Content: Grade 7+

THE BIG IDEA - WHY DOES THIS TEXT EXIST?

(you can use this to create your thesis statements and build your essay arguments)

An Inspector Calls is about how people should be more responsible.

1. Priestley demonstrates that many wealthy people were irresponsible; they did not think enough about other people, which led to great inequality in society.
2. Priestley demonstrates that many wealthy people had double standards; they were happy to make judgements about others but unhappy to accept responsibility for their own mistakes.
3. Priestley uses the play to challenge traditional age roles and suggest that younger people will take more responsibility for others and can build a fairer society.

PLOT

1. While the Birlings are celebrating Sheila and Gerald’s engagement, an Inspector calls about a suicide.

2. On the inspector’s questioning, Arthur admits firing Eva from his factory but denies

3. On the inspector’s questioning, Sheila admits having Eva fired from her job and feels guilty.

4. On the inspector’s questioning, Gerald admits having an affair with Eva and feels guilty.

5. Under questioning, Sybil denies responsibility for refusing to help Eva and blames the man who got her pregnant.

6. Under questioning, Eric admits to having got Eva pregnant and blames his mother for killing both Eva and their child.

7. Gerald, Sybil and Arthur think Goole was a hoax; Eric and Sheila criticise them for not learning the right lesson.

8. A final phone call says that a suicide has happened and that a police inspector is on the way.

CHARACTERS

Arthur Birling is selfish and stubborn

‘Pleased’

1. AB & Birlings are described as ‘pleased with himself’ in opening stage directions
2. Priestley makes clear Birlings as smug and happy.
3. AB is pleased because his daughter is engaged to a rival businessman and he is in line for a knighthood.

‘A man has to mind his own business, look after himself and his own’

1. AB boasts proudly of his selfish, Capitalist business model to Eric and Gerald
2. ‘Himself and his own’ - AB protects his own interests and that of his family. Believes he has no responsibility for the wider community or his workers.
3. Priestley deliberately has the inspector enter during this speech in order to demonstrate his view that these selfish attitudes need to be interrupted and replaced with more responsibility.

‘I refused of course’

1. AB proudly admits that he refused a pay rise to Eva Smith and his workers.
2. ‘Of course’ = AB feels he was right to do what he did. He thinks it is obvious.

‘I can’t accept any responsibility’

1. In spite of knowing that he may have contributed to Eva Smith’s death, AB refuses to accept it.
2. AB is an older generation character who does not try to learn from his mistakes.
3. Priestley criticises wealthy people who made judgements about working class people but did not admit their own mistakes.

‘thousands’

1. AB tries to pay the inspector in order to protect his reputation and knighthood.
2. This reveals that AB has a lot of money and could have afforded a pay rise.
3. AB will only use his money for himself. Priestley criticises the selfish attitudes of wealthy men like AB.

Stretch: Mr Birling is happy to accept a knighthood from the community while he dismisses his responsibility to the community, which reveals his hypocrisy.

Sybil Birling is prejudiced and unsympathetic

‘Pleased’

1. SB is described, along with the rest of the Birlings, as ‘pleased’ with herself in the opening stage directions
2. Clear that SB is happy and smug at start of play.
3. SB is pleased because her daughter is engaged to a wealthy businessman. Life is going well for her.

‘girls of that class’

1. SB is prejudiced towards the working classes.
2. SB is prejudiced because ES lied using the name ‘Mrs Birling’, which SB thought was rude.
3. She assumes that, because ES is working class, single and pregnant, she is a bad person.
4. Priestley criticises wealthy people like SB for running charities to make themselves look good, rather than to actually help. He puts forward a need for government help, such as the NHS, rather than private charities run by prejudiced rich people.

‘I was perfectly justified’

1. Sybil feels no sympathy for ES.
2. She feels she was right to turn ES away and is stubborn with this view.
3. Priestley criticises wealthy people like SB for running charities that don’t help the neediest people.

‘look for the father’

1. SB orders the inspector to find the father of ES’s child, blaming him for ES’s situation
2. SB does this not knowing that Eric is the father.
3. SB has double standards. She is happy to judge when she thinks the father is a working class man, and is unwilling to accept that her own son behaved in this way.
4. Dramatic irony: audience has realises before SB that Eric is the father.

