"An Inspector Calls" by J.B. Priestley
             "An Inspector Calls" by J. B. Priestley demonstrates many important issues throughout the play such as the importance of families. The main themes explored in the play are: status, love, power, guilt and responsibility, honesty and lies. Each character displays each of these themes to varying degrees. "An Inspector Calls" attacks the social standards of the time, a time when people seem to be just concerned for themselves with no concern for the community. Priestley was a socialist in his time and believed that people should share their wealth or at least help those in need. He used the play to voice some of his beliefs.
             The play is about a young girl committing suicide. An inspector
             "Goole" comes round to ask questions, it turns out that everyone in the Birling family has something or other to do with the girl's death including Gerald who will soon marry into the family.
             The Birling family consists of the mother and father, Sybil and Arthur and their two children Sheila and Eric. It is difficult to say who holds most blame, but Mrs Birling refused to help Eva as some knew her or Daisy as others knew her in her final time of desperation.
             J.B. Priestley writes the play by giving the reader, or audience if performed, information about each character in turn and the part they played in the death of this young girl. The author builds tension and suspense by having his characters confess in an interesting way. The inspector is a very calm character and is unlike any ordinary inspector, he
             "has a disconcerting habit of looking hard at the
             person he addresses before actually speaking" His name 'Inspector Goole' is a pun on the word 'ghoul'. He acts as the storyteller and the voice of conscience in the play, he is mysterious and not at all impressed by status,
             "Public men, Mr Birling, ha...