Mr Salles Analysis of An Inspector calls

• Priestley's main reason for writing the play


  He wanted to prevent future Wars
• Inspector: 'Fire and blood and anguish'
• Priestley was 22 years old when the First World War finished, he joined when he was 17 and was there for the duration</b>
• 1 in 10 soldiers died in the First World War, not a third or half as commonly thought
• The play's structure


  The first death is equivalent to the First World War, the second death equivalent to the Second World War
• The burlings don't learn their lesson after the first world war


  The second death happens
• Priestley's belief


  The capitalist system leads to war, as the rulers can make money from it
• Burling is a clothing manufacturer who made a fortune from the world wars
• Priestley sees the play as an anti-war play as much as an anti-exploitation of the working classes play
• The inspector's words about the millions of Eva Smith's and John Smith's shows Priestley attacking the exploitation of workers
• The war was a way to stop industrial unrest before it started
• The failure of capitalism in 1929 led to massive unemployment, which Priestley sees as a failure of the capitalist system
• Priestley's motive


  To create a welfare state where the poor are provided for
• The charitable system is not working even if it operates fairly, so governments need to step in
• The play is likely to appeal to female voters, as the war has led to more women being employed and allowed to vote
• Priestley himself was dismissed from the BBC due to political interference, so the play is a way for him to get his message out
• Priestley stood as an independent candidate in 1945, and his play was part of the popular mood that led to a Labour landslide victory
• Priestley is writing from a feminist point of view, as the play shows how patriarchal society penalizes not just women but also men
• Priestley wants to entertain and encourage the paying public to fill his theater, while also conveying his political message
• Morality play


  The first kind of play written in the English language, written to explain the morals of the Bible
• Morality plays were performed in church to people who hadn't learned to read and write, which was most of the population
• The seven deadly sins

  • Envy
  • Gluttony
  • Greed/Avarice
  • Lust
  • Pride
  • Sloth
  • Wrath
• Priestley attaches the seven sins to the characters in the play because he is writing about Christian morality, and 80% of his audience would have gone to church every week
• Arthur Birling


  Personifies greed or avarice
• Sheila


  Personifies envy, jealous of Eva Smith's good looks
• Gerald


  Personifies lust in his affair with Daisy Renton, and also his capitalist greed is prominent
• Eric


  Personifies gluttony with his alcohol intake, and also lust in his abuse of Eva
• Sybil


  Personifies pride, refuses to acknowledge she's done anything wrong
• Gerald and Eric have more than one sin, showing they are much more at fault than the other characters
• Priestley intends us to see Gerald as exploiting Daisy Renton and pretending to love her, simply to have her as a mistress for a cheap arrangement
• Priestley's purpose in using the seven sins is to show that to be a capitalist is to behave in an anti-Christian manner, and the consequence is that to be a good Christian, one must also be a socialist
• Inspector: 'We are all members of one body'
• Priestley's audience would have understood this Christian message and connection between socialism and Christianity, as 80% were regular churchgoers
• The story of Adam and Eve in Genesis represents the notion of free will, which Priestley uses to say the audience can change their behaviour, such as by voting for a socialist government
• Priestley uses literary allusion, referencing Dickens' A Christmas Carol, to draw parallels between the ghosts teaching Scrooge and the Inspector teaching the Birlings
• Didactic


  Teaching a strong message
• Priestley's play is didactic, just as A Christmas Carol is, and it is also a morality tale trying to teach good morals
• Priestley emphasizes his message by using the same dramatic device as Dickens, giving the characters a glimpse of a tragic future
• Priestley also steals the plot device from Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, where they all conspired to kill someone, to show the Birlings and Gerald are all responsible for Eva's death
• Tragedy


  • Unified plot, all action in 24 hours, unity of place
  • Events are symbolic, representing tragedies like the World Wars
  • Death, hamartia (fatal flaw), great civilian tragedy like the Titanic