Responsibility Essay
You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on this question.
You should use the extract below and your knowledge of the whole play to answer this question.
Write about the theme of responsibility and the way it is presented in An Inspector Calls.
In your response you should:
refer to the extract and the play as a whole;
show your understanding of characters and events in the play.[40]
5 of this question’s marks are allocated for accuracy in spelling, punctuation and the use of
vocabulary and sentence structures
An Inspector Calls was written by J.B Priestley, and the theme of responsibility is
central to the play, and in particular social responsibility. The play was based in
1912, at a time when those in upper classes like the Crofts and Birlings
oppressed those in lower classes like Eva Smith due to social inequality.
Throughout the play, Priestley condemns the Birlings for their capitalist attitudes
and lack of responsibility for their crimes, and presents Socialism as the way
forward.
Priestley successfully presents Birling as a paradigm of the capitalists of
the Era, and his egotistical views, dismissive of social responsibility. He states: ‘a
man has to make his own way – has to look after himself – and his family’. This
demonstrates Birlings selfish opinions and that he has no sense of collective
responsibility. The repetition of the pronoun ‘his’ shows his egotistical character,
that he believes taking care of himself –individualism- comes before anything
else and no-one else in society should be supported – even the most vulnerable.
Furthermore, as the father of the family, Birling has the duty to look after his
family, yet ‘family’ is placed after ‘himself’ illustrating how he is unable to take
responsibility for his own family. Birling further comments: ‘you'd think
everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up together
like bees in a hive – community and all that nonsense.’ Here, Birling uses a
euphemism to presents his ideas on socialism; and that he rejects collective
responsibility. The verb ‘mixed’ highlights how he believes that those from
different classes should not mix, which reflects how he feels he is superior to
those in lower classes. The simile ‘bees in a hive’ illustrates how Birling views
socialistic ideas as animalistic, and degrading; he is disgusted by Socialism. The
euphemism ‘nonsense’ depicts how he believes this ideology of taking
responsibility is ridiculous, and dismissive of anything other than his own
capitalist philosophies. Priestley presents Birling as the capitalist upper classes
who he believed had a complete disregard of responsibility for those in lower
classes due to social imbalance and equality.
, Further into Act One, Priestley introduces the audience to Inspector Goole,
and presents the antithesis between him and Birling. When Birling learns that his
sacking Eva Smith started the chain of events up to her death, he acts dismissive
and unempathetic when talking to I.G: ‘Still, I can’t accept any responsibility. If
we were all responsible for everything that happened to anyone we’d had
anything to do with, it would be very awkward, wouldn’t it?’ Here, Priestley
effectively illustrates how Birling does not take responsibility though he knows he
fired this girl and she was his employer. The way he announces this shows how
he is not ashamed of this, and highlights his arrogant character. The verb ‘can’t’
however, is an effective use of words by Priestley as it give the implication that
Birling not only refuses responsibility, he is actually unable to take any – a hint at
his view again that the older generations were incapable of taking responsibility
– they have missed their chance. The adjective ‘awkward’ indicates how he is
derisive of socialism and sees taking responsibility as insignificant and an
inconvenience – he has no social conscience. Furthermore, he is an example of
the upper classes that refused to accept blame over their treatment of the lower
classes – just because they were socially superior. This is also proven in the way
he lectures Inspector Goole – almost as if he is trying to intimidate him. However,
his words are soon contradicted by the Inspector when Birling claims the working
class will ‘soon be asking for the Earth’ and the Inspector replies: ‘But after all,
it’s better to ask for the Earth than to take it.’ This show how the Inspector
condemns these irresponsible capitalist attitudes and uses Birlings words
perhaps to try and make him understand. The juxtaposition of the verbs ‘ask’
and ‘take’ demonstrate the socialist and capitalist philosophies and also the
ways of the lower and upper class. The verb ‘ask’ shows how the Inspector is
trying to teach Birling that Eva Smith did not take the pay rise. The verb ‘take’ is
a hint from I.G that the upper class take without permission and abuse of their
social status, and displays how he criticises this socially irresponsible behaviour.
When the Inspector interrogates Sheila, the audience sees the
metamorphosis of her character, and how readily she accepts responsibility.
Priestley presents her as an example of the younger generation, who he believed
were more willing to understand their mistakes. When she learns she was
responsible for firing Eva Smith for the second time, she comments: ‘(miserably)
So, I’m really responsible?’ The way in which she uses the adjective ‘responsible’
immediately depicts how, in dichotomy to her father, she sees how she impacted
Eva’s life just because of the privileges she has due to her being in a higher
class. However, the instant way in which she takes responsibility demonstrates
how the younger generation were much more able to acknowledge their
mistakes and feel ashamed of their actions. This makes the reader warm to
Sheila as she fully accepts responsibility for what she has done, and brings hope
that the younger generations will grow up to change society. In Act Two,
Priestley presents Gerald as more willing to accept responsibility than Mr Birling,
however he tries to justify his actions when Sheila asks him if he enjoyed his
time with Eva, when he states: ‘Alright I did for a time. Nearly any man would’ve
done.’ The determiner ‘any’ depicts how Gerald is trying to show that he did
nothing wrong because this is what any other person would have done – he does
