"An Inspector Calls" is a play by J.B. Priestley set in a time just before world War one. It is about a family of upper class folk who are in the middle of a dinner party, and are interrupted in their celebration by a police inspector called inspector Goole. He then states that a girl has just died by suicide, and proceeds to accuse each of the Birlings of having a part in her motives for killing herself. When the inspector leaves, the Birlings try to excuse themselves for their 'crimes' and call up the infirmary to find out if any girl has or has not committed suicide. The clerk tells them the latter, and the Birlings are safe. Minutes later the infirmary calls them up to say a girl has just been brought in. An inspector is on his way.
             The message of the play is that no one is superior, and that we are all part of a community, where one person's actions will affect others later on.
             Mr Birling feels that community is foolish, and that it's every man to himself in the wide world.:
             "A man has to make his own way – has to look after his family too, of course, when he has one – and so long as he does that he won't come to much harm. But the way some of these cranks talk and write now, you'd think everyone has to look after everyone else. As if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive."
             This speech is a clear idea of how the world thought and felt before World War I, and so J. B. Priestley knew this. The play is written to show we are all members of a community, where all our lives are intertwined.
             "There are millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering, and chances of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, with what we think and say and do. We do not live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other."
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