An Inspector Calls and Other Plays (Penguin Modern Classics)

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J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls and Other Plays collects four groundbreaking works by a master playwright in Penguin Modern Classics. This could be any drawing room comedy of the fifties: pleasant and mediocre. But Priestly expertly wrong-foots us by breaking the scene in-between and taking nineteen years forward in time in the second act. It's once again Kay's birthday party, this time the fortieth, but the occasion is far from pleasant: the Conways have lost their wealth, relationships have formed and broken down, and most of the family (except Alan) have become disillusioned and embittered. The euphoria of the roaring twenties have given way to the despondency of the forties, and a second war is looming on the horizon.

John Plunkett (14 September 2015). "BBC's An Inspector Calls arrests nearly 6 million viewers | Media". The Guardian . Retrieved 23 September 2015. The film is set in 1912 and follows the events of a single evening on which the wealthy Birling family is holding a dinner party to celebrate the engagement of their daughter. The festivities are interrupted by a visit from what is taken to be a policeman, Inspector Goole, who is investigating the recent suicide of a local young woman. Goole’s interrogations of each member of the dinner party make it clear that all of them have contributed to the tragedy through individually unjust, selfish or exploitative behaviour. The "Inspector" leaves the subdued group with a warning that human beings have shared responsibility for each other and that this lesson will soon be taught "in fire and blood and anguish" — an apparent reference to the outbreak of World War I two years later. History, to be worthy of the name, should bring us a stereoscopic view of man's life. Without that extra dimension, strangely poignant as well as vivid, it is flat and because it is flat, it is false. There are two patterns, endlessly being superimposed on one another. The first pattern is that of man reproducing himself, finding food and shelter, tilling the land, building cities, crossing the seas. It is the picture we understand now with ease, perhaps too easily. For the other pattern is still there, waiting to be interpreted. It is the record of man as a spiritual creature, with a whole world of unknown continents and strange seas, gardens of Paradise and cities lit with hell-fire, within the depths of his own soul. History that ignores the god and the altar is as false as history that could forget the sword and the wheel...'Morley, Sheridan (25 September 1992). "Stop messing about". The Spectator. p.53. Archived from the original on 5 October 2015 . Retrieved 4 October 2015. The Inspector turns his attention to Mrs Birling, a patron of a charity that helps women in difficult situations, which Daisy (who was by then pregnant and destitute) had turned to for help. Daisy introduced herself as Mrs Birling, which offended the real Mrs Birling. Daisy then revealed that she had a new name, Alice Grey. Alice explained that the father of her child was an immature alcoholic who could not act as a father yet and could not support her. Mrs Birling, however, persuaded the committee to deny her a grant, believing that Daisy had been irresponsible and suggested that she find the father, despite Daisy repeating that he wouldn’t be of any use. Despite vigorous cross-examination from the inspector, she denies any wrongdoing. Goole then plays his final card, forcing Mrs Birling to lay the blame on the 'drunken young man' who got Smith pregnant. It slowly dawns on the family, except Mrs Birling, that Eric is the young man involved. After the war Priestley continued his writing, and his work invariably provoked thought, and his views were always expressed in his blunt Yorkshire style. Woodeson, Nicholas. "Revisiting Inspector Calls". WhatsOnStage.com. Archived from the original on 8 February 2018 . Retrieved 7 February 2018. Aisling Walsh to direct Priestley classic for BBC". Raidió Teilifís Éireann. 30 January 2015. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015 . Retrieved 9 March 2015.

After the new wave of social realist theatre in the 1950s and 1960s, the play fell out of fashion and was dismissed as an example of outdated bourgeois "drawing room" dramas, but it became a staple of regional repertory theatre. Following several successful revivals (including Stephen Daldry's 1992 production for the National Theatre), the play was "rediscovered" and hailed as a damning social criticism of capitalism and middle-class hypocrisy in the manner of the social realist dramas of Shaw and Ibsen. It has been read as a parable about the destruction of Victorian social values and the disintegration of pre-World War I English society, and Goole's final speech has been interpreted variously as a quasi-Christian vision of hell and judgement and as a socialist manifesto. The play was produced and performed at the Ferdowsi Theatre in Iran in late 1940s based on the translation by Bozorg Alavi. It was staged in the first season of the Edinburgh Gateway Company in 1953. [15]

It is revealed that Eva Smith worked in Birling’s works, from which she was dismissed after being a ringleader in an unsuccessful strike to demand better pay for Birling’s workers. The Inspector outlines that “a chain of events” might be responsible for the girl’s death, and—for the rest of the play—interrogates each member of the family, asking questions about the part they played in Eva Smith’s life. We then discover that Sheila Birling encountered Eva Smith at Milwards, where Sheila jealously insisted that she was dismissed. Sheila feels tremendously guilty about her part in Eva’s death. It becomes clear that each member of the family might have part of the responsibility. In 1986 Richard Wilson directed a production at the Royal Exchange, Manchester with Geraldine Alexander as Sheila Birling, Hugh Grant as Eric Birling and Graeme Garden as Inspector Goole. [16]

For Students and Teachers | jbpriestleysociety.com". www.jbpriestleysociety.com. Archived from the original on 18 May 2017 . Retrieved 25 May 2017.Inspector Goole Character Analysis". English Made Simple. England: englishmadesimple.org. 15 November 2020. Archived from the original on 7 February 2023 . Retrieved 29 October 2022. The stage directions that describe the Inspector give the impression that he is an imposing figure. His tendency to interrupt and control the conversation adds to this impression too. An Inspector Calls at Lyttelton Theatre 1992-1993". www.abouttheartists.com . Retrieved 20 January 2023.