critical essay an inspector calls

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Essays on An Inspector Calls

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Analysis of How Eric is Presented in an Inspector Calls

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Older Vs Younger Generation in an Inspector Calls

Portrayal of the abuse of authority in j.b. priestley's play an inspector calls, the role played by the characters sheila and eric in an inspector call, the role and function of the inspector in an inspector calls, get a personalized essay in under 3 hours.

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Responsibility of Characters in 'An Inspector Calls'

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6 July 1945, J. B. Priestley

The play is a three-act drama which takes place on a single night in April 1912, focusing on the prosperous upper middle-class Birling family,[ who live in a comfortable home in the fictional town of Brumley, "an industrial city in the north Midlands". The family is visited by a man calling himself Inspector Goole, who questions the family about the suicide of a young working-class woman in her mid-twenties.

The major theme of “An Inspector Calls” is social responsibility of a man living in the society in which he is expected to follow the basic principles of social living. Other major themes include guilt, gender, class conflict, cause and effect, poverty and exploitation.

The methods that Priestley uses to interest and involve the audience is by using various dramatic techniques such as dramatic irony, cliff hangers, lighting and setting. He uses all his techniques to show his message and make sure the audience understand it. They also create tension. The dialogue is believable and fast moving and the play is structured so that each act grabs the audience's attention.

Inspector Goole, Edna, Arthur Birling, Sybil Birling, Sheila Birling, Eric Birling, Gerald Croft

An Inspector Calls is one of Priestley's best-known works for the stage and is considered to be one of the classics of mid-20th century English theatre. The play's success and reputation were boosted by a successful revival by English director Stephen Daldry for the National Theatre in 1992 and a tour of the UK in 2011–2012. The play is studied in many British schools as one of the prescribed texts for the English Literature GCSE.

“It’s better to ask for the earth than to take it” “We have to share something. If there’s nothing else, we’ll have to share our guilt” “Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges”

1. Samantrai, R. (2017). Sermon and Spectacle: JB Priestley’s An Inspector Calls. Modern Drama, 60(2), 212-230. (https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/abs/10.3138/MD.0842?journalCode=md) 2. Gale, M. B. (2014). An Inspector Calls and Calls Again: Nation, Community and the Individual in JB Priestley’s Play. In Theatre and National Identity (pp. 96-112). Routledge. 9https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203366219-8/inspector-calls-calls-maggie-gale) 3. Williams, R. (2017). An Inspector Calls by JB Priestley: An introduction. Teaching Drama, 2016(72), 1-1. (https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/abs/10.12968/DT.2017.72.GCSE?journalCode=tedr) 4. Barnett, D. (2022). “The Point Is, You Don’t Seem to Have Learnt Anything”: Reimagining JB Priestley’s An Inspector Calls as a Brechtian Lehrstück for the Middle Classes. Modern Drama, 65(3), 381-405. (https://moderndrama.utpjournals.press/doi/abs/10.3138/md-65-3-1217) 5. Brown, C. (2012). An inspector calls. The School Librarian, 60(2), 112. (https://www.proquest.com/docview/1024830734?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true) 6. Doak, J. (2009). An inspector calls: Looking at retail development through a sustainability lens. Journal of Retail & Leisure Property, 8, 299-309. (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/rlp.2009.17) 7. Konkle, L. (2008). JB Priestley. Modern Drama, 51(4), 620-622. (https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/50/article/259357/summary) 8. Lesser, W. (1994). Inspection. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/4384357)

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British Library Essay Extracts on An Inspector Calls

Click on the button above to access a booklet that contains extracts from six essays I’ve taken from the excellent  British Library website .

• The Life of J. B. Priestley
• An Inspector Calls   and J B Priestley’s political journey
• Programme note by J B Priestley about   An Inspector Calls
• An Overview and Key Productions
• Extracts from meeting notes about the set and staging of   An Inspector Calls   (1992)
• An introduction to   An Inspector Calls   (Parts 1, 2 and 3)

The booklet’s designed to give students some accessible wider reading they can tackle at home and then discuss in class.  The bits I’ve put in bold are for zooming-in on.  Typically, I’ll ask students to expand on the statements or retrieve supporting quotations – that sort of thing.

Click   here   to access a similar booklet containing essays on   Macbeth   that I put together a few weeks ago.

Hope it’s useful –

Doug [email protected] 

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