An Inspector Calls Context and Themes

…was born in 1894 in Yorkshire.

After leaving school at 16, he worked in a Wool Mill but, already determined to become a writer, he spent his hard earned money on buying books, and used his spare time trying different kinds of writing, including a regular unpaid column in a local periodical, the Bradford Pioneer.

He volunteered for the army in September 1914 and served for five years in England and France.

The only time he wrote about his experiences during the First World War was in MARGIN RELEASED.

The only other writing from that period were some poems which he published privately, entitled THE CHAPMAN OF RHYMES, to ensure some writing would survive should he be killed in the trenches; he destroyed most copies when he returned home.

He was invited to write a series of articles for the Yorkshire Observer, before going up to Trinity Hall Cambridge; ending the war as an officer, he qualified for a grant to go to university.

He never lived permanently in Bradford again, though a frequent visitor.

After the war, he gained a degree from Cambridge University, then moved to London to work as a freelance writer. He wrote successful articles and essays, then published the first of many novels, The Good Companions, in 1929.

He wrote his first play in 1932 and went on to write 50 more. Much of his writing was ground-breaking and controversial. He included new ideas about possible parallel universes and strong political messages.

During the Second World War he broadcast a massively popular weekly radio programme which was attacked by the Conservatives as being too left-wing. The programme was eventually cancelled by the BBC for being too critical of the Government.

He continued to write into the 1970s, and died in 1984.

Priestley wrote An Inspector Calls in 1945. 

It was first performed in 1946 in the USSR, before then coming to Covent Garden in London. 

However, the Play is SET in 1912, in the fictional town of Brumley in the Midlands loosely based on Birmingham.  

Priestley was a socialist and beleived that all people should help each other no matter their circumstances; everyone should have equal opportunities. 

SOCIALISM

•Socialism is a political and economic system in which most forms of valuable property and resources are owned or controlled by the government. •Most socialist systems also provide citizens with social benefits, including guaranteed employment or unemployment insurance and free or heavily subsidised health care, child care, and education. •The main idea in socialism is that everybody works, pays towards society’s upkeep and the government distributes the resources equally. If you fall on ‘hard times’ there are benefits in place to help you live until you can work again. •Socialism aims to protect the rights of all workers especially as they are working towards the growth of society. •Socialism is the major alternative to CAPITALISM.

• Socialism
• •Valuable property and resources are owned or controlled by the government.
• Provides citizens with social benefits, such as free education, free healthcare,  insurance, benefits for the elderly and benefits for the unemployed.
• •Socialism aims to protect the rights of all workers especially as they are working towards the growth of society.
• Capitalism
• •Valuable property and resources are owned by private organisations or people.
• •Citizens should pay for their healthcare. Education is privatised and higher education is not freely available to all.
• •The elderly should only be allowed a certain amount of benefits. The unemployed have to work for their benefit entitlement.
• •Capitalism aims to protect the wealth  private organisations/people.
• •The exploitation of the workers is irrelevant as creating your own wealth is to open opportunities.

A hundred years ago women worked primarily in the home.Their job was to keep the home, cook the meals and care for the children. (Patriarchal Society)

These were in the days before television, automatic dishwashers, and washers and dryers existed. Women had to take the time to wash and dry dishes themselves {or have the children help} and bend over the tub to wash clothes and then wring them out before hanging them on the clothesline.

Men expected the meal on the table when they arrived home. There was no throwing it into the microwave, everything had to be made from scratch. Women were considered a helpmate for their husbands.

Women did not have the vote either. This was only changed in 1918 when all married women over 35 were invited to vote; by 1922 all married women over 21 and then in 1928 all women over 21. 

Some women were outraged at the conditions and became suffragettes to fight for Women's Rights. They chained theirselves to buidlings, damaged property and went on hunger strikes in prison.

After two world wars women had proven themselves to the government and things began to change. 

However, women were expected to leave employment if they decided to get married, unless their husbands permitted them to work, or if they had children. 

Women still earnt less then men in all jobs. 

The war had started a revolution; suddenly women were not just seen as slaves or playthings; women had worth.

If it wasn’t for women on the home front, we would not have won either war.

Why should they be subservient to men when they had genuinely contributed to saving our country’s freedom?

The introduction of the vote and welfare support left women feeling empowered. There was, however, still a long way to go.

• •Poor women were particularly ostracised
• •Women married young – if you were not married by 23, you were “left on the shelf”
• •Very little help was available for poor women – even if they had children
• •Women couldn’t vote
• •The older generation of women were more “set in their ways”

• §Two wars had proven women’s worth
• §Women could vote
• §Welfare was more readily available for women with children or without
• §Average age of marriage was much later – women could have a career
• §Clothes could be less conservative
• §Women still were not paid equally

In 1912, London was divided in a class system. There was the upper class, middle class and the working class. The upper class made up 5% of Britain. They were the richest and owned practically everything.

Royal Family

Upper class - including Gentry (Mrs Birling and Gerald Croft)

Middle Class-  Businessmen - Mr Birling and his children, Sheila and Eric

Working Class- the labourers and those like Eva Smith. 

• Priestley uses Dramatic Irony to present that times are going to change for the Birling family. 
• Dramatic Irony is where the audience know more than the characters do. 
• In AIC Mr Birling states that the Titanic "is unsinkable", whilst we as the audience know that she sank on April 15 1912, a few weeks after the play is set.
• He also states that "the Germans don't want war".... how wrong he is, as by 4th August 1914 Britain is at war with Germany and WW1 begins. 
• Birling is also critical of socialism, which is on the rise in 1912, but is turning towardds Communism in some areas of the world by the 1940s, when the play is written. The Play is first performed in Moscow, USSR in 1946, in the height of communism.