An Inspector Calls Themes
- Class Taking the play from a socialist perspective inevitably focuses on issues of social class. Class is a large factor, indirectly, in the events of the play and Eva Smith ’s death. Mrs. ...
- Youth and Age The play implicitly draws out a significant contrast between the older and younger generations of Birlings. ...
- Responsibility and Avoiding It ...
- Cause and Effect ...
- Time ...
- The Supernatural ...
- Social Duty ...
Full Answer
How do you find the theme of an Inspector Calls?
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in An Inspector Calls, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. Wealth, Power, and Influence. The Birlings are a family of wealth and power, who take pride in their high social position.
What is the theme of an Inspector Calls by Priestley?
In An Inspector Calls, the themes of social responsibility, age, gender and class are explored. The consequences of the Birlings' actions highlight Priestley’s ideas on social responsibility - do we look after one another in society?
What is the predicament of the inspector in the Inspector Calls?
The play’s predicament is the supposed death of a girl named Eva Smith, or Daisy Renton. Eva/Daisy has killed herself, the Inspector argues, because all society has abandoned her.
What happens to Eva and Daisy in the Inspector Calls?
Arthur, Sybil, Sheila, Eric, and Gerald must come to terms with their guilt, leading to Eva/Daisy’s demise. The Inspector wants the family to accept the pain it has caused Eva/Daisy.
What are the 4 main themes in An Inspector Calls?
Let's look at the four main themes:social responsibility.age.gender.class.
What are the 5 key themes in An Inspector Calls?
An Inspector Calls ThemesWealth, Power, and Influence. The Birlings are a family of wealth and power, who take pride in their high social position. ... Blame and Responsibility. ... Public versus Private. ... Class Politics. ... Morality and Legality.
What is the central theme of An Inspector Calls?
Priestley shows the audience hope that the younger generation was more likely to learn, change their behaviour and even promote positive change in society. The younger generation accept responsibility for their actions, learn form the Inspector and begin to challenge the status quo.
What key themes are in Act 1 of Inspector Calls?
An Inspector Calls: Act 1 Summary & AnalysisWealth, Power, and Influence.Blame and Responsibility.Public versus Private.Class Politics.Morality and Legality.
Is guilt a theme in An Inspector Calls?
Guilt. Arthur, Sybil, Sheila, Eric, and Gerald must come to terms with their guilt, leading to Eva/Daisy's demise. The Inspector wants the family to accept the pain it has caused Eva/Daisy. In this way, guilt plays an important role in the Inspector's politics.
Is capitalism a theme in An Inspector Calls?
Priestley presents Capitalism as a self-absorbed, amoral systemwhere an individual's purpose is reduced to their ability to make money. Mr Birling as symbolic of Capitalism's dominance Priestley uses Mr Birling to reflect Capitalism's arrogance and dominanceat the start of the century.
What is the theme of cause and effect in An Inspector Calls?
Cause and Effect: The play “An Inspector Calls” also comments on the impact of a chain of events which spoils the life of a poor and destitute girl, Eva Smith. It also presents how one action becomes the cause of another action which has combined effect on the life of people.
How is the theme of conflict presented in An Inspector Calls?
Priestley shows that conflict is at the heart of the Birling family by making characters in the same family have opposing views and making them stand up to each other, conveying conflict is present in upper class even though the upper class hid it from society.
What does Mrs Birling's theme?
Priestley uses Mrs Birling as a symbol to represent the wealthier, privileged classes and their selfish attitudes. She sees the working class as morally inferior. Priestley wanted his audience to despise Mrs Birling and the ignorant social snobbery she represents.
How is gender presented in An Inspector Calls?
In the play, all the women are portrayed as delicate characters- particularly Sheila who the men protect from many things including that Eva Smith committed suicide. Set in 1912, the woman in the play were seen as possessions to their husband and did not work or have careers due to the patriarchal society.
How does Priestley present the theme of gender in An Inspector Calls?
Priestley's main message is that traditional gender stereotypes are damaging and actively stop society progressing. Within the play, different female characters are used to show the different roles women have within societyand how these women are expected to actwithin a patriarchal society.
What happened in Act 2 of An Inspector Calls?
