Essays on An Inspector Calls

6 July 1945

J. B. Priestley

Drama

Edwardian Era

Arthur Birling, Eva Smith, Sheila Birling, Eric Birling, Gerald Croft, Inspector Goole, Mrs. Sybil Birling, Edna

6 July 1945, by J. B. Priestley

Drama play

The play is a three-act drama which takes place on a single night in April 1912, focusing on the prosperous upper middle-class Birling family,[ who live in a comfortable home in the fictional town of Brumley, "an industrial city in the north Midlands". The family is visited by a man calling himself Inspector Goole, who questions the family about the suicide of a young working-class woman in her mid-twenties.

The major theme of “An Inspector Calls” is social responsibility of a man living in the society in which he is expected to follow the basic principles of social living. Other major themes include guilt, gender, class conflict, cause and effect, poverty and exploitation.

The methods that Priestley uses to interest and involve the audience is by using various dramatic techniques such as dramatic irony, cliff hangers, lighting and setting. He uses all his techniques to show his message and make sure the audience understand it. They also create tension. The dialogue is believable and fast moving and the play is structured so that each act grabs the audience's attention.

Inspector Goole, Edna, Arthur Birling, Sybil Birling, Sheila Birling, Eric Birling, Gerald Croft

An Inspector Calls is one of Priestley's best-known works for the stage and is considered to be one of the classics of mid-20th century English theatre. The play's success and reputation were boosted by a successful revival by English director Stephen Daldry for the National Theatre in 1992 and a tour of the UK in 2011–2012. The play is studied in many British schools as one of the prescribed texts for the English Literature GCSE.

“It’s better to ask for the earth than to take it”
“We have to share something. If there’s nothing else, we’ll have to share our guilt”
“Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges”