Eva. Priestley's Role Of Women In An Inspector Calls

An inspector calls is a morality play that challenges the ideas of an upper class Edwardian audience,preistley achieves this both through the attitudes of the play but also through his implementation of personal morals. Sheila is initially presented as the stereotypical Edwardian daughter but soon freely presents her emotions, without the need for approval from her parents.

An Inspector Calls is a play written in 1945 by J.B Priestly. It was set in 1912 where there were strong distinctions between the upper and lower classes. Therefore, to convey the socialist message, Priestly portrays characters from the upper class in an exposed manner. He definitely doesn’t hide any of their flaws. Gerald Croft is one of the main characters in the play that Priestly has done a great job at showing the thoughts of the upper class.

In An Inspector Calls the theme of gender inequality is explored comprehensively. In the play, most of the women are portrayed as feeble characters, unable to make decisions for themselves. Many people often think this of Sheila, who the men feel needs protecting from lots of things, like the information that a girl has committed suicide. The play was set in 1912 when the patriarchal society was the norm. So the women that were in the play would have been seen as possessions to their husband and therefore did not work or have careers. However it would have been accepted for women to participate in charity work as Mrs Birling was. Apart from that, women would have been simply seen as wives and mothers not workers and fighters. Women did not have the same rights as men most notably women did not even have the right to vote. The

Priestley reveals conflict at the heart of the Birling family by shaping up disagreement between them throughout the play. This is evident in ‘but these girls aren’t cheap labor. They’re people.’ Sheila portrays the younger generation’s impressionability. Although she views the workers as people, she refers to them as ‘these girls’ which is still harsh and cold but not as dehumanizing as Mr. Birling’s referral and treatment. The italicized letters of the noun ‘people’ emphasises how different Mr. Birling and Sheila view lower class society. however, Birling completely opposes his daughter in, ‘It has nothing whatever to do with this wretched girls suicide. Eh, Inspector?’ he is quite remorseless

Priestley in ‘An Inspector Calls’, explores the differences between the older and younger generation through the use of the characters Sheila, Gerald, and Mrs Birling. The differences in opinions between Sheila and the other characters represent the problems with the older generations' mentality. Priestley uses the character of sheila as a construct to criticise the mentality of the older generation. In Act 1 of ‘An Inspector Calls’, Shella is described as being ‘very pleased with life and rather excited’.

In this essay, I am going to discuss how the character Eva Smith in the play An Inspector Calls by JB Priestley is treated in the play and the relation of this to the socialist views of the playwright. I will look at the historical context of when the play was written and when it was set, describe what happens to Eva Smith throughout the play and then link this to a socialist viewpoint.

Throughout Priestley’s play, ‘An inspector calls’, a main theme runs about responsibility and differentiation between classes. Each character is accountable of doing something that brought about the death of Eva smith. All the characters contribute to her death in one way or the other, and all of them are at fault for the death of

How does JB Priestly explore and present the theme of gender in the play ‘An Inspector Calls”?

soon find out that Eva worked in his factory, and how she was fired by

An Inspector Calls is a three-act drama, which takes place on a single night in 1912, and focuses on the Birling family, who live in a wealthy but not particulary homely house in Brumley. The story begins when the mysterious Inspector Goole calls unexpectedly on the prosperous Birling family. The idea of the play, and particularly the role of the inspector, is to try to bring the Birling family to understand that they have a moral responsibility for the death of Eva Smith, if not a legal one. In Act Three, the Inspector tells the Birling family: “The girl killed herself and died a horrible death. But each of you helped to kill her. Remember that. Never forget it.” But who was really the

Priestley’s Main Aim in An Inspector Calls JB Priestly wrote ‘An Inspector Calls’ to enhance the message that ‘we don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other’. This is something Priestly felt strongly about and he succeeded in representing his views through the character of the Inspector in the play itself.

Sheila is portrayed as a beautiful young lady in her early twenties with a rather selfish and arrogant nature. Using her compelling personality she is able to obtain anything in which she desires through her father. She makes inconsequential remarks and speaks in a childish manner. However she is the only one to accept immediate responsibility for her role in Eva Smith’s death, making her most probably the furthermost sympathetic character throughout the play. She is horrified by her own part in Eva's death; she feels full of guilt for her jealous actions and blames herself and she is genuinely remorseful for her actions. She is very perceptive towards the inspector, first to wonder who he really is, realising he already knows much of what

Throughout the play An Inspector Calls by J B Priestley, it is clear that Priestley strongly believes in the importance of a caring society and the consequences of our actions. He presents these views on inequalities through the presentation of Sheila Birling. This is done in various different ways using numerous techniques.

John Boynton Priestley was born in Bradford, Yorkshire on September 13th 1984. The play “An Inspector Calls” was written by him in 1945, and came onstage in 1914. An Inspector calls, 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. Priestley uses a variety of different techniques, especially language and quotations, to contrast and elicit differing responses to Mr Birling and Inspector Goole.

A number of other issues that were around at the time the play was set