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Summary Of J. B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls

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In ‘An Inspector Calls’, written just after WW1, J.B. Priestley seems to be asking the question, “Just what kind of society are we fighting to save?” Priestley was set the play in 1912. This enabled him to comment on people’s attitudes and ideas before WW1. The social issues that were so prevalent in the labour strikes of 1912 were still important in 1946 because the very definition of society means that human beings don’t live alone and that each one is responsible for their actions towards the other, “We do not live alone. We are members of one body.” By setting his characters in a time of innocence and hope, Priestley can speak even more strongly to his audiences who have lived through a time of despair. The pride and complacence of the Birling’s seems all the more foolish to an audience who knows what is going to happen to the English people. The lessons that Eric and Sheila learn are even more poignant when one realizes that very soon all classes in England, upper, middle and lower, will be involved in the same tragic war. …show more content…

In act one there is a contrast between Goole and Mr. Birling. Priestley sets Birling up for the audience to dislike him because of his capitalist views which he disagrees with. Priestley uses dramatic irony and makes Mr. Birling seem like an ignorant fool. Priestley makes Goole have knowledge of the future allowing him to use it against Birling. Also at the time many people in the audience would have had the same views as Birling. This would make the audience think about their own views as they dislike someone with the same views as

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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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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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The characters entrances and exits all throughout the play are essential to show how the Inspector develops his interrogation and indicate its role in the play. The fact that the Inspector arrives for the first time in the perfect timing just after Mr. Birling says "a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own" and then the door bell rings creating tension in the room tells that the Inspector 's visit is foreshadowing a big contradiction to what Mr. Birling is trying to imply and what the Inspector is going to show them. This also displays social responsibility and the different views of it; Mr.Birling is selfish and believes everyone is responsible for themselves and not for others and that foreshadows The Inspectors point of view that we don 't live

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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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