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An Inspector Calls

Nathan M. ★ 5.0 (3)

University of york - ma philosophy.

Philosophy Master's Graduate from York with a passion for language, learning, and everything academic!

Notes || Exam Prep || Character Profiles || Themes || Additional Reading & Videos

This topic is included in  Paper 2 . You can find notes and guides for it below.

• Overview and Key Scenes
• Glossary of Key Terms
• Definitions Flashcards
• Guide to Paper 2
• How to plan and write a top mark essay
• Question Bank - Characters
• Question Bank - Relationships
• Question Bank - Themes

Additional Reading & Videos

• An Inspector Calls (2017 film version)

Character Profiles

• Eric Birling
• Gerald Croft
• Mrs Birling
• Sheila Birling
• The Inspector
• Capitalism vs Socialism
• Exploitation
• Generations Young vs Old
• Social Class
• Social Responsibility
• Wealth and Materialism

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English at Lutterworth College

An inspector calls exemplar essay.

Year 10! Want to see an example of a grade 8 (A*) essay on  An Inspector Calls ?

Your wish is our command!

The essay below was written in response to the following question:

How does Priestley explore attitudes towards social class in An Inspector Calls?

Big thanks to Dylan Clarke in 10B/En1 for letting us share his (exceptional) work.

An Inspector Calls – Grade 8 Exemplar – Year 10

PS. While you’re here, why not liven up your playlists with one of our Girls Aloud/An Inspector Calls mashups ?

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Keep an eye out for An Inspector Calls games, puzzles and quizzes throughout the site

Below, you'll find everything you need to revise for an inspector calls - and if you need anything else, just let me know and i'll do my very best. it's what i ask of you, and so it's only right that i offer it in return....

Key Themes:

Responsibility

Capitalism vs Socialism

Dramatic Devices

Revision Materials:

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GCSE Study Notes and Revision Guides

An inspector calls (grades 9–1) york notes, j. b. priestley, your assessment, read through the answer below and decide what grade to give it. use the hints & tips to help you make your assessment., question: how does priestley present mrs birling’s response to the inspector’s visit.

Write about:

• what Mrs Birling says and does in the play
• how Priestley presents Mrs Birling’s response to the Inspector’s visit.

Priestley presents Sybil Birling as a snobbish and unkind woman. She feels herself to be above other people who are not in the same class as she is, and when the Inspector arrives she treats him like an inferior.

She does not meet the Inspector until Act Two. In the meantime he has been questioning other characters and there has been an argument between Sheila and Gerald. When Mrs Birling comes on to the stage she is not prepared for this. Her mood is ‘quite out of key’ and she does not pick up on the atmosphere and the effect is to make her seem like a busybody. Sheila uses the metaphor ‘not to build a wall’. She is trying to tell her mother not to stop the Inspector’s inquiries, but Sybil Birling does not understand and she is annoyed. She is also rude to the Inspector, saying that his comments are ‘a trifle impertinent’. The word ‘impertinent’ shows how her attitude to others is a superior one.

Priestley also presents Sybil Birling as someone who does not care how people from the lower classes live. Priestley sees this as part of the problem with the rich in Edwardian times and since there is no government assistance charities need to help. Although Sybil Birling belongs to the Brumley Women’s Charity Organization, she only helps those who she thinks have earned it. So when Eva Smith, who is pregnant, asks for help and calls herself Mrs Birling, Sybil Birling is extremely angry and tells her committee not to assist. This is an example of irony, because Sybil Birling doesn’t know that Eric is the unborn baby’s father. To make things worse, she then tells the Inspector when he is questioning her that the father of the child should be made to pay and be, ‘dealt with very severely’.

Sybil Birling does not understand why her daughter Sheila is so impressed with the Inspector. She does not grasp the Inspector’s message ‘that we are all responsible for one another’ and most of the time she goes along with what her husband says. She is more concerned to keep things under wraps and make sure there is no gossip that could harm her family. She is not interested in people outside her own class.

Priestley shows us two points in the play where Sybil Birling’s coldness turns to horror. At the end of Act Two there is a climax. This is because she has just realized that Eric is the father of Eva Smith’s unborn baby. Although she shouts, ‘I won’t believe it’ we feel she does. The stress on ‘won’t’ means that she doesn’t want to believe it. The other point is when Eric gets to find out about his mother refusing help to Eva Smith and he says, ‘you killed her – and your own grandchild’. This is a real shock for his mother and she is ‘very distressed’. Eric is so angry he is almost violent towards her and the audience must feel the shock too.

You might think Mrs Birling would think hard about what she has done and Eric’s problems, but when she speaks next she just blames Eric. She is more concerned with avoiding a scandal, and this tell us that despite everything that has happened she is not willing to learn from the Inspector and change.

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An Inspector Calls: Writer's Methods & Techniques ( AQA GCSE English Literature )

Revision note.

English Senior Content Creator

Writer’s Methods and Techniques

‘Methods’ is an umbrella term for anything the writer does on purpose to create meaning. Using the writer’s name in your response will help you to think about the test as a conscious construct and will keep reminding you that Priestley purposely put the play together.

