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Study Booklet

An Inspector Calls

Name

Class

Teacher

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Study Booklet Contents

4 Timeline of key events

5 Key vocabulary and character specific vocabulary

BQ 1: What compelled Priestley to write this play?

7 Priestley’s life

12 Poverty in England

BQ 2: How is the Birling household reflective of society at the time?

19 Stage Direction study

23 Capitalism and Socialism

29 Extended writing: The Birling household

BQ 3: What does Arthur Birling represent?

32 The motive of the call

34 Like Bees in a Hive

37 Birling and the Inspector

BQ 4: Is the Inspector omniscient?

40 Feedback and response

43 Is the Inspector omniscient?

BQ 5: What drives Sheila’s behaviour?

45 Young women and marriage

47 Sheila and Gerald

48 Presentation of Sheila

BQ 6: How has Gerald abused his power?

51 Gerald’s disclosure

53 Gerald and the Male Gaze

56 Gerald and Trust

58 Gerald and Honour

62 Feedback and response

BQ 7: Why is Sybil disdainful of the vulnerable?

66 The symbol of the photo

68 The fallen woman

71 Girls of that class

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73 Exemplar 77 Extended writing: Sybil Birling

BQ 8: Is Eric immoral or a product of his upbringing?

81 Legality and morality

85 The issue of consent

89 Eric’s relationships with others 92 Exemplar

95 Feedback and response

BQ 9: Why are warnings and morals important?

98 The Inspector’s final speech

101 Blame and triumph

102 Who is he?

BQ 10: What do we learn from this play?

103 Responsibility exemplar

105 Extended writing: responsibility

109 Critical ideas

111 Character profiling

113 Feedback and response

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Key Vocabulary and devices

Capitalism A political or social viewpoint that believes key values of Capitalism which are individual responsibility, private derived from capital, which evolved from capitale, a late Latin ownership of a country’s trade and industry and rewards for word based on caput, meaning "head" those that are most financially successful. Disdain The feeling that someone or something is unworthy of your respect. based on Latin dignari ‘consider worthy’

Hypocrisy Claiming an idea or belief and then not following it yourself.

From Greek hupokritēs ‘actor’, Intuitive A feeling or instinct that something is true.

from Latin intueri ‘consider’ Microcosm A community or situation that represents the features of something much larger, like a complete society. Greek mikros kosmos ‘little world’.

Nepotism Those with power or influence favouring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs. from Italian nepotismo meaning nephew, because Popes often gave their illegitimate sons jobs, pretending that they were nephews.

Omniscient Knowing everything.

From the medieval Latin scire ‘to know’ Patriarchy A system, society or government that is led by men.

From Greek patriarkhia, ‘ruling father’ Prejudiced Having a dislike or distrust of a person or people based upon little evidence. prae ‘in advance’ + judicium ‘judgement’. Privilege A special right, advantage only available to a particular person or group of people. from Latin privilegium ‘bill or law affecting an individual’ Remorseful Sorry or full of regret for actions or behaviour.

from Latin remordere ‘vex’, from re- (expressing intensive force) + mordere ‘to bite’ Reputation The beliefs or opinions held by others about someone or something. from Latin reputare ‘think over’ Responsibility Having a sense of duty to deal with or look after someone.

from Latin respons- ‘answered, offered in return’

Retribution Punishment inflicted on someone as vengeance for a wrong or criminal act. from late Latin retributio(n- ), from retribut- ‘assigned again’ Socialism A political or social viewpoint that believes key values of which From social, in Latin from socius ‘friend’. include: social ownership of a country’s trade and industry,

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Vulnerable Someone who is in a position to be in danger of physical or from Latin vulnerare ‘to wound’ emotional harm.

Dramatic irony Where the audience know something that the characters do not. Foreshadowing A warning, hint or indication of a future event. Fourth wall Where an imaginary wall separates the actors from the audience- it stops the characters communicating directly with the audience. Sheila breaks this rule during her confession. The Inspector does the same in his final speech. Monologue A long speech delivered by one actor. Stage direction Text of the script that instructs the movement, position or tone of the actor. Can also instruct the use of sound effects or lighting. Time lapse Within the play, it is implied that time is manipulated for the Inspector’s visit; he is able to question each character and warn them of future events in the time that it takes for a girl’s body to be discovered.