Sheila Birling is selfish but ashamed.

‘pleased’

1. Like the other Birlings, Sheila is described as ‘pleased’ by Priestley in the opening stage directions.
2. Sheila’s life has been easy; she is wealthy and only needs to worry about the man she marries.

‘mummy’ ‘daddy’

1. Sheila seems child-like in the opening of the play.
2. She has been sheltered from the real world, which explains why she selfishly had Eva Smith fired from Milwards, simply because she was jealous, not realising the consequences of this action.
3. Contrast between Sheila (sheltered life) and Eva Smith (terrible hardship)
4. These words also indicate that Sheila looks up to her parents. This changes as the play continues.

‘I started it’

1. Sheila immediately takes responsibility for her actions.
2. Priestley contrasts Sheila’s immediate responsibility with her parents’ complete lack of responsibility
3. Priestley uses SHB as an example of the younger generation in society, who may be able to learn from the consequences of inequality and create a fairer society.

‘I guess we’re all nice people now’

1. Sheila is sarcastic with her parents after they find out the inspector isn’t real.
2. She challenges her parents because they take no responsibility for their actions.
3. Contrast between SHB, who recognises that she must still feel guilty, and her parents, who are willing to forget the whole thing once they know their reputation is not at risk.

Eric Birling is selfish but ashamed.

‘Why shouldn’t they try for higher wages?’

1. Argues that ES was right to go on strike and ask for higher wages
2. Challenges his father’s values
3. Priestley demonstrates that the younger generation characters are more open to new ideas.

‘I did what I did’

1. Feels ashamed of his behaviour.
2. Accepts full responsibility.
3. Priestley contrasts EB with his parents’ complete lack of responsibility.

‘You’re beginning to pretend that nothing really happened’

1. Eric clashes with his parents and is angry with them for refusing to accept responsibility.
2. Priestley creates contrast between EB, who recognises that he must still feel guilty, and his parents, who are willing to forget the whole thing once they know their reputation is not at risk.

Gerald Birling is ashamed and irresponsible.

‘We can keep it from him’

1. GC tries to hide his relationship with Daisy Renton/Eva Smith from the inspector and Sheila
2. Priestley hints at the fact that it was normal for middle-class men like Gerald to have affairs.

‘I was sorry for her’

1. Gerald was caring and responsible when he first met Daisy Renton.
2. He tried to use his wealth and power for good by giving Daisy Renton money and a place to live.
3. He became irresponsible when he allowed it to develop into an affair.

‘upset’

1. Gerald feels ashamed of his actions.
2. Gerald is affected by the inspector’s questioning and feels upset by Daisy Renton’s death.

‘Everything’s alright now Sheila. What about this ring?’

1. Gerald is happy to forget everything that happened after he learns that the inspector wasn’t real.
2. Gerald is irresponsible at this point in the play.
3. Priestley uses Gerald as an example of someone who has not learned from their mistakes.

Inspector Goole is powerful and moral:*

[cutting in, massively]

1. Priestley often uses stage directions to suggest that the inspector interrupts the Birlings.
2. He is not intimidated by the Birlings’ class.
3. He cuts across them because he is determined to get to the truth and expose their immorality.

‘misery and agony’

1. Priestley has the inspector use shocking, emotive language.
2. He tries to make the Birlings feel guilty and take responsibility for their part in Eva Smith’s death

‘We are responsible for each other.’

1. He tries to teach the family the play’s key message about responsibility. (Stretch: socialism)
2. Priestley contrasts the inspector’s use of the word ‘we’ with Birling’s use of words ‘him’ and ‘himself’.

Stretch:

‘If men will not learn their lesson, they will be taught it in fire, blood and anguish’

1. The inspector warns the Birlings that there will be terrible consequences if people do not start taking more responsibility for others.
2. Priestley creates dramatic irony. The audience are aware that England endured two world wars in which ‘blood’ and ‘anguish’ were rife.

Eva Smith is voiceless and powerless

Eva Smith is dead, so does not feature at any point in the play.

Priestley deliberately makes Eva Smith voiceless to represent how little power working class people had.

