I am going to consider the five different characters in ‘An Inspector Calls’ and their contributions to the death of Eva Smith before concluding who I feel is to blame the most. Arthur Birling is first to be questioned by the Inspector, at first he does not recognise the girl’s name but after seeing her picture he realises that she was a young girl that once worked as a labourer in his company. He claims that he fired this girl for asking for higher wages. He displays a lack of empathy and understanding
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In an inspector calls Priestley presents Mr Birling as being a successful business man who is ruthless. He is also very proud and boasts lots to make him have more social authority. Another reason is that Priestley is very optimistic. Moreover he is very selfish and only cares about himself and his family. Mr Birling comes across as being a successful business man who is ruthless. For example he plays golf with Chief Constable Colonel Roberts, golf is a luxury and is very expensive, he also plays
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Significance of younger characters – Eric, Sheila and Gerald The younger characters represent hope for the future and optimism at the start of the play. They have happiness, marriage and business success set before them. Ultimately, Priestley uses them to show that redemption from guilt is by no means inevitable. Sheila is presented as the stereotypical young woman who lives an idyllic life. Perhaps in that sense her name is an ironic counterpart to Eva. Eva suggests the biblical figure of
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to be exploring the role and function of the inspector in “An Inspector Calls“. I am going to break down his role in the play, explore his effects on the other characters and analyse his stage presence and also show his intention in coming to the Birling household. I am also going to express whether I think, in the play, the inspector is supposed to be a real person or something other. When exploring the effects that the inspector has on the other characters I will describe the characters personalities
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‘cosmic time-lord’ or have compared him to ‘The ghost of Christmas Yet to Come’ from Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’. At the beginning of the play, time is used to undermine Arthur Birling, as he makes a series of misplaced predictions about the future. This dramatic irony serves not only to belittle Birling, but to criticise the idea of capitalism, which he represents. The first audience to watch the play in 1946 would be well aware of his miscalculation when he states that the Titanic, a ship
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heavy-handed sermonizing. Arthur Birling and his family are celebrating their daughter Sheila’s engagement to Gerald Croft. This will also merge two corporate competitors, resulting in higher profits. Priestley relies on the audience’s knowledge of recent events to color Birling’s optimism with irony as he extols the wonders of the Titanic, which is about to set sail into a world that will avoid war. These ironies also foreshadow the impending disaster about to strike the Birlings when Inspector Goole unexpectedly
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the title of the play. Priestly wishes to convey the importance of the Inspector before the play has begun. The Inspector arrives in the middle of Birling’s speech in the first Act. He informs the Birlings that a girl called Eva Smith has committed suicide. He says Eva’s diary names members of the Birling family. ‘A girl has died in the infirmary’. Suddenly the whole story changes, from it being a joyful celebration of an engagement into an interrogation. This shows his importance because he has changed
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remains confident, sturdy and composed, while people around him crumble and fall to pieces. His ‘solidity’ is proven by the fact he remains on task despite numerous attempts from Birling to digress from the points he is making. The Inspector is told to appear ‘purposeful’; this is shown where he explains to Birling that Birlings way of thinking “Every man must only look out for himself,” is not the case, and all warps of society are interlinked. The view is best illustrated in the Inspectors final speech
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unfounded? As Act 1 of An Inspector Calls continues we see that Arthur Birling seems to be a confident and powerful man who is clearly anxious to be seen as a successful businessman and the head of his family. He is apparently very pleased with the way life is turning out for him and the other Birlings. Priestley sets the play in 1912 but it was first performed in 1945. He quite deliberately proceeds to make Mr Birling speak, in these first scenes of An Inspector Calls of events which the audience
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Sheila and Eric important in the play? The characters of Sheila and Eric are important in the play as; Priestley introduces them to be coming from a trouble-free, spoiled and wealthy family background where there are no problems, although later we find out that this is not the case. Firstly, they are important since, they represent the younger generation who are open to change and equality. They are open to new ideas as well as, improvements. The evidence for this is found in act1 when, Eric and Sheila
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