AIC

Important Theme

A play which deals with an important theme is 'An Inspector Calls' by playwright J.B Priestley. The play is about a middle class family that have unconsciously driven a working class girl to her death, each member is interrogated by a very harsh and mysterious character that claims that he is an inspector. Later on we find out how each one of them are linked to Eva Smiths death. Throughout the play Priestley explores the main theme of social class through literature techniques like imagery to help us visualise the scenes, the theme is also further explored through the despicable characterisation of the middle class and how they portray themselves.

Priestley uses Sheila Birling to present to the audience how the division of class has an impact on the younger generation. In Act 1 Sheila proceeds to say "Yes, go on mummy", this give us an idea that Sheila is infantilised by her parents. She seems to be a traditional upper class daughter who has been influenced by capitalism at the beginning of the play. Although Sheila has been given the ideal life it appears that she has morals by defending the working class girls by saying that "these girls appreciate not cheap labour-they're people", "these girls" suggest that Sheila is trying to relate herself as she attempts to rehumanise Eva and finally beings to understand the consequences of capitalism. This conveys, that not everyone is obsessed with the idea of great power, it also give us the message the the younger generation are not as naive as they are made out to be, in-fact the seem to be much more openminded and more in touch with humanity.

The older characters Mr. and Mrs. Birling seem to care the most about class. Eva Smith was employed by Mr. Birling at one time, but he refers to her as one of "several hundred young women". This implies that Eva and the hundreds of young women heave no value or meaning to him. He goes on to say that the employees "keep changing", the idea of Arthur not caring about his workers is proven here. It could also suggest that he sees Eva Smith as cheap labour, this gives us a slight sense of hatred. Similarly Mrs. Birling refers to Eva as "a girl of that sort", it appears that Mrs. Birling has made assumptions about working class women, she also seems to be degrading them. She assumes that girls like Eva have no morals by saying that "she was claiming fine feelings...they were simply absurd in a girl in her position", this gives us an impression that Sybil is small minded and judgemental, after having come in contact with a small amount of working class women around that time she assumes that they are all the same. Arthur and Sybil have the same attitude towards the working class, they make them seem like an identical group of people. This represents the ignorant capitalist generation that Priestley suggests was responsible for the inequality in society during the time this play was set in.

Finally Priestley's use of the cyclical structure could be said to symbolise the never ending cycle of poverty and wealth between classes. In 'An Inspector Calls' J.B Priestley wanted to display the damage that can be caused if the attitudes, especially of the more privileged, don't change towards those who are less fortunate. He wanted to exhibit his point that if we ever want to live in a fair and equal society,the mindset of the upper classes needs to be changed drastically.