Character specific vocabulary

Trace the way in which each character develops over the duration of the play

Arthur Birling

Sheila Birling

Gerald Croft

Sybil Birling

Eric Birling

Inspector Goole

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BQ1: What compelled Priestley to write this play? Do now:

An Inspector Calls and J B Priestley’s political journey

Article written by:Alison Cullingford Themes:20th-century theatre, Power and conflict, Exploring identity Published:7 Sep 2017 Alison Cullingford explores how J B Priestley's childhood in Bradford and experiences during two world wars shaped his socialist beliefs and fuelled the anger of his play An Inspector Calls, a work that revolves around ideas of social responsibility and guilt.

An Inspector Calls poses troubling questions: how can people live together? To what extent are individuals responsible for others? Gareth Lloyd Evans described the play as ‘perhaps the clearest expression made by Priestley of his belief that “no man is an island” – the theme is guilt and social responsibility’.[1] This article explores how and why J B Priestley came to this belief.[2] ‘Substantial and heavily comfortable’: Bradford before the War Priestley was born in 1894 in Bradford, in Yorkshire’s West Riding. Bradford was an industrial town soon to become a city (in 1897), which had grown very quickly around the wool and dyeing industries. Young ‘Jack’ Priestley himself found work in the wool trade, as a junior clerk with Helm and Company, whose offices were in the (now demolished) Swan Arcade.

Jack found this work dull, but otherwise, for a youngster who enjoyed sport, landscape, literature, music, art and socialising, Bradford had much to offer. In his novel Bright Day, he looked back from the austerity of 1946 to a golden age of freedom, plenty, hospitality, conviviality, generosity, solid comfort and strong community, where, at Christmas, brass bands played and choirs sang in the streets; you went not to one friend’s house but to a dozen; acres of rich pound cake and mince-pies were washed down by cataracts of old beer and port, whisky and rum; the air was fragrant and thick with cigar smoke, as if the very mill chimneys had taken to puffing them.[3] The bright young lad realised even then, though, that Bradford was not perfect. Working and living conditions had improved from the hellish days of the 1840s, when cholera and starvation were serious threats, but many still lived in poverty. Priestley’s

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Date: ______political views were heavily influenced by the West Riding’s strong Nonconformist socialist traditions, embodied by the Bradford Pioneer newspaper and epitomised by his schoolteacher father, Jonathan.

Jack also noticed that the city’s respectable folk could be smug, even hypocritical: ‘badly-divided men’ were pompously religious on Sundays, but on Saturday nights ‘coarsely raffish’,[4] ill-using young women. In When We Are Married (1937), Priestley made great comedy of turning the world of three respectable couples upside down when it emerged that they had not been legally married. An Inspector Calls also shattered the world of such a family, this time, however, revealing the true social and political consequences of the selfishness of the Birlings and others like them.

1. What did Priestley notice about people in the city?

The First World War: men thrown away for nothing This world was itself shattered by the Great War, which broke out in August 1914. Twenty-year-old Jack, drawn to prove himself, went alone to Halifax to volunteer for the Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment. He served in the British Army for five years, as a private and lance-corporal, and, much later, as an officer with the Devonshires. Photograph of J B Priestley as a lance corporal, 1915

J B Priestley volunteered for the army in September 1914 at the age of 19. This photograph was taken in the summer of 1915 just before he was sent to the Western Front.

Despite being buried alive by a trench mortar explosion and gassed, Priestley survived relatively unscathed physically; but the experience of war changed him forever. He bore witness to the horrors of the front and his realisation of the implications of social inequalities that went far beyond what he had seen in his home city. As he wrote in his memoir, Margin Released (1962): The British command specialised in throwing men away for nothing. The tradition of an officer class, defying both imagination and common sense, killed most of my friends as surely as if those cavalry generals had come out of the chateaux with polo mallets and beaten their brains out. Call this class prejudice if you like, so long as you remember … that I went into that war without any such prejudice, free of any class feeling. No doubt I came out of it with a chip on my shoulder; a big, heavy chip, probably some friend’s thigh-bone.[5] Bradford could never be the same for Priestley after the war: so many of his friends had been killed, many of them in the 'Bradford Pals' battalions destroyed at the Battle of the Somme. After a venture into academia, taking his degree at the University of Cambridge, he decided to focus on writing and moved to London. The 1920s were years of hard work to make a living. We have the sense that he had a kind of survivor's guilt: he had to make something of his life when so many better men had been killed.

