Inspector calls

• An Inspector Calls


  An allegorical message - the allegory hopes to change the capitalist areas of life to avoid social destruction and to alter society to have a socialism run system
• Political diatribe


  Critiques the conservative party ideals and the plea actors propaganda for the Labour Party
• The character of Priestley


  Displays the easy change that can be made from capitalists to socialist and how society has hopes for the younger generation to become the hierarchy over capitalism
• Eric


  • Draws upon conventions of the Oedipus complex
  • Shows typical characteristics of challenging his father
  • Becoming a socialist
  • Clash between the upper and lower classes
• Eric's sins


  Gluttony and lust
• Eric's objectification of women

  Dehumanizes Eva and shows how Eric uses her to pass time and as an enjoyable activity
• The rape of Eva Smith


  Priestley extends it as a metaphor to convey that capitalism abuses the working class
• When Eric discovers Mrs. Birling's role

  He blames her for involvement and the extent of the overall treatment of Eva Smith
• Eric


  • Shy and assertive - literally anxious about the plight of the poor but still powerful with women, symbolically the struggle of wanting to be socialist and the pressure of being capitalist
• Eric's relationship with Mr. Birling

  Reflects an Oedipal urge to challenge or thoroughly his father
• Eric's sin of gluttony


  His heavy drinking problem links to his grade for women to fulfil his sexual desires, a symbol of capitalist exploitation and the compromising of socialist views