GCSE AQA An Inspector calls context notes.
Includes: J.B Priestley, the Victorian influence, the two world wars, the great depression, the class system, the industrial revolution + workers' rights, politics, capitalism vs socialism, world events and Womens' rights.
An Inspector Calls context
J.B Priestley
o Priestley witnessed a lot of poverty amongst the working classes which then improved since the 1840’s, but many
still lived in slums and impoverished conditions
o At the same time, Priestley took note of how the city’s respectable folk behaved; he took them to be smug and
hypocritical
o Priestley was surrounded by socialist values as his father was a proud socialist with many socialist friends also his
peers were intellectual and politically active which cemented his own socialist values while he was still relatively
young
o Priestley volunteered for the army and while serving he was buried alive by a German shell attack and was a
victim of a gas attack
o He survived physically unscathed, however, his experience at war haunted him forever and his experiences at
war made him realise how social inequality has consequences beyond what he had seen at home and so he
became a prominent socialist, using his platform to speak out about class inequality and poverty in Britain
o The main purpose of his show the ‘postscripts’ was to give his own personal reflections on the wartime
conditions, and to boost national morale as he called for a fairer, better society to emerge after the war, but he
had to be careful of how critical he was of the government
Priestley’s socialist message:
o He intended to confront the apathetic upper classes with their moral frailty
o He wished to expose social inequality and make the upper class audience see that they are all responsible for
working to reduce the gaps between the rich and poor
o Therefore, he was trying to cultivate social responsibility in his audience
o Priestley sets the play in a period on the cusp of major change to expose the characters selfish and backwards
views which are soon to be rendered erroneous
The Victorian influence
o The play demonstrates the destructive impact of Victorian values, and advocates for their removal from our
modern culture
Charity:
o England has something called the poor law, this law was set up by Queen Elizabeth I to provide help for the poor
by offering money and support
o People facing poverty had to work in awful conditions in order for others to think them worthy of being helped
The poor:
o If they were deemed to be moral they could be helped, along with this the belief that those who offered charity
were socially and morally superior as their choice to give help to others was deemed to be impressive meanwhile
the poor were expected to practice self-help meaning they had to make an effort to get themselves out of
poverty, not matter how they ended up there in the first place
Women:
o Women who society believed had lost their innocence and fallen from the grace of God were called ‘fallen
women’
o Though these women were condemned and ostracised by society, there was romantic ideal surrounding the way
men treated these women
o The Victorians also idealised the idea of gentlemanly chivalry towards these ‘fallen women’, Priestley suggests
this romantic ideal was actually based on sexual exploitation and lust as these men prayed on these ‘fallen
women’ as easy targets to satisfy their own needs
, Hierarchy:
o The Victorians were obsessed with strict rules of hierarchy
o A lot of Victorian morals were taken from the Bible, but their interpretation was often harsher and more extreme
than the biblical texts
o The Victorians were very religious people, as they believed in honesty, politeness, cleanliness and obedience to
the law
Repression:
o A side effect of all this restraint and repression was a great deal of hypocrisy as most of the upper class men lived
a double life which is exemplified through Gerald and Eric
The two world wars
The class system:
o World wars dismantled class system as upper classes experienced the same conditions as their poorer peers
Attitudes towards war:
o When Britain first went to war, the decision was met with a lot of optimism and enthusiasm
o Poets writing from the battlefronts recorded the gruesome reality of war and many people disagreed with the
way innocent men were sent to their deaths by the authorities
Government:
o Rationing and evacuation were both examples of how the government took measures to protect its people, this
would help the government reform their social policies and recover from the impact of war
The great depression
o The great depression was the worst economic event since industrialisation, the crash caused wide world
recession
o The great depression meant that people of all classes experienced the same dire circumstances, meaning
everyone suffered equally as the upper classes learnt what it was like to work and not be paid fairly
The class system
1912:
o The upper classes often had luxurious stately homes in the country to escape the squalor and poverty of the
cities, but for the lower classes it was rare to travel outside your city
o Poverty was extreme in both the cities and the countryside
o There was a huge distinction between the upper and lower classes in almost every way as the upper classes had
plenty of money to spare, whereas the lower classes could barely afford food
Women:
o The work available to them was some of the lowest paid and lowest skilled, as many women had no education
o Working class women needed to marry and have children to have any chance at being accepted in society
o Unmarried women were almost ostracised from society, they were vulnerable and lived in total poverty
o If an unmarried, working class woman became pregnant like Eva smith, she didn’t have many options available to
her
o Many risked backstreet abortions rather than facing the sigma of having a child out of marriage
o Many woman were forced into prostitution if they became unemployed, because there was no other choice
o A lot of upper class men exploited their serving girls and female staff by having sex with them
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