Representation of Priestley's Views in the Play An Inspector Calls

The play, An Inspector Calls, written by J.B Priestley, was first performed in 1945. Set in April 1912, it is a three-act drama that takes place on a single night in the upper-middle-class Birling household, where the family are celebrating the engagement of their daughter Sheila Birling to her fiance Gerald Croft. The family is visited by a middle-aged man with the name Inspector Goole, who informs the family of a girl’s suicide, which may involve some of the individuals present. Despite the play’s plot, Priestley shows his socialist views throughout the play, through the characters of the Inspector himself as well as Mr and Mrs Birling and Sheila and Eric. Priestley’s socialist viewpoints are very contradictory to the family’s capitalist views, and Priestley explores the negative effects a capitalist view can have on individuals who are more vulnerable and with no authority.

Priestley begins to use the character of the Inspector as a mouthpiece for his socialist views straight from his introduction. From when the Inspector first enters, the stage directions of the play indicate that he ‘creates at once an impression of massiveness, solidity and, purposefulness’. This solidity is shown by the fact that the Inspector remains confident yet composed while individuals of the Birling family attempt to change the points and allegations he is making.

Effectively, Priestley is using the mouthpiece of the Inspector to champion social responsibility and open the audience’s eyes to the devastating effects that a capitalist and their set ways could bring to the people of the lower class in society, with less wealth and fortune. Priestley uses the Inspector’s commanding authority over the Birling family to get across the message that the family’s capitalist viewpoints and actions are destructive to others and their lives, and they should be held accountable for the damage.

The Inspector has to clarify how the ‘chain of events’ most possibly led to the girl’s suicide. The metaphor ‘chain’ signifies the connection that links everybody in a community despite their social status. This is a key socialist belief around togetherness and therefore the ideas of a socialist are presented as a solution to challenges that individuals of a higher or lower social status may encounter. Priestley’s socialist viewpoint is best portrayed in the Inspector’s final speech where he states that ‘We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other’. This idea is one that Priestley deeply believed in and hopes to portray to the audience that the Birling’s power and riches are corrosive, and vulnerable people in society being exploited by capitalism is horrendous. Moreover, the Inspector exits with the message ‘If men will not learn that lesson, they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish’. This last message symbolises that war and conflict are most likely going to be the direct result of choosing capitalism over socialism.

Mr and Mrs Birling are presented in the play An Inspector Calls as the older and opinionated generation. They are both staged as capitalists, and Priestley also used these two characters to show his socialist views in the 21st century period. Priestley has portrayed the character of Mr Birling as a strong example of the patriarchal upper-class society of the early 20th Century.

In the play An Inspector Calls, Mr Birling is presented as greedy money-driven and self centered. In this sense, many capitalists would praise Mr Birling for his success and fortune but Priestley has purposely written the play through a socialist lens to highlight the underlying destructive causes of a capitalist. Much of Mr Birling’s dialogue is focused upon his passionate capitalist viewpoints as he rather arrogantly states to the Inspector that ‘the way these cranks talk, you’d think everybody has to look after everybody else’. Mr Birling’s arrogance is also presented very clearly when he remarks that ‘The Titanic sails next week…and unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable’. Priestley is using this dramatic irony to convey the capitalist character of Mr Birling as foolish yet demanding and is indicating to the audience that the system of capitalism has destructive flaws.

Continually throughout the play, the character of Mr Birling is shown to feel no empathy or responsibility towards the devastating death of Eva Smith, ‘I can’t accept any responsibility’. The lack of social ownership and equality reflects in the character of Mr Birling negatively and demonstrates Priestley’s pessimistic viewpoints towards capitalist beliefs in society, and is evidence that capitalist characteristics encourage carelessness and only self regard. Moreover, Mr Birling is a representation of how capitalism makes people defensive and unforthcoming. Mr Birling finds the Inspector’s questioning ‘unnecessary’ and ‘officious’. The adjective ‘officious’ implies that Mr Birling is becoming defensive as he dislikes that the Inspector is questioning his authority.