Dramatic Methods

There are a number of dramatic methods used in An Inspector Calls:

dramatic structure

dramatic speech and language

Dramatic structure

An Inspector Calls follows a three-act structure which utilises many conventions of the detective genre, though some of these have been subverted:

The Inspector’s speech does not provide any further revelations but simply repeats the moral message of the play

Priestley structures the play using some dramatic devices from Greek tragedy, specifically the Three Unities , to create intensity and add an element of realism to the play:

Unity of Place: the play is set in one location

Unity of Time: the events are enacted in real-time

Unity of Action: the play has only one plot 

In the opening section of the play, Priestley has introduced the Birlings, established their social positions and gives some clues to the audience that this depiction of a happy family is not quite what it seems:

Priestley prepares the audience for the characters’ downfall

Priestley has structured the play so that each act presents the audience with a number of gradual revelations, twists and surprises:

This is used to increase tension, create shock and/or and add an element of surprise

The play employs a cyclical structure , meaning the play ends where it began with a call from a police inspector:

This structure may indicate the characters will be made to repeat the events of the evening, with another opportunity of redemption for those characters who had refused to do so 

It could also indicate that these characters are doomed to repeat the same mistakes as before and will fail to ‘learn their lesson’

In order to create suspense and shock, Priestley subverts the denouement  of the play, by ending the play on a cliff-hanger with an unexpected twist:

The pattern of ending each act on a cliff-hanger will have been anticipated by the audience

However, the revelation that a girl has just died and a police inspector is on his way will have created a thrilling end to the play

The events of the play take place in the Birlings’ dining room:

The single location of the play may signify the Birlings’ relative isolation and detachment from the lower classes

It also adds an element of entrapment with the characters seeming unable to escape the Inspector’s interrogation 

The intimate location also creates a contrast between the private and public spheres of the family:

The revelations exposed are at this point a private family matter, yet the impending visit of the police inspector at the end of the play will threaten to bring events into the public sphere

The sharp sound effect of the doorbell when the Inspector arrives interrupts Arthur’s speech about the importance of looking after oneself:

This forewarns the audience that his attitude is about to be challenged by the Inspector

The lighting changes from ‘pink and ‘intimate’ to suggest that the Inspector will place the characters under great scrutiny:

It may also indicate that the characters will begin to see events with greater clarity and in a new light

Priestley uses cliff-hangers at the end of each act and begins each subsequent act where the previous one finished, which helps to maintain tension and pace

Dramatic entrances and exits are used to create further suspense:

Sheila dramatically exits the stage when she is shown a photograph of Eva, showing she is distraught

Priestley deliberately makes Eric a peripheral  character for much of Acts I and II:

His repeated absences from the stage are used to delay Eric’s confession until the dramatic final act

Priestley deftly creates tension through a variety of methods:

The use of silence and pauses

Information about Eva and each of the character’s involvement with her is only gradually revealed to the audience

The use of photographs is used to great effect:

This assumes great importance at the end of the play when it is suspected he may have been showing a different photo to each character

There is a strong contrast in the first half of the act compared to the second half in terms of both character and mood:

The first half illustrates the prosperity and smugness of the Birlings

The second half enables the audience to observe its destruction

Dramatic speech and language

It is important to consider the ways in which Priestley organises speech and language within the play. For example, the use of dialogue; the use of monologues and each character’s specific use of language.

Dramatic Irony

Priestley uses a great deal of dramatic irony  throughout the first part of Act I

Priestley deliberately uses dramatic irony , in part, to portray Arthur Birling as foolish when the character smugly boasts about the Titanic ship and the future prospects of peace and prosperity:

Arthur’s optimism for the future is superficial and his predictions demonstrate his complacency

However, this suits him, for he has much to lose if things were to change

Arthur Birling’s speech also serves several dramatic purposes:

It presents a picture of a world safe for Capitalism  to thrive

The speech also shows a man confident in his own judgement and totally self-satisfied

However, the audience is clearly aware of the sinking of the ship and the war which followed two years after the play was set

His pronouncements display him as a self-opinionated materialist whose confidence in his own judgement is a sham

While understandably Arthur would not have been able to predict these future events, Priestley deliberately uses this device to further ridicule his character, by presenting Arthur as a character unworthy of sympathy

Moralistic Language

The Inspector is the most important voice within the play:

He speaks “carefully” and “weightily” and controls the events and dialogue

As he is used to developing the plot, much of his speech is filled with questions and imperatives   (“And be quiet for a moment and listen to me.   …This girl killed herself- and died a horrible death. But each of you helped to kill her. Remember that. Never forget it.”)

He delivers many lengthy monologues  

The Inspector is also dramatic in his speech:

Ideas relating to social responsibility are repeatedly interwoven throughout his dialogue

He continually uses the pronoun ‘we’ to highlight his message of social responsibility

Foreshadowing

Priestley uses foreshadowing   on many different occasions in the first act of the play to hint to the audience what is about to happen:

Sheila makes the comment to Gerald: “…except for all last summer when you never came near me, and I wondered what had happened to you”:

This alludes to Gerald’s affair with Eva/Daisy

Sheila comments to Eric: “You’re squiffy”, accusing Eric of being drunk:

This alludes to the audience that Eric’s drinking is a fairly constant feature of his behaviour

Birling’s comical remarks to the family: “we must behave ourselves, don’t get into the police court or start a scandal”:

This suggests a potential scandal is indeed about to be revealed

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Author: Nick Redgrove

Nick is a graduate of the University of Cambridge and King’s College London. He started his career in journalism and publishing, working as an editor on a political magazine and a number of books, before training as an English teacher. After nearly 10 years working in London schools, where he held leadership positions in English departments and within a Sixth Form, he moved on to become an examiner and education consultant. With more than a decade of experience as a tutor, Nick specialises in English, but has also taught Politics, Classical Civilisation and Religious Studies.