His 1929 bestseller, The Good Companions, gave him the financial security to experiment with new literary forms. Priestley turned to drama with great success: he was to re-use the thriller form of his first effort, Dangerous Corner, in An Inspector Calls. 8 | P a g e

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Celebrity also gave him a platform to share his increasing social concerns. In English Journey (1934), he described what he saw when travelling around England by motor coach: the remnants of old rural England, the shocking deprivation of the declining industrial cities and the glamour of the modern Americanised world of arterial roads and cinemas. Of the ‘grimy desolation’ of ‘Rusty Lane’ in West Bromwich, he said: There ought to be no more of those lunches and dinners, at which political and financial and industrial gentlemen congratulate one another, until something is done about Rusty Lane and West Bromwich. While they exist in their present foul shape, it is idle to congratulate ourselves about anything.[6] Priestley confronted his own wartime past at a regimental reunion in Bradford. He was outraged to learn that some of his fellow veterans were too poor to afford evening clothes to attend the event. They had given their health, their futures, everything they had, for a society that did not care. This righteous anger would be seen again in An Inspector Calls.

2. How did Priestley feel about society as a result of his involvement in World War I?

The staggering power of broadcasting During the Second World War, Priestley’s fame rose to new heights, largely thanks to his BBC radio broadcasts, the 'Postscripts'. In his first Postscript, of 5 June 1940, he helped create the narrative of the Dunkirk evacuation as mythic victory, paying tribute to the frivolous little steamers which saved so many lives. Throughout that momentous summer and early autumn, Priestley continued these weekly broadcasts, boosting morale through homely, often funny, reflections, musing, for example, on a pie which survived the bombing of Bradford and some happy ducks in a pond.

Priestley took an active part in a debate that went on in Britain throughout the war: was it appropriate to discuss what should happen afterwards, and if so, what should that be? He used the Postscripts to influence opinion on this issue, calling for a better, fairer society after this war was over. Carefully gauging what might be acceptable to broadcast, Priestley used everyday examples likely to be familiar to his listeners to make his points. His most outspoken Postscript, of 6 October 1940, uses the problem of the ‘idle rich’ occupying scarce hotel rooms from which bombed-out families could benefit to make the point that: We are floundering between two stools. One of them is our old acquaintance labelled ‘Every man for himself, and the devil take the hindmost’, which can’t really represent us, or why should young men, for whom you and I have done little or nothing, tear up and down the sky in their Spitfires to protect us, or why should our whole community pledge itself to fight until Europe is freed? The other stool … has some lettering round it that hints that free men could combine, without losing what’s essential to their free development, to see that each gives according to his ability, and receives according to his need.[7]

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The wording of that second stool, which as Priestley reminded his listeners was the stuff of Christian sermons, is almost exactly Karl Marx’s famous ‘from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs’ which appeared in the Critique of the Gotha Programme.

It is often stated that the then Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, had Priestley ‘taken off the air’ as a result of this sort of discussion, and for using the Postscripts as a platform for sharing his views on building a better world post-war. Certainly, Priestley’s radio talks worried many politicians and journalists; the end of the Postscripts was, however, at least in part his own decision and the hand of the Prime Minister cannot be definitely traced in it.[8]

3. Why might Priestley have been taken off the air?

A new and vital democracy? Away from the airwaves, Priestley could be much more candid about his views. Out of the People (1941) came out of his role as chairman of the 1941 Committee, a group of writers and politicians whose statement ‘We Must Win’ called for a declaration of national ‘ideas and objectives after the war’. In Out of the People, Priestley outlined the need for a ‘new and vital democracy’, an end to the waste and unfairness of social inequalities, a world in which everyone was responsible for others. The upheaval of war was shattering old systems and bringing people together to work for a common goal. Why not build on this, rather than going back to old failed systems as had happened after the previous war?

