J.B Priestly trying to say about society Essay

My task is to explain what J. B Priestly is trying to say about the Capitalist society of 1912. The play is written in 1945 after WWII and set in 1912 before WWII. This is why there is dramatic irony. To do the above task I will have to look at each characters role, what part of the society they represent and whither they learn or don’t learn from their mistakes. In an Inspector Calls the effects of an individuals actions over a passage of time are shown. The audience and, to a certain extent the characters in this play are shown possible projections of their actions which contrast poignantly with their present conditions. Another major theme, which is that of responsibility, both individual and collective, for those actions and their consequences. The plays progression is that of ignorance to knowledge, not only for the audience but also for the characters themselves. Priestly observes the classical unites of time, place and action in his structure: the time span of the play in performance corresponds with the actual time the events presented would take unfold in real time. The style of the play seems at first glance to be that of a straightforward, detective thriller: after the natures of the Birlings Family and their guest Gerald Croft are established, the Inspector arrives with the news of the death by suicide of Eva Smith. As the involvement of each of the members of the family is progressively established, the structure becomes that of a whodunit with the Inspector apparently slowly unravelling the history of Eva Smith. Priestly heightens the audiences suspense by his skilful use of climaxes within the carefully controlled plot and by ensuring the audience is left on tenterhooks at the conclusion of each act. As the involvement of each member of the family becomes clear, and as the inspectors apparent omniscience drives each of them to confession, the play reveals its second stylistic model, that of the morality of the play. The original morality plays, of the late Middle Ages tended to instruct their audiences about the condition of man, caught between the religions need for goodness and the temptations of evil. Priestly in a more modern, secular manner, seems similarly concerned to affect his audience. While it is possible to see each of the Birlings as guilty to various degrees of the seven deadly sins: pride, sloth, gluttony, envy, covetousness, lust and anger, which would have ensured damnation for an earlier, medieval audience of morality of plays. His modern audience, more than familiar with the effects and privations of war, would have been equally receptive to the modern moral, which he intended them to take from the play.