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An Inspector Calls - Context

J.B. Priestley was a British writer known for his politically charged messages. He wrote An Inspector Calls after World War I to criticize social inequality in Britain. The play is set in 1912 but written in 1945, when class divisions had reduced due to two world wars. Priestley set it in 1912 to contrast that era of rigid class boundaries with the post-war desire for social change, hoping people would build a better, more caring society after World War II.

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756 views

An Inspector Calls - Context

J.B. Priestley was a British writer known for his politically charged messages. He wrote An Inspector Calls after World War I to criticize social inequality in Britain. The play is set in 1912 but written in 1945, when class divisions had reduced due to two world wars. Priestley set it in 1912 to contrast that era of rigid class boundaries with the post-war desire for social change, hoping people would build a better, more caring society after World War II.

Uploaded by

Maria
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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An Inspector Calls

Context
J B Priestley wrote An Inspector Calls after the First World War and like much of his
work contains controversial, politically charged messages.

J B Priestley

John Boynton Priestley was born in Yorkshire in 1894. He knew early on that he wanted to
become a writer, but decided against going to university as he thought he would get a better
feel for the world around him away from academia. Instead, he became a junior clerk with a
local wool firm at the age of 16.

When the First World War broke out, Priestley joined the infantry and only just escaped death
on a number of occasions. After the war, he gained a degree from Cambridge University, then
moved to London to work as a freelance writer. He wrote successful articles and essays, then
published the first of many novels, The Good Companions, in 1929. He wrote his first play in
1932 and went on to write 50 more. Much of his writing was ground-breaking and
controversial. He included new ideas about possible parallel universes and strong political
messages.

During the Second World War he broadcast a massively popular weekly radio programme
which was attacked by the Conservatives as being too left-wing. The programme was
eventually cancelled by the BBC for being too critical of the Government.

He continued to write into the 1970s, and died in 1984.

Political views

During the 1930's Priestley became very concerned about the consequences of social
inequality in Britain, and in 1942 Priestley and others set up a new political party, the
Common Wealth Party, which argued for public ownership of land, greater democracy, and a
new 'morality' in politics. The party merged with the Labour Party in 1945, but Priestley was
influential in developing the idea of the Welfare State which began to be put into place at the
end of the war.

He believed that further world wars could only be avoided through cooperation and mutual
respect between countries, and so became active in the early movement for a United Nations.
And as the nuclear arms race between West and East began in the 1950s, he helped to found
CND, hoping that Britain would set an example to the world by a moral act of nuclear
disarmament.
1912 to 1945

This was the period of the Russian Revolution, two appalling world wars, the Holocaust and
the Atom Bomb.

This table describes what society was like in 1912 and in 1945

An Inspector Calls is An Inspector Calls was written Images


set in 1912 in 1945.

The First World War The Second World War ended in


would start in two Europe on 8 May 1945. People
years. Birling's were recovering from nearly six
optimistic view that years of warfare, danger and
there would not be a uncertainty.
war is completely
wrong.

There were strong Class distinctions had been


distinctions between greatly reduced as a result of
the upper and lower two world wars.
classes.

Women were As a result of the wars, women


subservient to men. All had earned a more valued place
a well off women could in society.
do was get married; a
poor woman was seen
as cheap labour.
An Inspector Calls is An Inspector Calls was written Images
set in 1912 in 1945.

The ruling classes saw There was a great desire for


no need to change the social change. Immediately after
status quo. The Second World War, Clement
Attlee's Labour Party won a
landslide victory over Winston
Churchill and the Conservatives.

Priestley deliberately set his play in 1912 because the date represented an era when all was
very different from the time he was writing. In 1912, rigid class and gender boundaries
seemed to ensure that nothing would change. Yet by 1945, most of those class and gender
divisions had been breached. Priestley wanted to make the most of these changes. Through
this play, he encourages people to seize the opportunity the end of the war had given them to
build a better, more caring society.

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