Summary
Summary Notes: The Men of 'An Inspector Calls'
Overall Notes for 'An Inspector Calls' by J.B. Priestley. Contains: - Key Quotes for the Male Characters - Themes for the Book - Context
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AN INSPECTOR CALLSSet in 1912 (week before Titanic set sale), and written in 1945 after two World Wars and
The Great Depression Edwardian period (George V)
Themes:
- Social Responsibility
- Youth and Age
- Gender
- Social Class
- Capitalism vs Socialism
- Generations
Seven deadly sins:Greed- Mr Birling/ Gerald
- Pride- Mr Birling/ Gerald
- Lust- Eric/ Gerald
- Sloth- Eric
- Envy- Sheila
- Wrath- Inspector/ Mrs Birling
- Gluttony- Mr Birling/ Gerald
Mr Birling:
- Business minded (his passion), cares about his business more than the wedding, treats
it like a business agreement.
- Ignorant to his own own employees and their wishes and needs
- Dramatic irony, shown through his long paragraphs
- Focusing on Eva’s looks before he even thinks about her working manor
- ‘I refused of course’, thinking it was the obvious decision to refuse when the workers
asked for a pay raise
- Cares more about the money then Eric, showing his capitalist views
- Doesn’t want to take any of the blame, pushing his anger onto his son
- Lack of care for the poor
- He believes the workers are earring a fair wage for the industry
- Protective of owners rights and interests
- Bases people's values on wealth and social states
- He is unaware of the disparity caused by wealth and class divide
What Mr B makes you feel:
- Irritating to the audience as he is a stuck in his ways (age)
- Anger/ repulses the audience as he is arrogant and selfish (class)
- Cringe worthy because of his views about women/ patronising (Gender)
- The audience doesn’t trust him
, - He has a pigheaded attitude which is justified through his obstinate comments “germans
don’t want war” “unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable”
- Mr Birling is used to criticising the complacency of capitalist prosperity but he returns to
his own callousness, which shows that upper classes did not care about social
responsibility.
- He is self centred and selfish - he’d rather pass off the visit by an Inspector as a “hoax” /
a joke than face up to what he’s done than accept responsibility which reinforces his
hesitancy to change. (Generations)
Mr B’s quotes:
- ‘Unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable’ (page 25)- dramatic irony- ignorance- titanic
symbolises the rejection of the upper class since the lower class couldn’t afford it.
Therefore, it symbolises the B’s because they think they’re unsinkable and how they
think they’re untouchable because of their class, which is untrue, which is seen by the
rest of the play
- ‘I can’t accept any responsibility’ (page 35)
- ‘Hard headed practical man of business’ (page 25)- 3 times over the span of 3 pages-
fixed mindset, showing off social status- echoing the business men who made profits
from each of the wars
- ‘Fiddlesticks! The Germans don’t want war. Nobody wants war’ (page 24)- dramatic
irony- foolish, ignorant, big headed
- “Look Inspector, i’d give thousands” - At the end of the play he grudgingly wishes things
were better and he’d make an attempt at redemption however it still exhibits his money
minded mentality as he still thinks in terms of money . Previously, he didn’t want to pay
Eva and the rest of the workers more money, but now, after everything, he would pay
‘thousands’- ironic
- ‘Heavy looking’ ‘portentous man’ ‘ easy mannered’ ‘provincial’
What Gerald makes you feel:
- Disappoints the audience as he is arrogant (Class)
- Dislikes his smug privilege upper class attitude (Class)
- Don’t trust him= evasive and dishonest (Responsibility)
- Respect his honesty eventually (Responsibility)
- Gerald embodies the “establishment” - old money and wealth, upper class estate holders
- usually women who were unemployed and lower class.
- Gerald’s self contradiction which symbolises the contradiction of the upper class men
having nothing to do with lower class women with the exception of sleeping with them.
Priestley highlights the oppression against prostitutes which is unjust as there were
limited options and gateways available for unemployed lower class women.
Gerald quotes:
- ‘An attractive chap about thirty, rather too manly to be a dandy but very much the easy
well-bred young man-about-town’
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