grade 9 ideas

• An Inspector Calls


  Title of the play
• Grade 9 ideas

  • Ideas to achieve a grade 9 in the play
• Metaphor of society

  The play represents the state of society at the time
• Mr Birling: '"unsinkable"'
• What Mr Birling is really saying

  The system is unsinkable
• When the ring is presented

  It represents the union between the rich (Birling and Croft)
• The rich are

  Foreshadowed
• Dramatic irony

  • The audience (people who would've lost loved ones from the first and second world war, and the Titanic) already knows that the Titanic has sunk, performed after 2nd world war but set before first world war
• Knowing this

  Priestley has an impact on the audience
• Social Darwinism


  The idea that the strong survive and the weak fail
• Sheila and Eva

  Foils (contrasting characters)
• When Sheila looks in the mirror of Milwards

  1. Her ego is flatlined as she sees a pretty working class Eva

  2. She believes her literal self reflection is her own

  3. Looking at the back of her own self reflection, she sees Eva and that is who she wants to be
• Eva reflects

  Everything Sheila wants to be
• When the Inspector arrives

  Sheila faces her truth, she is able to become the woman she wants to be in the back of the mirror
• When rejecting Gerald

  There is no grey area, 'we have become different people now'
• Contextually, Sheila could represent a perfect candidate for the women's suffrage movement- they are also middle class women who are trying to find their voice
• Disinfectant

  Used to prevent infection
• In this case the infection is

  The unregulated capitalism in a society prior to war- which lead Eva to kill herself during pregnancy
• Unregulated capitalism


  The system that led to Eva's death