Act Two: More revelations Sheila realises that the Inspector's enquiries are well founded, and that her mother might also have had some dealings with the girl. While Eric is out of the room, Mrs Birling is forced to admit that the girl asked for the help of a charity she worked for and was refused.
Why does the Inspector not show the photograph to all the people at the same time?
I thinks he wants to observe their reactions in order to make assumptions about their guilt or innocence.
How does the Inspector react to the agitated response of Mrs Birling at the the of first questioning?
The questioning, after which, Gerald attempts to get Sheila to leave?
what is the initial reaction of mr birling to the manner of the inspector?
I think his initial reaction was surprise that he didn't know the inspector. He was also surprised at the intrusion on his family. A man of Birling...
What is a theme in Inspector Calls?
A theme is an idea that runs throughout a text. In An Inspector Calls, the themes of social responsibility, age, gender and class are explored.
What is the difference between the younger and older characters' reactions to Eva Smith's death?
The difference between the younger and older characters' reactions to Eva Smith's death shows how Priestley viewed different generations . He viewed the younger generation as hope for the future and this is why both Sheila and Eric learn a lesson from the Inspector.
What is the role of guilt in the Inspector's politics?
In this way, guilt plays an important role in the Inspector’s politics. Although he does not describe his politics explicitly, he appears to be a socialist, and for him, socialism demands that human beings look out for one another, do their absolute best to avoid harming each other. When people do wrong, they must then explain, to themselves and others, the wrongness of their actions.
What does the Inspector do in Act 3?
Further, he wants them to learn what they have done wrong, and to change. His “inspection,” as Sheila realizes in Act Three, is designed to encourage them to interrogate themselves, to consider when in their lives they have behaved immorally, and how they might improve as family members, friends, and citizens.
Why did Eva die in the play?
The act of killing oneself, or of losing oneself entirely, is central to the play’s events. The play’s predicament is the supposed death of a girl named Eva Smith, or Daisy Renton. Eva/Daisy has killed herself, the Inspector argues, because all society has abandoned her. Her only remaining choice was to end her life. The Inspector sees suicide as the response to a culture of selfishness, which he believes to permeate capitalist society. No one was willing to lend Eva/Daisy a hand, and the Birlings discarded her when she was no longer compliant or useful to them. She had no friends or family to fall back on.
What is the Inspector's warning to the Birlings?
The Inspector implies that if men and women continue to behave callously to one another in the industrialized countries of the West, then those countries, as entities, will “commit suicide.” That is, the Inspector’s warning to the Birlings foreshadows the cataclysms of the World Wars One and Two, which the audience in 1946 would understand to follow quickly upon the events of the play.
What happens at the end of Act 3?
They think that, though they have done wrong individually, these wrongs have not added up to cause one person’s death.
What is the theme of An Inspector Calls?
Time, which deeply fascinated Priestley, is a central theme in many of his works. He famously was interested in Dunne’s theory of time, which argued that the past was still present, and that time was not linear as many traditional accounts suggest. An Inspector Calls explicitly deals with the nature of time in its final twist: has the play, we might wonder, simply gone back in time? Is it all about to happen again? How does the Inspector know of the “fire and blood and anguish,” usually interpreted as a foreshadowing of the First and Second World Wars?
Who is shaken by the Inspector's message?
While Arthur and Sybil refuse to accept responsibility for their actions toward Eva Smith (Arthur, in particular, is only concerned for his reputation and his potential knighthood), Eric and especially Sheila are shaken by the Inspector’s message and their role in Eva Smith’s suicide.
What is the theme of the last act of the play?
Though responsibility itself is a central theme of the play, the last act of the play provides a fascinating portrait of the way that people can let themselves off the hook. If one message of the play is that we must all care more thoroughly about the general welfare, it is clear that the message is not shared by all.
What is the theme of the play "We do not live alone"?
“We do not live alone,” the Inspector says in his final speech, “we are members of one body.” This perhaps is the most important and central theme of the play: that we have a duty to other people, regardless of social status, wealth, class, or anything else. There is, Priestley observes, such a thing as society, and he argues that it is important that people be aware of the effects of their actions on others. The Birlings, of course, initially do not think at all about how they might have affected Eva Smith, but they are forced to confront their likely responsibility over the course of the play.
