Essays on an Inspector Calls

Eric Birling is an influential and significant character in our play, Inspector Calls. Priestly uses Eric’s character to show the change in the younger generation and his own socialist views of 1912. He is initially introduced in the stage directions, “half shy, half assertive” which...

Sheila’s character changes massively throughout J.B. Priestley’s An Inspector Calls, often in a manner that registers increasing maturity. At first, Sheila is presented through stage directions as a ‘pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited’; she is pictured as...

In An Inspector Calls, J.B. Priestley expresses the importance of the interconnected nature of society through his exploration of how his characters react to their responsibility; this theme is also addressed through ideas of society present both at the time of writing and when the...

In the play An Inspector Calls Priestley presents Mr Birling as a businessman who has had several successes over the years and who has been active in local politics as Lord Mayor of Brumley, although it becomes evident as the play progresses that Mr Birling...

In J.B Priestley’s timeless, symbolic sermon about social conscience, he explores the change in Eric Birling: from an intractable and pompous juvenile to a mature and increasingly confident socialist. His transformation is perhaps the easiest for the audience to relate to: he blames the world...

In An Inspector Calls, Priestley portrays inspector google as a peculiar mysterious man. His name Goole having the same pronunciation as “ghoul”, in another word a ghost/spirit. This suggests perhaps someone who has an interest in death and maybe is sent as Eva’s afterlife to...

An Inspector Calls is a play with lots of political messages as well as social messages. J.B. Priestley believed in socialism and he used large amounts of his plays to try and convince people to his way of thinking. The Inspectors name is Goole which...

Some individuals possess greater authority than others. The possession of authority is beneficial and makes life more pleasant but although it brings so much ease to life, it can easily be abused to bring harm to others. In the play, An Inspector Call by JB...

In An Inspector Calls, Mr.Birling and the Inspector are complete opposites of each other and are used to support different ideas of the themes in the play. Their importance in terms of awareness of society, consideration for the community, and philosophies about political ideas are...

In the play “An Inspector Calls” by J B Priestley, the characters of Sheila and Eric are used to represent the younger generation in Edwardian England, a time when traditional Victorian values were beginning to become obsolete. Priestley uses these characters to criticize and contrast...

Throughout the opening scenes of Priestley’s An Inspector Calls, Eric is portrayed as little more than a drunken child (‘only a boy’, as his Mother would have put it). If the work is considered to be a morality play, then Eric is perhaps guilty of...

Eric is a character in the book “The Inspector calls” which is presented by J.B. Priestley. Eric is Mr. Birling’s son and brother to Sheila. He is portrayed to be “half shy”, which suggests that he has a lack of confidence because he feels that...

The theme of responsibility is central to the play “An Inspector Calls” and through the actions of the characters, Priestley demonstrates to the audience that everyone has a collective responsibility to each other in society. He engages the idea by contrasting the older generation to...

There are drastic differences that are seen in people who are born in different generations. One may argue that the younger generations are more impressionable and naive while the older generations are very hardheaded and assertive. By creating characters like Sheila and Eric with a...

In the play ‘An Inspector Calls’, the character of the Inspector is used as a dramatic device in a number of different ways which all help the play to become more interesting and gripping. In this essay, I shall aim to analyse and explore these...

In the play An Inspector Calls, the character of Gerald Croft is extremely significant, as he is the only perpetrator not to be a part of the Birling household. He is also the character who knew Eva Smith most intimately and has many significant ties...