In Act 1 he proudly reveals his narcissistic behaviours towards the audience and the inspector making his character intolerable to the majority. The first line of the entire text begins with Mr Birling offering Gerald the alcoholic drink

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1855 Words | 8 Pages

In the play An Inspector Calls, Priestley fundamentally presents a class ridden society through the characters attitudes and behaviour's within the play. The Birling family is seen to be attentive towards their class in society, especially Mr and Mrs Birling. Priestley uses the Birling family and The Inspector to imply how an arrogant and conceited mindset can destroy the lives of the less privileged through actions and words. Mr Birling is shown to be an extremely selfish, arrogant and stubborn character in the play.

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504 Words | 3 Pages

In the play An Inspector Calls written by J.B Priestley, the use of morality and double standards gives us an insight into the society of the early 1900s; which remains relevant in social stratification, cultural and deviance aspects. Through the story of Arthur Birling, Mrs. Sybil Birling and their children Eric and Sheila. The upper-class family, with untouchable reputation, enjoy of an intimate party soiree in honour of Sheila's engagement to Gerald Croft. Son of a well-known business man, Sir George Croft from Crofts Limited. When Inspector Goole pays a mood-changing visit, resulting in the systematic manipulation of the presumably respectable characters.

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633 Words | 3 Pages

At the start of the play he is just like the others - abusing his power over a working class girl. He says:” I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty . “ Also, in act 3, when being asked by inspector Goole, he describes Eva as a “good sport” which makes their brief relationship seems a childish game. His immaturity affects not only the lower class girl but also his family.

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978 Words | 4 Pages

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

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561 Words | 3 Pages

In the beginning of the play, Priestley presents Sheila Birling as an immature , jealous and superficial character as she refers to her parents as “mummy/daddy”. These words can be seen as words a child would say which shows her immaturity and that she is childish. Moreover, this could potentially show that she is spoilt as she refers to call them in that manner and that they would take care of all of her needs and wants. Priestley then talks about how in the shop (Milwards), Sheila Birling gets jealous of the worker called Eva Smith because of how pretty and beautiful she is.

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237 Words | 1 Pages

Mr. Birling and the Inspector are very contrasting characters in the play ‘An Inspector Calls’ with Mr. Birling portrayed as a symbol of capitalism and the Inspector as a socialist advocate. Priestley has contrasted these two characters to represent the political conflict in 1945 society. Both Mr. Birling and the Inspector also try to assert their dominance over each other throughout the play however, Mr. Birling does this in a very aggressive manner while the Inspector remains calm and gains authority by mainly focusing on his job. Mr. Birling is presented as hypocritical and ignorant from the beginning of the play while on the other hand the Inspector is someone who speaks the truth and holds a credible moral compass. Priestley has done

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1329 Words | 6 Pages

‘An Inspector Calls’ was a play written in 1945 but set in 1912 as J.B Priestly knew about the past history. This shows that by setting in the past, J.B Priestley is able to use dramatic irony as the audience knows the previous events in the play before the actual characters do and Priestley wants us to be aware of that. During that time much of upper class society was capitalism and there were very strong distinctions between upper and lower class people. The agriculture and industries were privately owned and wealth wasn’t shared among society. The play is set around the Birling family and Arthur Birling is a wealthy factory owner who is seen as the dominant character with all the responsibility in the family as his wealth showed a clear separation in the classes of society.

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1642 Words | 7 Pages

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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574 Words | 3 Pages

She has become aware, as the reader has been for a long time, that the upper classes of both the government and Catholic Church resent her to the very core not the least because of her gender, which magnifies the abrasiveness of her actions. The common people however view Joan as a hero regardless of her gender. To the commoners Joan’s gender is immaterial. Shaw calls this sexism that is deeply engrained in the government and Catholic Church out throughout Saint Joan. He does this by showing how ridiculous and counter productive a mindset it is.

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