Dramatic Qualities

Cards (33)

  • Form
    Techniques that are only found in that text type (e.g. poetic techniques for poems, dramatic devices for plays)
  • Plays
    • Writer has lighting, costume, props, staging to help convey ideas, not just the written word
  • Staging description at start of play
    1. Establish setting
    2. Establish characters' appearance and dress
    3. Establish lighting
  • Microcosm
    Creating a miniature version of Britain within the play
  • Fourth wall
    Realistic plays where the audience feels like a fly on the wall, looking in on everyday life
  • Realistic set and lighting
    Undermines the realism and creates negative connotations, a sympathetic background for the Birling family
  • Lighting changes when Inspector arrives
    Represents the truth and reality coming out, which is difficult for the family to deal with
  • Character descriptions
    • Archetypes representing different types of people in 1912 Britain
  • Provincial speech
    Accent/dialect suggesting the character is not from the upper class/London
  • Priestley uses the characters, setting, and lighting to create symbols and metaphors that convey his key messages and criticisms of British society
  • Jarring of the two
    Helps to serve Priestley's criticism of capitalism and class inequality
  • Provincial speech of Mr. Burling
    Connotations of suggesting he has an accent that is not Southern received pronunciation, implying he is not wealthy or aristocratic, but likely working class
  • Sheila
    Young upper middle class woman
  • Mrs. Birling
    Archetype for the older women with wealth
  • Sheila
    Archetype for the young women with wealth
  • Gerald Croft
    Dandy, well-bred young man about town, archetype for the upper class
  • Sheila and Eric exist as dramatic devices to provide points of contrast to Mr. and Mrs. Burling
  • Anagnorisis
    When a character recognizes their mistakes and learns from them
  • Characters who experience anagnorisis
    • Sheila
    • Eric
  • Characters who lack anagnorisis
    • Mr. Burling
    • Mrs. Burling
    • Gerald
  • Anagnorisis represents the capacity for change and progress in Britain
  • Mr. Burling
    Symbolizes capitalism and individualism
  • Inspector
    Represents socialism and collectivism
  • Mrs. Burling
    Represents Victorian morals and hypocrisy
  • Eric
    Represents toxic masculinity and the experiences of men
  • Sheila
    Represents the experiences of women according to class, an example of intersectional feminism
  • Eric
    Symbol of modern day toxic masculinity, how men must behave
  • Intersectional feminism
    Examining what happens when you take the sexism that a woman experiences and combine it with another form of discrimination they experience due to their identity
  • Priestley is not suggesting sexism and gender is the bigger discrimination, but that class is the root of the problem
  • Mr Birling's monologue
    Represents the general believed views of people like him in 1912
  • Mr Birling's monologue
    Contains dramatic irony to undermine his views and make the audience lose respect for him
  • The dramatic irony contrasts the audience's understanding of the world with Mr Birling's
  • The dramatic irony in Mr Birling's monologue undermines him before the Inspector arrives, making the audience more receptive to the Inspector's more progressive viewpoint