An Inspector Calls was written in 1945 shortly after the Second World War but set in 1912 just before the First World War because Priestley a socialist himself wanted to show how big the class divide was before the wars and everyone had to pull together and how he didn’t want us to go back to that so Priestley uses the Inspector as his voice in the play to try to teach the Birling’s and the audience about caring for each other and looking out for one another.
The play opens up in the Birling’s dining room where the Birling’s plus Gerald are having a celebratory dinner “dessert plates and champagne glasses, etc., and then replacing them with decanter of port, cigar box and cigarettes” many of the things on the table are what only the wealthy …show more content…
As the play comes to an end the Inspector leaves the Birling’s with one final speech, one final hope that he might be able to get the Birling’s to change their point of view “We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.” His speech is a direct contrast to Mr Birling’s speech much earlier in the play and shows us what is possibly one of the mean reasons behind the play, that we are all responsible for are actions and that we can decide how to treat one another while Mr Birling had very different ideas “The way some of these cranks talk and write now, you’d think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up together” the two characters continue to be opposites, the Inspector never quite managing to change Mr Birling’s point of view although he did however manage to change the younger Birling’s opinions and perhaps shape the way for them to be a kinder family in the future but the Birling’s children are just fictional and it was the audience watching the play that Priestley wanted to change the mind-set of, if just a few people came away wanting to help others than the purpose for the play would have been
The play opens up in the Birling’s dining room where the Birling’s plus Gerald are having a celebratory dinner “dessert plates and champagne glasses, etc., and then replacing them with decanter of port, cigar box and cigarettes” many of the things on the table are what only the wealthy …show more content…
As the play comes to an end the Inspector leaves the Birling’s with one final speech, one final hope that he might be able to get the Birling’s to change their point of view “We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.” His speech is a direct contrast to Mr Birling’s speech much earlier in the play and shows us what is possibly one of the mean reasons behind the play, that we are all responsible for are actions and that we can decide how to treat one another while Mr Birling had very different ideas “The way some of these cranks talk and write now, you’d think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up together” the two characters continue to be opposites, the Inspector never quite managing to change Mr Birling’s point of view although he did however manage to change the younger Birling’s opinions and perhaps shape the way for them to be a kinder family in the future but the Birling’s children are just fictional and it was the audience watching the play that Priestley wanted to change the mind-set of, if just a few people came away wanting to help others than the purpose for the play would have been