J.B.Priestley’s play, An Inspector Calls :: English Literature

An inspector calls is a play written by J.B Priestley in 1945. However, the play is set in 1912. The main themes of the play are lies, love, guilt, pride, status and responsibility. An inspector calls is a play written by J.B Priestley in 1945. However, the play is set in 1912. The main themes of the play are lies, love, guilt, pride, status and responsibility. This play was set in 1912 because it gave the audience a more dramatic impression of the rapport between the rich and the poor. Throughout the play, we can see that Priestley is a socialist. The audience knows that the message he is trying to put across is that we are a community and responsible for each other. We also know that the predictions Birling makes at the beginning of the play seemed to fail. He says, â€Å"†¦you’ll hear some people say that war’s inevitable. And to that I say-fiddlesticks!† which means that he thought there wasn’t going to be a war. This prediction failed because the World War I happened in 1914. This let down Mr. Birling's certainty. Another example in which Mr. Birling's predictions failed was when he said, â€Å"the Titanic †¦unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable.† We all know that the Titanic did sink and proved him erroneous again. An impressive contrast between the young and old generation is shown in the play aswell. We can see that after the so-called inspector left, the younger people such as Sheila's perspective about society changed whereas the older people such as Birling's didn’t. The character of Arthur Birling in the play is that of a very shrewd, selfish and hard-headed businessman. He has very defined views on life and other people. For example, he says, â€Å"†¦if you don’t come down sharply on these people, they’d soon be asking for the earth.† Mr. Birling is extremely self-centred and he feels that he has nothing to do with the community. We know this when he says things like, â€Å"a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own.† The repetition of the word â€Å"own† shows that he is too absorbed in himself. He isn’t even concerned about the workers in his factory leave alone the society. We know this because he says, â€Å"we were paying the usual rates and if they didn’t like those rates, they could go work somewhere else.† All through the play we can see that the character of Birling completely opposes the character of the so-called inspector Goole. Also, we can see that Priestley is a socialist and he portrays it through the character of the inspector. J.B.Priestley’s play, An Inspector Calls :: English Literature An inspector calls is a play written by J.B Priestley in 1945. However, the play is set in 1912. The main themes of the play are lies, love, guilt, pride, status and responsibility. An inspector calls is a play written by J.B Priestley in 1945. However, the play is set in 1912. The main themes of the play are lies, love, guilt, pride, status and responsibility. This play was set in 1912 because it gave the audience a more dramatic impression of the rapport between the rich and the poor. Throughout the play, we can see that Priestley is a socialist. The audience knows that the message he is trying to put across is that we are a community and responsible for each other. We also know that the predictions Birling makes at the beginning of the play seemed to fail. He says, â€Å"†¦you’ll hear some people say that war’s inevitable. And to that I say-fiddlesticks!† which means that he thought there wasn’t going to be a war. This prediction failed because the World War I happened in 1914. This let down Mr. Birling's certainty. Another example in which Mr. Birling's predictions failed was when he said, â€Å"the Titanic †¦unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable.† We all know that the Titanic did sink and proved him erroneous again. An impressive contrast between the young and old generation is shown in the play aswell. We can see that after the so-called inspector left, the younger people such as Sheila's perspective about society changed whereas the older people such as Birling's didn’t. The character of Arthur Birling in the play is that of a very shrewd, selfish and hard-headed businessman. He has very defined views on life and other people. For example, he says, â€Å"†¦if you don’t come down sharply on these people, they’d soon be asking for the earth.† Mr. Birling is extremely self-centred and he feels that he has nothing to do with the community. We know this when he says things like, â€Å"a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own.† The repetition of the word â€Å"own† shows that he is too absorbed in himself. He isn’t even concerned about the workers in his factory leave alone the society. We know this because he says, â€Å"we were paying the usual rates and if they didn’t like those rates, they could go work somewhere else.† All through the play we can see that the character of Birling completely opposes the character of the so-called inspector Goole. Also, we can see that Priestley is a socialist and he portrays it through the character of the inspector.