an inspector calls - context

priestley’s beliefs

• priestley was a socialist

• he wrote this play to criticise the capitalist edwardian system

women’s rights

• women had very few rights, regardless of class

• all women relied on marriage for stability

• they were paid less than men and got the vote in 1918

• priestley shows this through all the female characters

class divisions

• edwardian era had deep class divisions

• a small upper class had most of the power

• priestley wanted to show how they exploited the working classes

the ‘undeserving poor’

• many upper-class people believed the poor didn’t deserve help

• they thought poverty was the poor’s own fault

• this justified their lack of charity and support

historical setting

• set in 1912, just before world war one (1914-1918)

• priestley shows that edwardian society was unstable

• its divisions helped lead to the war