The play, An Inspector Calls is written by J.B Priestley Essay Example for Free

The play, An Inspector Calls is written by J.B Priestley Essay The play, An Inspector Calls is written by J. B Priestley. It was written in 1945 and set in 1912, just before World War One. The play is all set in the Birling household in Bromley. In the play the Birlings and Gerald Croft are celebrating the engagement of Sheila Birling and Gerald. The are all celebrating in a self-satisfied way. Arthur Birling is telling Eric and Gerald about every man should be for himself and that everyone should look out for themselves and their families. There is a knock on the door and Inspector Goole bears the news of a young woman who died in an infirmary from drinking disinfectant. The Inspector slowly implicates all of the Birlings and Gerald into the suicide of the girl, Eva Smith. Mr. Birling fired Eva from her job, as she wanted a small pay-rise. Sheila got Eva fired from a job in Milwards by using her social power just because she was jealous of her. Gerald had met her and gave her a place to stay, but had then left her after a while. Eric had met her in a pub and then made love to her and got her pregnant; he then stole money from his father, Arthur to help support her. Mrs. Birling then turned Eva down from her help community and made sure no one else listened to Evas story. The Inspector made everyone confess to what they had done to contribute to Evas death. After the Inspector left, Arthur and Gerald realised that the Inspector wasnt really an Inspector. They all thought they were in the clear when the phone rang and the real police said there was a girl dead in an infirmary, and that the police were on there way to the Birling household for an interview. At that point the play ends. The structure is that it consists of three acts and it is set in real time, so the time it takes for story to unfold is the same time it takes the audience to watch the play. It also has a unity of place and action, so it is all in the same place (the Birling household) and so is the action. I think it is set like this to give the audience help in understanding the morality of the play, which is We are all members of one body, we are all responsible for each other. Priestleys main aims about responsibility is that he is saying everyone is responsible for everyone else, and that you cannot just care about yourself, the opposite of what Arthur Birling thinks. He demonstrates this by slowly making all the characters partly responsible for Evas death, and as a whole all the characters drove Eva to her death. So Priestley is teaching the characters a lesson as well as the audience watching. At the beginning of the play Priestley makes Arthur say a man has to mind his own business and look after himself but after the play the Inspector comes in Priestley contradicts what Arthur said by making all the characters partly responsible for Evas death. Priestley sets the play in real time so both the audience and characters can experience the feelings and emotions of the play at the same time. In the play, Priestley has made Arthur a man who believes in only looking out for yourself and your family only. Arthur makes out to be a man who can do as he pleases just because of his social and business position. Priestley also makes Arthur say things like -the Titanic- she sails next week-forty-six thousand eight hundred tons-New York in five days-and every luxury-and unsinkable Priestley made Arthur say this knowing full well that the Titanic was sinkable and did sink! I think Priestley is trying to make out about how wrong Arthur is on many aspects of life and that he is also wrong in thinking every man for himself.