AN INSPECTOR CALLS
This was the period of the Russian Revolution, two appalling world wars, the Holocaust and the Atom Bomb.
This table describes what society was like in 1912 and in 1945
|An Inspector Calls is set in 1912 |An Inspector Calls was written in 1945. |
|The First World War would start in two years. |The Second World War ended on 8 May 1945. People were recovering from nearly |
|Birling’s optimistic view that there would not be a |six years of warfare, danger and uncertainty. |
|war is completely wrong. | |
|There were strong distinctions between the upper and |Class distinctions had been greatly reduced as a result of two world wars. |
|lower classes. | |
|Women were subservient to men. All a well off women |As a result of the wars, women had earned a more valued place in society. |
|could do was get married; a poor woman was seen as | |
|cheap labour. | |
The Term Paper on Total War World Women Warfare
"[B]oh sides had seen, in a sad scrawl of broken earth and murdered men, the answer to the question... Neither race had won, nor could win, the War. The War had won, and would go on winning." 1 These are the words of Edmund Blunder, a British soldier who survived the Battle of the Somme, who came to the realization that nobody could claim victory in the twentieth-century mass warfare, because both ...
|The ruling classes saw no need to change the status |There was a great desire for social change. Immediately after The Second |
|quo. |World War, Clement Attlee’s Labour Party won a landslide victory over Winston|
| |Churchill and the Conservatives. |
Priestley deliberately set his play in 1912 because the date represented an era when all was very different from the time he was writing. In 1912, rigid class and gender boundaries seemed to ensure that nothing would change. Yet by 1945, most of those class and gender divisions had been breached. Priestley wanted to make the most of these changes. Through this play, he encourages people to seize the opportunity the end of the war had given them to build a better, more caring society.
Para 1: Introduction – Mrs Birling
• Explain Mrs Birling’s role in Eva’s death and discuss whether she is to blame.
Para 2 – Mr Birling
• Look at Mr Birling’s part in the tragedy and comment on the extent of his responsibility.
Para 3 – Sheila
• Explore Sheila’s part and, as before, comment on the extent of her responsibility.
Para 4 – Gerald
• Now do the same for Gerald…
Para 5 – Eric
• and for Eric…
Para 6 – Conclusion
