Context

• Priestley was a staunch advocate for Socialism, and he uses the play to convey the moral failings of Capitalism through the privileged Birling family.   
• The play illustrates the complacency of the wealthy who are oblivious to the forthcoming political upheavals due to the war in 1914. The sinking of the Titanic, mentioned by Mr. Birling, is laden with dramatic irony in order to illustrate his misplaced confidence and arrogance.  
• The first national miners' strike in Britain, involving nearly one million miners. The strike lasted 37 days and ended with the government passing the Coal Mines (Minimum Wage) Act 1912, which established the principle of a minimum wage. 
• Play set in 1912, WW1 began in 1914. After WW2 in 1945, Clement Attlee became Prime Minister of the Post-war labour government, beating the Tories (capitalists) in a landslide victory. 

  The Beveridge Report: 

   Sir William Beveridge presented the Beveridge Report to parliament in 1942. The report proposed a welfare state to prevent the type of social deprivation that occurred during the pre-World War II economic depression. 
• The Titanic sank in 1912, which a 1945 audience is aware of.
• In July 1914, London's financial markets froze, shares crashed, and the London Stock Exchange closed for five months. This was due to the UK's difficulty coping with the risk of war and the international scramble for liquidity 
• Priestley includes references to the hysteria disorder, which has historically been used to control women and prevent them acquiring positions of power. Mrs. Birling submits to the patriarchy and is inherently sexist – she believes that women are the weaker gender who should be subservient to the patriarch of the house. 
• Hysteria was a fabricated disorder, historically used to oppress women and exclude them from society by presenting them as ‘manic’ or insane.  
• Women received the right to vote in 1918
• Priestley grew up in Yorkshire. In Bradford he witnessed a lot of poverty amongst the working classes. He also took note of how the upper classes acted, he took them to be smug and hypocritical.