Furthermore, Mrs Birling is also presented by Priestley as an unlikable character from the beginning. Towards the start of the play, she is described as ‘a rather cold woman’. The adjective ‘cold’ symbolises that she is most likely not welcoming to most individuals and this is later proven by her dismissal of Eva Smith when she was most in her time of need. As the play proceeds, Mrs Birling is shown to be very self centered and shows a lack of knowledge towards how other people live, and thinks that all social standards and classes behave differently ‘But I think she has only herself to blame’, her pompous attitude is evidence that she cannot undertake collective responsibility for the death of Eva Smith. Her snobbish comment of ‘girls of that class’ supports the idea that she is naive and selfish and furthermore she refuses to take any ownership over the death. The metaphorical accusation made by the Inspector to Mrs Birling, ‘You slammed the door in her face’ portrays how capitalists build a barrier between different social classes, creating obstacles and limiting their resources to stop them from having the same success. Because Priestley feels strongly in his socialist views that everybody should be helping each other, he negatively presents the character of Mrs Birling who disregards everybody of a lower class to her, to convey to the audience the underlying effects that capitalist behaviours can have.

Priestley also addresses his viewpoints in the play An Inspector Calls through the characters of Eric and Sheila, who are the son and daughter of Mr and Mrs Birling.

Looking at the play as a whole, Sheila takes responsibility for her actions and tells the truth, something that neither Mr nor Mrs Birling would do because their capitalist viewpoints blur the fact that a young woman had died, and their individual actions could have possibly caused a reaction of change of events, yet the pair are only concerned about how this may affect them and their social appearance to others. Priestley has embodied the character of Sheila into the play’s capitalist context so as the play proceeds, the impact of Sheila’s self concern and greed had on others will evidence the brutality of capitalism. Priestley also shows his socialist views, in Sheila’s act of change. She is devastated when it is revealed that her father Mr Birling fired Eva from his works and persists that ‘these girls aren’t cheap labour, they’re people’. However, the irony of this situation is that she did not recognise the fact that after complaining about Eva at Milwards, this resulted in her being sacked yet again. Priestley is emphasizing here that the cause of any action can have an opposite reaction. As the play proceeds, Priestley has shown the character of Sheila as a sense of hope for future generations that they will accept their social responsibilities towards others, despite their wealth or fortune. As the audience, we come to realise that Sheila is accepting her responsibility in the situation. ‘You and I aren’t the same people who sat down to dinner here’. Unlike the rest of the family, both Sheila and Eric are now taking ownership of their actions.

Eric is presented in the play An Inspector Calls as the younger generation of a social class that is self indulgent and spoilt and shows signs of similar attitudes as Sheila throughout the play. This is demonstrated by his careless approach to life and his attitude towards the death of Eva Smith and his unborn child. Priestley addresses the character of Eric in this manner to give an insight to the audience about how his capitalist upbringing negatively impacts his social life and respect towards others of a different social standard. The importance of the quote, ‘I couldn’t remember her name or where she lived’, confirms that Eric explicitly didn’t care about Eva’s wealthfare, he just used her for his benefit. This is a capitalist characteristic that is extremely inconsistent with Priestley’s socialist views about helping others when in time of need, not just dismissing them because of where they stand in society.

However, similarly to Sheila, Eric presents change as the play proceeds. After the Inspector has left in Act 3, Eric is quick to come to the realisation of what his actions have caused and takes responsibility for them. Also, his mother and father are persistent that they did nothing wrong, but Eric is clear to understand how each individual in the family most likely caused a change of events leading towards Eva Smith’s death. ‘And it doesn’t alter the fact that we all helped to kill her’. Priestley’s language choice of the plural pronoun ‘we’ symbolises that Eric is beginning to agree with the Inspector, around the idea that if everybody in the family hadn’t been so self centered and selfish and began to help each other in the community despite where they stand in society, the rate of tragedies would be much less and as a society as a whole it is likely that everybody would be much happier.

Looking at the play as a whole Priestley strongly believes that in a fast developing capitalist world, issues of social responsibility were of increasing importance. He explored this message in his play, An Inspector Calls, through a careful examination of the flaws in the Birling family. Each member of the family abused their position of power which resulted in a devastating effect for a young girl. This is strongly against the view of a socialist, and Priestley’s used the characters of Mr and Mrs Birling, the Inspector, Eric, and Sheila to sober the harsh realities of life for the poor. Priestley very subtly gave a very good insight into both capitalist and socialist viewpoints throughout the play and through the personas of the characters. Priestley can impact the audience on these different beliefs and show how negatively capitalism can be perceived.