Message & Tention of Inspector Calls, -Structure, Characters
J.B.Priestley was born on the 13thSeptember 1894, in a middle class home in Bradford, Yorkshire, which was a large industrial area that produced cotton in the mills. Priestley grew up in a thoroughly middle class home in a place where socialist ideals thrived, and was proud of the fact that his grandparents were mill workers.He gained real experience and understanding of working class life and people when writing 'Rain upon Godshill' (1939). It was about his visits to "grandparents and uncles and aunts who still lived in the wretched little 'back to back' houses in the long, dark streets behind the mills.'' He uses 'An Inspector Calls' to expose the exploitation and oppression of the lower classes by the higher classes at that time.Priestley set the play in 1912, thirty years earlier than when he wrote it, this way he was able to use dramatic irony to emphasise his point that the higher classes weren't as unbreakable as they believed themselves to be, and shouldn't have been quite so complacent. For example, during one of his rambling speeches, Birling says, "...just because the miners came out on strike, there's a lot of wild talk about possible labour trouble in the near future. Don't worry. We've passed the worst of it".
To begin with, she was just shown as the innocent, but stupid, naive young girl, to whom everyone spoke down to, but as the play progresses, so does her character; she (and Eric, but not so much) became the only one who realised, and more importantly, would admit to what she had done. The sort of people Priestley didn't like, if they were in the audience, may have seen elements of themselves in the characters, and realised they should try and change. But after the Inspector leaves, she starts to feel slightly responsible, and tries to justify her actions by saying: "He certainly didn't make me confess - as you all call it. This represents Priestley's views in the same way as the inspector, - this links the two characters. The end of the play is very mysterious; it provokes the audience to reconsider who, or what the inspector represents. The way he uses the information he holds creates an impression of someone who is both an outsider and omniscient. He is just about to go on, but he is stopped by the arrival of the Inspector, whose time of entrance is probably significant to the subject of the conversation, as Priestley socialist beliefs meant the world should be a community, with everyone helping each other. " The way he speaks is very dominating; he has every one's attention at once, including the audience, because he is the only one who knows the truth about who Eva Smith is and what really happened, so people always listen to him in the hope they will find out. If the girl's death is due to anybody, then it's due to him". The audience have been prepared for this, because all through the play, the tension has been rising and rising as more becomes known, and in the last scene it all erupts, -the climax of the play. He causes tension in the atmosphere of the play from the start, the very first thing he says causes a row about whether he is "squiffy" or not.
Common topics in this essay:
I'm MrsBirling,
Eva Smith,
Palace Bar,
Act Eric,
Inspector Calls',
Ramsay MacDonald,
Inspector I'd,
Gerald Croft,
Bradford Yorkshire,
Inspector Goole,
stage directions,
middle class home,
feels guilty,
creates impression,
sheila speaking,
eva smith,
priestley's message,
charity organization,
atmosphere play,
near play,
including audience,
|
Acceptance Essays
