How Priestly Uses the Characters to Represent His Own Views on Society :: An Inspector Calls Edwardian Society Essays

How Priestly Uses the Characters to Represent His Own Views on SocietyThe quicken An Inspector Calls is set in 1912 but was written in 1945.Edwardian society at that time (1912) was strictly divided into social socio-economic classes and all over two-thirds of the nations wealth was in the hands ofless than 1% of the population. Below the real rich were the opticclasses (doctors and merchants, make workers and clerks), after thatcame the craftsmen and skilled workers. At the actually bottom of thesocial ladder was the largest class of all - the ordinary workers andthe poor, legion(predicate) of whom lived below the poverty level. The men ofindustry treated the workers very disadvantageously and they were paid pittance.This caused workers to become better organised and strikes werebecoming more buy at as they demanded better conditions and higherpay. J.B. Priestley was writing the play for a mettle class audienceand was trying to speak up for the working class by showing how the rotates and Gerald Croft were all involved in making a young workingclass girls life a misery. Priestley wants to show us that we have aresponsibility to others to act fairly and without prejudice and thatwe do not live in isolation. Our actions affect others. This is theconcept of collective responsibility. Priestley says, things could very improve if only people were to become more socially trustyfor the welf are of others. We have to confront our mistakes and learnfrom them.The play starts off with the Birling family celebrating theirdaughters engagement to Gerald Croft. The family included Mr Birling,Mrs Birling, Eric Birling, Sheila Birling and Gerald Croft. ArthurBirling is glad because Gerald is the son of his pipeline competitorand it will be a merger of businesses. Through the middle of thedinner there is a knock at the door. This is where we meet testerGoole. He tells the family that a girl has committed suicide and thatin unmatched way or another they are respons ible. Mr Birling was responsiblefor spill the girl from his factory. Sheila Birling was responsiblebecause she got the girl sacked from a shop where she works. EricBirling was seeing her but the broke it off, and Gerald Croft washaving an affair with her but he also broke it off. All of theirmorals are tested and they are all put to the test because none ofthem really know the fairness about what they have done until the quizzer brings it out of them. After the inspector goes the familyfinds out that he was a fake and that no girl had died.