SETTING

‘heavily comfortable house’ / ‘champagne’

1. Priestley makes clear in the opening stage directions that he wants the house to look expensive.
2. Priestley wants the Birlings’ wealth to be clear to the audience members.
3. Priestley’s choice to only set the play in the Birlings’ house creates constant contrast between the comfortable lives of the Birlings and the difficult lives of the working classes.

lighting changes from pink to blue when the inspector arrives

1. Priestley makes clear that the warm, happy, comfortable atmosphere is being interrupted.

CONTEXT

1. In 1912, there were obvious divisions between classes: upper, middle and lower.
2. In 1912, if people fell ill or unemployed, there was no benefits system to help; they had to turn to private charities, such as Sybil’s.
3. In 1912, women were seen as the ‘weaker sex’. Women were not allowed to vote until 1918.
4. In 1945, after two world wars, class and gender divisions started to change. At war, men of different classes fought side-by-side and, at home, women kept the country running by working in jobs they hadn’t been able to do before.
5. In 1945, the socialist Labour party came into power and established the welfare state - a system in which the government looks after the poorest in society.
6. First performed in 1945, An Inspector Calls would have reminded the audience of the way Britain was in 1912 in order to push for more change. Socialists (including Priestley) saw that there was still a lot of work to do.

THEMES

Responsibility: Through the characters’ actions, Priestley demonstrates that many wealthy people were irresponsible; they did not think enough about other people, which led to great inequality in society.

Class: Priestley highlights the inequality in 1912 society. He also demonstrates that many upper class people had double standards: they behaved badly themselves, but continued to look down on the working classes.

Age: Priestley uses the play to challenge traditional age roles and suggest that younger people will take more responsibility for others and can build a fairer society.

Women: Priestley explores inequality between men and women through the way Eva Smith and Sheila Birling are treated.

STRUCTURE

1. Opening: Priestley opens with an engagement party in the Birling household. This celebratory mood highlights how arrogant, wealthy and self-satisfied the Birlings are: ‘pleased with themselves’.
2. Sequence:

• The Inspector enters during Arthur Birling’s monologue in which he boasts of his capitalist values.
• Eric enters at the very moment that Sybil Birling orders the Inspector to ‘look for the father’
• Gerald leaves while Sybil and Eric are being questioned. This allows him to discover that Inspector Goole is not real.
• Gerald suggests the Inspector’s arrival was a hoax and Arthur Birling calls to test that, allowing Priestley to reveal the older generation’s irresponsible reactions.

1. Tension: When Sheila discovers Gerald’s affair / when Sybil realises that Eric is a drinker and got Eva Smith pregnant / when Gerald suggests the inspector wasn’t real / when Arthur Birling and Sybil Birling are delighted that the inspector isn’t real
2. Ending: Priestley ends with Arthur Birling receiving a call from the infirmary reporting the suicide of a young girl and stating that an Inspector will arrive soon to ask questions. Priestley ends on a cliffhanger, leaving the audience wondering how the characters will respond the second time an Inspector calls. Will they take more responsibility?

VOCABULARY

1. ashamed - feeling guilty or embarrassed about something you have done:
2. capitalism - a political belief in individual wealth through hard work, accepting that there will always be people in society who are better off than others
3. hypocrisy - pretending to have qualities, beliefs, or feelings that they do not really have
4. moral - understands the difference between right and wrong
5. responsibility - either: someone/something that it is your duty to take care of Or: accepting you played a role in something that didn’t turn out well
6. responsible - either: knowing that it is your duty to take care of someone/something

OR: accepting you played a role in something that didn’t turn out well

1. Irresponsible - either: not feeling it is your duty to take care of someone/something

OR: not accepting you played a role in something that didn’t turn out well

1. prejudice(d) - an unfair feeling of dislike for a person or group because of race, sex, religion, class, etc
2. socialism - a political belief in greater equality and fairness for all, looking after poorer people in society
3. unsympathetic -not showing any care for someone else’s suffering

Terminology

1. stage directions - the notes in the text of a play which say what the actors should do or how the scenery should be arranged.
2. dramatic irony - when the audience knows something the characters don’t
3. cliffhanger - a part of a play that is very exciting or frightening because you are left for a long time not knowing what will happen next.
4. tension - feelings of anticipation, discomfort in excitement in a play