Priestley’s Postscripts and other broadcasting and writing certainly played their part in encouraging people to think about the shape post-war society should take, and thus helped pave the way for Clement Attlee’s Labour Party to sweep to power in the general election of July 1945. The Labour mandate was to create a ‘welfare state’ and a national health service, eliminating the shocking poverty observed by Priestley and so many other reporters.

However, the new government was not quite what Priestley had in mind. He disliked the centralised planning and bureaucracy that became synonymous with state socialism in the 20th century. Indeed, he stood unsuccessfully as an independent candidate in the 1945 election!

4. What were Priestley’s key political beliefs?

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A Russian journey An Inspector Calls was born out of this tumultuous wartime debate about society, though Priestley had first thought of using a mysterious inspector years before. He had then mentioned the idea to a theatrical director, Michael MacOwen, who reminded him about it during the autumn of 1944. Priestley was enthused by the idea, found it in his ‘little black notebook’, and quickly wrote a play script based around it.

No suitable theatre was available in London, so in May 1945 Priestley sent the script to his Russian translator to see if there was any interest (his work was already popular in the Soviet Union). An Inspector Calls was thus first seen in productions by the Kamerny Theatre and the Leningrad Theatre in Moscow, followed by a European tour ending at the Old Vic in London.

Priestley and his wife Jane later travelled to the USSR, as guests of the Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries; he wrote about his experiences for the Sunday Express, his articles being reprinted in the pamphlet ‘Russian Journey’. Priestley found the Russian people highly congenial and wrote sympathetically about a country that had recently been Britain’s wartime ally. Later he was to realise more about the nature of the regime.

The play embodies Priestley’s reasons for calling for the ‘new and vital democracy’ by showing the personal consequences of a selfish society, and the future that would result if lessons were not learned about being ‘responsible for each other’: ‘If men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in blood and fire and anguish’. This future might be the Great War which Priestley’s 1945 audiences knew was just two years ahead for his 1912 protagonists, or it might be a terrible revolution yet to come: his Russian audiences had seen just that when the frustrations of an unequal society had led to violent revolution and terrible suffering.

Such ambiguities Priestley leaves in the play, along with its origins in his own past and his deepest beliefs, allowing it to work for audiences worldwide ever since, despite its historical origins in a complacent 1912 and his bleak yet hopeful 1945.

5. Based upon this reading, why do you think Priestley set the play in 1912?

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Do now:

London‘s poverty gave an accurate view of Britain’s poverty leading up to the time that Priestley wrote. Only thirty years before when the play is set, Britain is suffering extreme poverty, and a severe class divide resulted in affluent areas of London living in areas right next to some of the most poverty-stricken families. It meant that those that had power, had more than ever before.

As we read, consider how the rich would be advantaged, how the poor would be disadvantaged, and the connection between the two groups of people. How would they have had an impact upon one another?

How does the writer state that this compares to the modern day?

How poverty in modern Britain echoes the past

Blog • History • 11 Jan 2019 • Professor Pat Thane FB

Four million British workers are now living in poverty, according to a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), a figure that has risen by over half a million compared with five years ago. Since the government’s introduction of Universal Credit replacing six benefits with one single monthly payment – rough sleeping and demand at food banks have risen. This is less of a ‘turning-point’ for poverty in the UK than a re-turning point. Surveying British history since the 20th century for my recent book Divided Kingdom. A History of Britain, 1900 to the Present, my most shocking discovery was that the extent and causes of poverty were much the same now as in 1900. Charles Booth’s massive survey of social conditions in 20th- century London found that about 30% of Londoners lived ‘in poverty or in want’

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Charles Booth, Life and labour of the people in London. Map of London poverty, 1889. Image credit: Wellcome Collection, CC BY 4.0.

