English Literature- An Inspector calls

• Burling represents capitalism Priestley is trying to explore what's wrong with capitalism by exploring what's wrong with Burling
• Burling is therefore a construct and that means the author Priestley constructs him in order to put forward this point of view
• a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own


  This is the view that priestly writes the play to discredit, he wants to prove Burling wrong
• The inspector appears immediately after Burling has said that


  As though burling's words have summoned him with some kind of supernatural power, it's like an incantation
• Burling says "I'm talking as a hard-headed practical man of business"


  This proves that Burling is unfeeling, suggesting that capitalism is unfeeling and selfish
• Priestley is deliberately using the language of the Labour Party manifesto from the 1945 election
• The phrase "hard-headed man of business" is in the Labour Party manifesto and it's something that the manifesto complains about
• Priestley has created Burling and given him those words as a direct link to why, it's a call to people during this 1945 election period to vote Labour
• This is an allusion to the language of Stanley Baldwin, a prime minister three times between 1912 and 1939
• Stanley Baldwin accused the "hard-headed men of business" of profiting from the war
• Burling finds Sheila's marriage to Gerald a "business opportunity"


  This is hypocritical because he talks about looking after himself and his own, but he sees Sheila as his property
• To get the grade 6 you need to link everything you've written to the writers ideas and perspectives
• Sheila says of Gerald "you were the wonderful fairy Prince you must have adored it"
• Gerald is presented as kind even though he's deceitful, he treats Eva and Daisy apparently on the surface quite well
• Priestley creates Gerald as a construct to show that even good men like gerald are still cruel if they are capitalist
• Gerald says "Daisy knew it was coming to an end"


  This suggests it was all part of his plan, he exploited Eva/Daisy
• Gerald says "she'd been happier than she'd ever been before"

  This shows he's deceiving himself, he's actually sexually exploiting her
• Mrs Birling refers to Eva as "girls of that class"


  This shows her dismissive attitude towards the working classes, Priestley uses this to attack the idea of social hierarchy
• Mrs Birling isn't wrong, Eva has told her a pack of lies
• But Priestley suggests something deeper is going on, that Eric has had a far greater effect on Eva committing suicide
• Eric says "I think it's a shame we try for the highest profits why shouldn't they try for the highest wages"


  This is an attack on capitalism, Eric represents the voice of hope for change
• Eric says "she told me she didn't want me to go in"


  This shows he forces his way into her room, treating her as inferior, not as an equal
• Eric refers to himself as "a chap" rather than "a man"


  This distances himself from the seriousness of his actions, suggesting he deceives himself about his responsibility
• then he distances himself from this nastiness by referring and Sue himself not as AI but as a chat and chap kind of makes him sound less vicious less violent less cruel than if he'd called himself a man even chap is a way for him to distance himself from his responsibilities
• this is important because at the end of the play you're going to ask yourself whether Eric has truly learned the inspectors lesson and I'm going to argue from this that Eric deceives himself all the way through the play
• here he's trying to explain what he's done but he deceives himself about how serious the incident was and our proof that it was so serious remember is that Eva would rather have committed suicide than go back to him that is a massive clue as to what happened when events turned nasty
• another way that he of always responsibilities is when his father accuses him of stealing the fifty pounds and his answer is not me I intended to pay it back now that is an appalling abdication of his own responsibility isn't there he's saying I didn't really steal it well of course he did
• there's another level of sophistication here which Priestley's audience would have understood and we don't because we have forgotten that there are 20 shillings in a pound but when you remember that there are 20 shillings in a pound as everybody at the time would have done 50 pound is there for over 40 weeks of the wages that either would have earned at burling's well there is no way that Eva would suddenly go to mrs. burling's charity to ask for more money if Eric had actually been giving all this money to her so there's the other level of self-deception he's obviously spending a load of this on his own drinking so he stolen this money but not even given all of that to Eva
• this will help us go back to the younger generation idea and argue that in fact Eric will not really change yes he'll learn the inspectors lesson but he will not act on it because it is against his nature his nature is to deceive himself and to deceive others
• her most important quotation is probably this one at the end of the play no because I remember what he said how he looked and what he made me feel fire and blood and anguish
• she is the voice of the younger generation and the hope for change we can also argue that she is a proxy for the inspector proxy means she takes the place all because remember the inspector leaves before the ending of the play he leaves during act 3 to allow the characters to either take responsibility or not and we can clearly see that Shakespeare as Sheila does take responsibility as the quote proves and she keeps banging on although that's not very formal she keeps emphasizing Priestley's message which is the inspectors message
• Gerald says everything's all right now Sheila he holds up the ring what about this ring Sheila doesn't just refuse him she says no not yet it's too soon I must think now priestly does this to force us to ask well what do we think she's going to do surely if she's learnt the inspectors lesson she can't go back to Gerald because he stands for everything but the inspector rejects he's still confirmed as a capitalist he still doesn't really think he's done much wrong with his affair and he certainly believes that Sheila should still marry him and just forgive him
• at least you've been honest and I believe what you told us about the way you helped her at first just out of pity now what I showed you about Gerald is there's no way he helped her just out of pity this was totally premeditated he took her to his friend's flat as soon as he had the first opportunity and then got rid of her as soon as his friend was coming back so I'd strongly suggest here that she's lying to herself and society has encouraged her to lie to herself because women in this society in patriarchy always have to lie to themselves about their men they have to pretend that they've got some sort of equal relationship where the reality is quite different
• and it was my fault really that she was so desperate when you first met her well that's true it was her fault when Gerald met her because Sheila had got us act from Mill Ward's but she's blaming herself more than she blames Gerald and that I'd argue is symbolic of how women behave in a patriarchal society they are taught from birth to blame themselves more than men
• the second death of Eva Smith and I'll explain later how that works symbolically to suggest that Sheila does in fact marry Gerald and therefore the future does not change it remains capitalist and a younger generation like Sheila and Eric do not create a socialist future
• we don't live alone we're members of one body we are responsible for each other and I tell you that the time will soon come when if men will not learn that lesson then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish
• this phrase we are members of one body comes directly from the Bible and it also comes directly from the church service when Christian congregations take communion now 80% of Priestley's audience are Christian at the time and so he deliberately uses language which they are used to in order to make an absolute connection what he's saying is that socialism is the same as Christianity therefore if you are a Christian human being I know 80% of you are then it is your duty to think like a socialist because we share the same outlook on life it is in fact the same view of how people should treat each other
• this play isn't just about capitalism and socialism it's also an attack on war that's why we have this phrase of fire and blood and anguish what he's suggesting here is that capitalism leads directly to war
• this word is not man man means all men and all women no it is men and what he's saying here is it's no good meat persuading women like Sheila because they don't have any power in 1912 you'll know about the suffragettes campaigning for the vote and women didn't get the vote until much later into 1928 so Priestley's arguing really strongly here that war is the fault of men and also that capitalism is the fault of men it's men who hold all this financial power and all this political power and that's what's wrong with society he's saying it's that men and women do not have equal influence and power men are the problem the problem is the patriarchal society
• the Titanic being absolutely unsinkable now this is a metaphor for capitalism so he believes that capitalism is unsinkable but Priestley is trying to suggest that it is sinkable