An Inspector Calls - Plot summary

• An Inspector Calls by J B Priestley, is a play that revolves around the apparent suicide of a young woman called Eva Smith.
• In the play, the unsuspecting Birling family are visited by the mysterious Inspector Goole. He arrives just as they are celebrating the engagement of Sheila Birling to Gerald Croft. The Inspector reveals that a girl called Eva Smith, has taken her own life by drinking disinfectant. The family are horrified but initially confused as to why the Inspector has called to see them. What follows is a tense and uncomfortable investigation by an all-knowing Inspector through which the family discover that they are all in fact caught up in this poor girl's death.
• Social and historical context

  An Inspector Calls was first performed in 1945 at a time of great change - both World Wars were fresh in the minds of the people, women had become more prominent in the workplace and it was possible to be class mobile.

  It is set in 1912 - this means that the characters have no knowledge of these world events. Priestley uses this to make important points about society and responsibility.

  
• What happened in 1912?

  The United Kingdom was just coming out of the Victorian era, women in didn't have the right to vote yet. And while there had been some reforms for people living in poverty, Britain was still a pretty individualistic society. So people just looked after themselves and their families and there wasn't really a strong sense of social responsibility. The government wasn't doing much to help people in need.
• World War One started in 1914, two years after Mr. Birling called the idea of war “fiddle sticks,” which is a good example of what is known as dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is when the audience knows something that the characters don't. Another good example of dramatic irony is where Mr. Birling describes an exciting new ship that's just been built as “unsinkable.” And that ship would go on to be the Titanic, which of course would go on to sink in the spring of 1912, on a voyage between the United Kingdom and New York.
• The Welfare State


  An Inspector Calls was first performed in the UK just after the end of World War Two, in 1946. It was a time of great change in Britain and many writers were concerned with the welfare of the poor. At that time there was no assistance for people who could not afford to look after themselves.