London had a complex economy which attracted needy people and its conditions were perhaps exceptional. Sociological researcher Seebohm Rowntree later surveyed poverty in York, which he reckoned was a typical English town so might better signify conditions across the country. He was horrified to discover that 28% of York’s population were in ‘obvious want and squalor’. Other surveys in town and countryside before 1914 produced similar findings. Booth and Rowntree found the greatest cause of poverty was not, as often believed, feckless shirking by the irresponsible lower classes, but low pay for full-time work, or inability to get regular work despite best efforts.

1. What did people believe of the poor and vulnerable?

They avoided working They drank too much They couldn’t be educated

Introduction of the Welfare State This poverty caused such shock that it led to the first measures of what became the Welfare State: free school meals in 1906, old age pensions in 1908, National Health Insurance and Unemployment Insurance in 1911. Expanding state welfare and government measures to create secure, better-paid employment reduced poverty and inequality, especially post- 1945, driven mainly by Labour governments, though it was never eliminated. Income and wealth inequality were narrowest of the whole period since 1900 in the 1970s. Contrary to popular denigration of the 1970s, this was also when the range of state welfare benefits and services reached its peak and there was no evident shortage of affordable housing to rent or buy. Poverty then shot up under the Thatcher governments of the 1980s – about 13% of children in Great Britain (and of course their families) were in poverty in 1979 and 22% in 1990. It declined halfway to the 1979 level under New Labour before rising again since 2010.

2. What did the introduction of the Welfare state lead to? Tick all that apply.

Free school meals Reduced taxes Affordable housing Higher employment

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The housing crisis and rise in poverty since 2010 The JRF found 20% of the UK population in poverty in 2015-16, 60% in households that included an inadequately paid worker. The Child Poverty Action Group estimated that 30% of children in the UK (4.1 million) were in poverty in 2016-17 and 67% were in households with at least one full-time worker. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) supports this, stressing regional variations: in 2016-17 24% of children in Scotland were in poverty and 37% in London, the difference driven mainly by housing costs. As around 1900, there is much poverty in London, overlooked when Londoners are accused of being out of touch with the realities of British life. The Resolution Foundation makes similar estimates, stressing high housing costs as the cause of poverty ‘perhaps more so than at any time in the past’. Since the massive sale of council houses under Thatcher, the supply of ‘affordable’ housing has dwindled, and too many people are homeless or live in damp, overcrowded, poorly maintained properties, reminiscent of the 1900s. New Labour did little to improve housing supply. These and similar recent findings by the Social Metrics Foundation have been strongly supported in a recent report by Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, clearly horrified to find such conditions in the fifth largest economy in the world. “Fourteen million people, a fifth of the population, live in poverty. Four million of these are more than 50% below the poverty line, and 1.5 million are destitute, unable to afford basic essentials.” – Professor Philip Alston Of course, comparing measurements of poverty over very different times is difficult. Contemporary researchers use a different measure in a much wealthier country today compared with 1900. The concept of ‘relative poverty’, defined as having income below 60% of national median income, has been widely adopted internationally in preference to measures of severe destitution because the life chances of people living above the level of destitution but so far below the average standards of modern high-income societies are severely restricted. They have lower life expectancy, poorer health, lesser educational and work opportunities. Recent UK surveys exclude the large and growing number of homeless people living rough on the streets or in hostels. The National Audit Office estimates that the numbers of officially homeless are up 60% since 2010 and rough sleepers are up 134%. In 2017/18 the Trussell Trust gave out 1.3 million emergency food packages. The increase in homelessness and the growing use of food banks call into question how many people are living in absolute destitution.

3. What are the key similarities between poverty in 1900s and poverty now?

Homelessness Hunger Unemployment levels Organised food parcels

‘Gig economy’ in the 1900s and now The government denies these alarming statistics and boasts of rising employment, but ignores the fact that it is often precarious and/or poorly paid. A serious cause of poverty, now as in 1900, is the growing numbers of people earning low pay in insecure employment, as employers evade the minimum wage and other obligations by imposing fake self- employment and insecure contracts; the ‘gig economy’, as it is known. Similar insecure ‘underemployment’ was a major concern of William Beveridge after he encountered poverty in East London in the early 1900s, particularly dock workers clustering at the dock gates each morning.

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Beveridge was a British economist and socialist.

