Marxism In An Inspector Calls

As the play "An Inspector Calls" was set two years prior to the World War 2, the variety of conflicts surrounding this time period, such as the arguments of socialism versus capitalist, are ingrained in the play. The Central Powers were countries with powerful elites who wanted more power. Central capitalist superiorities were countries with dominant elite with a thirst for wealth and power; in the play, Priestley portrays this using characters like Mr Birling. Furthermore, Eva Smith represented the working class and their absence of wealth and power. When Birling comments, "They were all rather restless, and suddenly decided to ask for more money … I refused, of course", it further emphasizes the class and ideology divide between socialists and capitalist . Describing the employees as "restless" and "sudden" implies that it was out of the ordinary for someone of the lower class …show more content…
Priestley was born in 1894 and served throughout the First World War. He had first hand experience with the conflicts in the world. In 1943 he wrote an account of his roaming, English Journey, through England when he observed the growing social inequalities during the Depression. He grieved in the book that his friends had all gone, "killed by greed and muddle and old men." Therefore, he explored the idea of old Capitalists being obsessed with money and full of "greed" which were also persuading other people into following their ways. By creating the metaphor of being "killed", he almost blames the Capitalists for destroying, "killing", the spirit of the people. Furthermore, in the play An Inspector Calls, Priestley looks back in disgust to early 20th Century Britain and the capitalist owned mills and factories. He saw capitalist men as those who were only interested in profit, oblivious to the world around them, and careless of anything not concerning