GCSE ENGLISH LITERATURE
Revision/ Teaching Resource: An Inspector Calls (including background information)
J.B.Priestley was born in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1894. His mother died in the same year and his father,
who was a schoolmaster, remarried four years later. At 16 Priestley left school . ‘I wanted to write’’ he
recalls in his volume of autobiography Margin Released ‘and I believed that the world outside
classrooms and labs would help me become a writer….and I had just enough sense to know that I must
spend at least the next few years trying my hand at it.’ Ans so, rather than finding a job with a
newspaper, in 1910 Priestley became a junior clerk with a local wood firm.
It was during this period before WW1 that Priestley gained much of the experience that would colour his
writing career.
When war broke out in 1914, Priestley joined the infantry. He left the army in 1919; he had been on the
front line in France and had narrowly escaped being killed on at least one occasion. He was also the
victim of a gas attack.
On leaving the army Priestley finally took a place at Cambridge University to read Modern History and
Political Science. He then went to work as a freelance writer. His first novel was The Good Companions.
His second novel was Angel Pavement. His first play was Dangerous Corner. Plays that followed were
Laburnum Grove, Eden End, An Inspector Calls and Time and the Calways.
AN INSPECTOR CALLS
CHARACTERS
ARTHUR BIRLING
SYBIL BIRLING
SHEILA BIRLING
ERIC BIRLING
EDNA (THE MAID)
, GERALD CROFT
INSPECTOR GOOLE
(All three acts which are continuous take place in the dining room of the Birlings’ house in
Brumley, an industrial city in the North Midlands. It is 1912.)
Priestley has indicated that the year in which the play is set was not chosen at random. Set in
1912, shortly before the 1st World War, An Inspector Calls was a powerful warning to a
1945/6 audience still reeling from the horrors of the 2nd World War. Just as the Birlings come
face-to-face with their future at the end of the play, the present day audience are faced with
the mistakes of their past and can also choose to act differently to create a fairer, safer world.
Arthur Birling, a prosperous businessman, is holding a family dinner party to celebrate his
daughter Sheila’s engagement to Gerald Croft. Into this private setting intrudes the figure of
a police inspector investigating the horrific suicide of a young working-class woman named
Eva Smith. Upon interrogation of each character it transpires that each on of them has had a
negative impact upon the life of this young woman.
An Inspector Calls was that of the effects of an individual’s actions over a passage of time. The
audience and to a certain extent the characters in the play are shown possible projections of their
actions which contrast poignantly with their present conditions. A second major theme which recurs is
that of responsibility both individually and collectively. It is a social responsibility. Priestley sets out to
show how we do not live in a vacuum and that our actions impact the lives of others. The message is
that we should develop an understanding and an awareness of this with the end result that the world
will be a better place. What may be considered by an individual as a trifling act of unkindness may be the
last straw to the person who is the target of such unkindness – even if it carried out in the most flippant
of manners.
The progression of the play is that from ignorance to knowledge. There is enlightenment however the
enlightenment is far more evident amongst the younger generation. There is an arrogance and
obstinance amongst the older generation which impedes their development and growth.
The style of the play at first glance seems to be that of a straightforward detective mystery. An Inspector
arrives with the news of a horrific suicide by a female named Eva Smith. The involvement of each of the
characters is gradually exposed by the Inspector. The audience is drawn in by the suspense of
discovering which one of the characters ultimately drove Eva Smith to her death. It is on this point that
Revision/ Teaching Resource: An Inspector Calls (including background information)
J.B.Priestley was born in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1894. His mother died in the same year and his father,
who was a schoolmaster, remarried four years later. At 16 Priestley left school . ‘I wanted to write’’ he
recalls in his volume of autobiography Margin Released ‘and I believed that the world outside
classrooms and labs would help me become a writer….and I had just enough sense to know that I must
spend at least the next few years trying my hand at it.’ Ans so, rather than finding a job with a
newspaper, in 1910 Priestley became a junior clerk with a local wood firm.
It was during this period before WW1 that Priestley gained much of the experience that would colour his
writing career.
When war broke out in 1914, Priestley joined the infantry. He left the army in 1919; he had been on the
front line in France and had narrowly escaped being killed on at least one occasion. He was also the
victim of a gas attack.
On leaving the army Priestley finally took a place at Cambridge University to read Modern History and
Political Science. He then went to work as a freelance writer. His first novel was The Good Companions.
His second novel was Angel Pavement. His first play was Dangerous Corner. Plays that followed were
Laburnum Grove, Eden End, An Inspector Calls and Time and the Calways.
AN INSPECTOR CALLS
CHARACTERS
ARTHUR BIRLING
SYBIL BIRLING
SHEILA BIRLING
ERIC BIRLING
EDNA (THE MAID)
, GERALD CROFT
INSPECTOR GOOLE
(All three acts which are continuous take place in the dining room of the Birlings’ house in
Brumley, an industrial city in the North Midlands. It is 1912.)
Priestley has indicated that the year in which the play is set was not chosen at random. Set in
1912, shortly before the 1st World War, An Inspector Calls was a powerful warning to a
1945/6 audience still reeling from the horrors of the 2nd World War. Just as the Birlings come
face-to-face with their future at the end of the play, the present day audience are faced with
the mistakes of their past and can also choose to act differently to create a fairer, safer world.
Arthur Birling, a prosperous businessman, is holding a family dinner party to celebrate his
daughter Sheila’s engagement to Gerald Croft. Into this private setting intrudes the figure of
a police inspector investigating the horrific suicide of a young working-class woman named
Eva Smith. Upon interrogation of each character it transpires that each on of them has had a
negative impact upon the life of this young woman.
An Inspector Calls was that of the effects of an individual’s actions over a passage of time. The
audience and to a certain extent the characters in the play are shown possible projections of their
actions which contrast poignantly with their present conditions. A second major theme which recurs is
that of responsibility both individually and collectively. It is a social responsibility. Priestley sets out to
show how we do not live in a vacuum and that our actions impact the lives of others. The message is
that we should develop an understanding and an awareness of this with the end result that the world
will be a better place. What may be considered by an individual as a trifling act of unkindness may be the
last straw to the person who is the target of such unkindness – even if it carried out in the most flippant
of manners.
The progression of the play is that from ignorance to knowledge. There is enlightenment however the
enlightenment is far more evident amongst the younger generation. There is an arrogance and
obstinance amongst the older generation which impedes their development and growth.
The style of the play at first glance seems to be that of a straightforward detective mystery. An Inspector
arrives with the news of a horrific suicide by a female named Eva Smith. The involvement of each of the
characters is gradually exposed by the Inspector. The audience is drawn in by the suspense of
discovering which one of the characters ultimately drove Eva Smith to her death. It is on this point that
