Inspector Calls Themes

Christian Context and Allusion

• Morality play--strongly rooted in Christian tradition

• Priestley uses Christian language, words of the Anglican service, as the audience would be familiar with this

• "we are all members of one body"--biblical reference

• Familiar (religious) language makes it easier for the audience to embrace the idea of socialism

Genesis and Free Will

• Link to The Original Sin

• Inspector represents God

• Inspector lets them choose whether or not to act upon what he says

• This gives the Inspector the audience's support

Time and The Future

• Priestley was fascinated by the idea of time

• "Goole"--Inspector's name links to A Christmas Carol (the Ghosts)

• Inspector could be representative of the Ghosts

• This then links the Birlings to Scrooge

• The audience's knowledge of A Christmas Carol would increase the impact the play would have on them

Tradegy

• Aristotle's Poetic's--The Three Unities:

• Unity of Action: There should be one unified plot

• Unity of Time: The events should take place within one day

• Unity of Place: The play should take place in a single place

• Eva's death (and second death) are symbolic of the tragedies of WWI and WWII

• The other tragedy is the fate of the working classes to be exploited

• The characters' hamartias (The Seven Deadly Sins)

Capitalism

• The rich get richer and the poor get poorer

Socialism

• The government owns as much of big businesses as possible, and distributes the profits fairly

Inspector as Teacher: Capitalism, Socialism, Morality

• Most members of the audience would be quite rich, they would typically have the mindset that capitalism is superior

• Priestley links capitalism to immorality, and socialism to morality

• Mr. Birling says that how he runs his business is not relevant, Inspector replies with "it might be"

The Oppressed but Deserving Working Class

• Edna represents this

• "he says it's important"

• This could suggest that she doesn't think she can stand up for herself, due to her oppression

• Alternatively, it could be seen as her giving authority to The Inspector

• Either way, it conveys the idea that Priestley is siding with the working class

• Edna also announces the title of the play

Patriarchal Society: Feminist Message

• "these young women"--suggests vulnerability to exploitation from capitalist men

• "we should put ourselves in the place of these young women counting their pennies"--Priestley takes a feminist viewpoint

• The majority of the audience would be women, and socialism would benefit them more than men, as they are marginalised

Patriarchy: Selling Daughters as Property

• Sheila is still expected to marry Gerald even after realising that he cheated on her

• Birling is deserting his daughter to further his business

• "women of the town"--likely prostitutes, but Mr. Birling is okay with this

• "[she] only escaped with a torn blouse" (from Meggarty)--Mr. Birling tells her off for this, and expects her to simply put up with this

Capitalism = Patriarchy = War

• "if men will not learn that lesson"--"men": link to patriarchy, suggests that women have the power to change society

Capitalism as Exploitation

• Gerald: "we're respectable citizens and not criminals"--They are still immoral, just not illegal

• Priestley wants this to be illegal

• Inspector: "I wouldn't know where to draw the line [between respectable citizens and criminals]"

• Gerald: "Fortunately, it isn't left to you, is it?"--"Fortunately" reveals the luck of capitalists that they can continue their exploitative ways

Birling and Capitalism as Profiteers from War

• "unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable"--Mr. Birling, and in turn capitalists, are discredited through dramatic irony

• "[he speaks] as a hard-headed business man"--portrays capitalists as ruthless, and he actually thinks that this is a good thing

• Also links to Sir Stanley Baldwin (British PM)--Priestley is making a link between capitalism and war

• "And we're in for a time of steadily increasing prosperity"--might not be dramatic irony: the war could have been started to stop mass strikes, and some capitalists made big profits from the depression

Upper Classes and Deception and Sophistry

• "how do we know it's the same girl?"

• Eva Smith and Daisy have too much in common for it to be plausible that they are separate people

• Gerald himself reveals most of this information about Daisy

Capitalism and the Failure of the Younger Generation

• Even though Sheila likely learns the most, she still probably fails to change, as she doesn't have the power or influence

• Eric still has a lack of responsibility, as he's drunk, and he says "not really" about stealing the money

Eva's Suicide: Disinfectant

• Eva might feel as though the disinfectant will cleanse her, possibly from her sexual assault from Eric

Anti-War

• The technological advancements that Mr. Birling talks about at the start are what enable war to be so destructive

• "fire and blood and anguish"--Inspector's final words, links capitalism to war

• Priestley is an anti-war writer

The Importance of Character's Names

• Daisy: Uprooted, innocent, beautiful, dying

• Renton: For Rent

• Eva: Eve

• Gerald: Rule of the spear--link to violence

• Eric: EirÍkr combines 'Ei' (ever, always) with 'rÍkr' (ruler)--link to oppression

• Arthur: king, Albion--could represent all of England

• Sheila: Sheila comes from the Latin name Cecilia (the feminine form of 'blind' in Latin)--could suggest how she doesn't realise the damage she is doing

• Sybil: Greek and Roman legend--ten sibyls; female prophets at different holy sites who were revered, and were looked up to as having divine knowledge--Priestley uses this allusion to create irony

• Goole: ghoul, A Christmas Carol

Quantum Physics and Time: (Avengers Endgame)

• Schrödinger's Cat

• The events of the play take place within one hour, just like Erwin Schrödinger's original proposition

• Like Schrödinger's Cat, Eva could be both alive until the Birlings observe her

• They don't learn from the Inspector's visit, and this leads to Eva's second death at the very end of the play

• If they did learn, the play might've ended differently (Eva might not have died at all if this happened)

• This would remove the idea that God is being cruel to Eva, as she dies due to the free will of the characters

First World War: Unspoken

• WWI was so horrific that is wasn't spoken about much

• But after around ten years, there was a huge influx of books about WWI, which could have been for catharsis, then this interest stopped again

• Priestley can't comment on WWI too directly, so he writes "fire and blood and anguish", and he possibly just disguises the play as a capitalist play, and uses it to talk about war instead, so his message is easier for the audience to accept

Why Priestley Chooses the Textile Industry

• J and P Coats, the British sewing thread producer, was the third largest industrial firm in the world

• 'Croft' sounds like 'Coat', and this creates a very subtle link between the two

• After 1920, Britain's output saw a sharp decline

• Priestley doesn't directly refer to this, and Mr. Birling's reference to the supposedly "unsinkable" Titanic could refer to the seemingly "unsinkable" British manufacturing industry