An Inspector Calls

J. B. Priestley · Written 1945 · Set 1912 · Set text on Pearson Edexcel International GCSE English Literature (4ET1)

One dinner party, one dead girl, and a family made to see exactly what they are.

Two ways to study it

Grade 9 Notes — condensed and exam-focused: 7 full character studies, 7 themes, quotation analysis, thesis statements and essay plans.
The Complete Guide to An Inspector Calls — the long version: 16 chapters from the world behind the text to the examination.

Arthur Birling — The arch-capitalist Priestley builds the play to demolish
Inspector Goole — Priestley's mouthpiece — part policeman, part prophet, part conscience
Sybil Birling — The cold heart of the upper class — charity without compassion
Sheila Birling — From sheltered child to the Inspector's proxy — the play's proof that change is possible
Gerald Croft — The charming aristocrat who almost changes — and chooses not to
Eric Birling — The guilty son whose confession becomes the play's rawest indictment
Eva Smith / Daisy Renton — The absent centre — never on stage, in every scene

Social responsibility — The play's central idea: that we are 'members of one body', responsible for each other — argued against the individualist creed that 'a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own'.
Class — Edwardian England's rigid hierarchy — aristocracy (Crofts), rising industrial middle class (Birlings), and the working millions (Eva) — is the machine that destroys Eva Smith; the play examines every one of its moving parts.
The generations — age against youth — The play's structural division is not male/female or even rich/poor but old/young: capacity to change is generational, and Priestley's hope is aimed at the audience's young.
Gender — 1912's gender order — women as ornaments (Sheila), enforcers (Mrs Birling), or prey (Eva) — runs through every plot line; the play watches men's 'protection' of women shade into control and consumption.
Time — Set in 1912, written in 1945, ending with a loop back to its own beginning: time in the play is a moral instrument — the audience's hindsight is the Inspector's foresight.
Reputation and public image — The older Birlings' true religion: scandal, the press, the Honours List — appearance is the asset they defend when lives are the cost.
Guilt, confession and judgement — The play borrows religious structures — confession, judgement, prophecy — for a secular morality: the dining room becomes a confessional, then a courtroom.