An inspector calls themes

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  • Created by: dbearne
  • Created on: 10-03-18 18:42

Key themes - Family life

Expectations of middle class families in 1912

  • Family members were expected to know their role and accept it - Parents were in control of the family and children were obedient
  • 'Gender roles' were well defined for the wealthy middle class
  • Men: expected to work to support their family, protect women
  • Women: expected to marry into money so they didn't have to work, have children, remain a housewife 

Expectations are broken in Act one:

  • Clear hierarchy in the family is destroyed once the inspector arrives
  • Without their parent's influence, Sheila and Eric, representhing the younger generation, are able to think and speak for themselves
  • Eric says his mothet doesn't 'understand anything' and Mr Birling isn't 'the kind of Father a chap could go to for help'. Sheila & Eric refuse to 'go on behaving just as we did'. They slowly untangle themselves from their traditionalist views.
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Key themes - Class divide

Class drives the plot and shapes the characters:

  • Societies function around divisions of social classes which are defined by money and property and has a strong impact and bearing on an individual's quality of life. 
  • This issue is demonstrated through the huge contrast between Eva's life, which ends in agony, and the lives of the Birling's, who enjoy excess and opulence to an almost absurd degrree. Eva smith serves as a blank canvas upon which the stains of the consequences of a huge class dichotomy become starkly clear and evident
  • In 1912, the divide between social classes was deeply entrenched, and integrating across this divide was nearly impossible. This divide was strenghtened by the dominance of capitalism which served to make the rich even wealthier
  • By 1945, two world wars had served to narrow this divide due to processes linked to the war effort such as rationing. Rationing helped to create a society wherein money had little impact on a person's quality of life. The play's emphasis on compassion as a valuable commodity mimics this society that operates beyond capitol 
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Key themes - Generation divide

The older generation (traditionalists):

  • Mr and Mrs Birling represent the old order- an outdated, archaic system of selfishness developed afer the growth of a capitalist Britain following the Industrial Revolution. They represent the idea of stasis.
  • This system had served them well and they have grown prosperous within the inequalities engendered by competitve capitalism. Therefore, the older generation fear change and serve as obstacles to social progress

The younger generation:

  • The younger generation are more impressionable and therefore embody the idea of change- they are constantly influenced by the opinions and views of others. Sheila and Eric represent the new socialist sentiments of post-war Britain and the progressive socialist attitudes of the audience of 1945
  • Sheila's sense of social responsibility is awakened throughout the play and she feels compassion for workers like Eva, whereas Eric seems to always have had an innate sense of social responsibility and rejects his father's capitalist values from the beginning
  • Priestley utilizes them as representations of those who have the propensity to change in this microcosm of wider society
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Key themes - Gender divide

  • For many years, women have had to endure an inferior position to their male counterparts. During the Edwardian era, a women's quality of life almost entirely depended on the men in their lives.
  • In 1912, women did not have the right to vote, despite decades of fighting for suffrage. Essentially, they had no right to a voice that had any real impact on the worl they lived in. It centred around a patriarchal society, heavily dependant on the prosperity of men in business
  • In the play, the middle-class women operate in an entirely different sphere to the men- they are domesticated and serve only to please their male counterparts. Sheila's preocupation with her own appearance is clearly caused by the need to please men superficially, conditioned into her by social expectation
  • Mrs Birling maintains the greatest authority in the play- as a member of the board of a charity for lower class women. Her cruelty and callousness in this position is perhaps the symptomatic of what happens when you deprive individuals of power in so many aspects of their lives. She abuses and ekes out whatever authority she can muster
  • Priestley elevates Sheila's independence through her enlightenment. Her knowledge gives her the ability to foresee later events and the agency to choose whether or not to continue blindly following her parent's traditionalist views and path in life. He imparts the idea that knowlege is power and ignorance is to imprison the mind
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Key themes - Social responsibility

Social responsibility is the obligation we have to act for the benefit of society at large. It's the dutty every individual has to perform in order to support the most vulnerable

  • The inspector reveals the impact we can have on each other and why social responsibility is crucial. He gives the Birling's a warning about what happens when we do not perform our duty of social responsibility.
  • In 1912, the strong influence of capitalism, an economic system driven by intense competition, meant that social responsibilty was not a concept accepted by those in power. In order to maintain their own status, they provided little help to those in need
  • By 1945, Britain had suffered through two world wars, wherein morale and survival depended heavily on a sense of camaraderie between all social grooups, hence social responsibilty became a means of survival and subsistence 
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