P2.A.IC*An Inspector Calls* (J. B. Priestley) — social responsibility, class, gender, time; the Birling family; Inspector Goole; cyclical structure and the final phone call

J. B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls (1945, set in 1912) is the most chosen modern play on AQA 8702. Written immediately after the Second World War but set on the eve of the First, it interrogates social responsibility through the device of an apparently supernatural inspector who exposes how an upper-middle-class family caused a young woman's death. Paper 2 Section A is a 30-mark essay (no extract) on a chosen theme or character.

Plot in brief

In 1912 Brumley, the Birling family celebrates Sheila's engagement to Gerald Croft. Inspector Goole arrives with news that Eva Smith (also called Daisy Renton) has died by suicide. Through interrogation, each family member is revealed to have wronged her: Mr Birling sacked her for organising a strike; Sheila had her dismissed from a shop on a jealous whim; Gerald kept her as a mistress; Eric got her pregnant and stole money from his father's business to support her; Mrs Birling denied her charity. As the Inspector leaves, the family find no Inspector Goole exists at the local police station. They relax — until a real call from the police announces a young woman has died; an inspector is on his way.

Themes

Social responsibility — the play's central message. Priestley uses Inspector Goole as moral mouthpiece: "We don't live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other." (Act 3) Each family member's individual cruelty contributes to a collective social failure.

Class — the Birlings (industrial wealth) and Crofts (older landed wealth) inhabit a privileged stratum. Eva Smith stands for the working-class women whose labour the rich exploit. The play's force lies in showing class oppression as personal, not just structural.

Generational divide — Sheila and Eric are open to change; Mr and Mrs Birling refuse it. Priestley clearly invests hope in the younger generation: Sheila's "But these girls aren't cheap labour — they're people" is the play's ethical climax for many readers.

Time and the supernatural — Inspector Goole ("Goole" = "ghoul"); his omniscience; the pre-arrival suicide that becomes real after he leaves. Priestley deploys multiple time theories — J. W. Dunne's circular time, Ouspensky's recurrence — to suggest moral consequences cycle until learned.

Gender — Eva's sequence of relationships (employer, mistress, fellow lodger, mother) reveals the limited paths available to working-class women in 1912; Mrs Birling's charity-committee callousness exemplifies how privileged women collude in the system.

Key Acts

• Act 1 — Birling's opening monologue (Titanic "absolutely unsinkable"; war "impossible") establishes him as comically wrong; Inspector arrives; Mr Birling and Sheila implicated.
• Act 2 — Gerald's affair revealed; Mrs Birling implicates her own son before knowing he is the father.
• Act 3 — Eric confesses; Inspector's "fire and blood and anguish" speech; Inspector exits; the family argue; the phone rings.

Character arcs

• Arthur Birling — capitalist mill-owner; "hard-headed business man"; refuses learning. "A man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own." (Act 1) Pomposity is comic and deadly.
• Sybil Birling — class-conscious, "her husband's social superior"; "girls of that class" indicates her view of Eva.
• Sheila — naive at the start; transformed by interrogation; becomes Priestley's voice of conscience by Act 3.
• Eric — drinker; "squiffy" early; takes on responsibility through confession.
• Gerald — easy charm; affairs reveal moral lightness; partly redeemed by his contrition but reverts at the end.
• Inspector Goole — moral mouthpiece; calm, omniscient, judgemental; possible ghost or projection of conscience; a recurring figure across time.

Form, structure, dramatic technique

• Three-act structure — each act ends on a cliffhanger (Inspector knocks; Gerald confesses; phone rings).
• Stage directions — pink lighting "intimate" turns to "harder, brighter" — symbolises moral exposure.
• Confined setting — the Birlings' dining room; classical unities (one place, near-real time, single action) intensify focus.
• Dramatic irony — Birling's monologue (Titanic, no war) makes 1945 audiences see his certainty as ridiculous.
• Priestley's morality-play structure — modern allegory: Inspector as conscience, Eva as everywoman victim.

Context (AO3)

• Set in 1912: Edwardian peak of class confidence — pre-First World War, pre-Suffrage, pre-General Strike. Audiences in 1945 know what is coming.
• Written in 1945: post-war Labour landslide; foundation of NHS (1948) and welfare state. Priestley's left-wing politics (he campaigned for socialism on BBC Postscripts during the war).
• WW1, WW2 between setting and writing: makes Birling's blithe optimism the play's deepest irony.
• Edwardian gender norms: women had no vote; few employment options; sexual transgression destroyed reputation. Eva's pregnancy is socially catastrophic.
• Priestley as broadcaster: his BBC Postscripts (1940) addressed millions on shared sacrifice and post-war change.