The government commissioned a report that Beveridge published in 1942. He recommended that the government should find ways of fighting the five 'Giant Evils' of 'Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness'.

Clement Attlee, announced he would introduce the welfare state outlined in the 1942 Beveridge Report. This included the establishment of a National Health Service in 1948 with free medical treatment for all. A national system of benefits was also introduced to provide 'social security' so that the population Eager for work, London, circa 1900 (1901). Men lining a fence would be protected from the 'cradle to the grave'. looking to work at the London Docks. Image credit: The Print Collector/Getty Images. They were never sure of how many hours of work, if any, they would get and rarely got a full week’s work as employers took advantage of the numbers desperate to work to feed their families. Beveridge became convinced that only state intervention could regulate the labour market, reducing poverty by ensuring regular work at a decent pay. As a first step, he persuaded the government to introduce Labour Exchanges (now Job Centres) in 1909, providing information about permanent job vacancies for the first time and positive advice on work and training to school-leavers and the unemployed, enabling escape from casual labour.

4. What was casual labour?

Work without guaranteed hours Work with free food for families Work without pay

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BQ 1: What compelled Priestley to write this play?

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BQ 2: How is the Birling household reflective of society at the time?

Do now:

The stage directions of the play will often give you more of an insight of the character and their relationships with the other characters than what they say. This is more significant at the start of the play, as each character gives use hints as to what they think.

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The dining room of a fairly large suburban house, belonging to a prosperous manufacturer. It has good solid furniture of the period. The general effect is substantial and heavily comfortable, but not cosy and homelike. (If a realistic set is used, then it should be swung back, as it was in the production at the New Theatre. By doing this, you can have the dining-table centre downstage during Act One, when it is needed there, and then, swinging back, can reveal the fireplace for Act Two, and then for Act Three can show a small table with telephone on it, downstage of fireplace.. By this time the dining-table and its chairs have moved well upstage. Producers who wish to avoid this tricky business, which involves two re-settings of the scene and some very accurate adjustments of the extra flats necessary would be well advised to dispense of an ordinary realistic set, if only because the dining table becomes a nuisance. The lighting should be pink and intimate until the INSPECTOR arrives, and then it should be brighter and harder.) At rise of curtain, the four BIRLINGS and GERALD are seated at the table, with ARTHUR BIRLING at one end, his wife at the other, ERIC downstage, and SHEILA and GERALD seated upstage. EDNA, the parlourmaid, is just clearing the table, which has no cloth, of dessert plates and champagne glasses, etc., and replacing them with decanter of port, cigar box and cigarettes. Port glasses are already on the table. All five are in the evening dress of the period, the men in tails and white ties, not dinner jackets. ARTHUR BIRLING is a heavy looking, rather portentous looking man in his middle fifties but rather provincial in his speech. His wife is about fifty, a rather cold woman and her husband's social superior. SHEILA is a pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited. GERALD CROFT is an attractive chap about thirty, rather too manly to be a dandy but very much the easy well- bred man about town. ERIC is in his early twenties, not quite at ease, half shy, half assertive. At the moment they have all had a good dinner, are celebrating a special occasion, and are pleased with themselves.

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Pen to paper:

1. How do the stage directions give the audience a premise of social class?

2. How are there hints that reputation is important to the Birlings?

3. What are our first impressions of each character, and the dynamics of the family as a whole?

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Do now:

Capitalism is an economic system where private entities own production and industry. The four factors are entrepreneurship, capital goods, natural resources, and labour. The owners of capital goods, natural resources, and entrepreneurship exercise control through companies. The individual owns their labour. Key Takeaways  In capitalism, owners control the factors of production and gain their income from it.

 Capitalism incentivizes people to maximize the amount of money they earn through competition because they keep the bulk of their profit.

 Competition is the driving force of innovation as individuals create ways to do tasks more efficiently; it rewards those that work hard, but disregards those that cannot do so.

Pen to paper:

What is Capitalism?

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Socialism is an economic system where everyone in society equally owns the factors of production. That ownership is acquired through a democratically elected government or through a cooperative or a public corporation in which everyone owns shares.

These factors are valued only for their usefulness to people. Socialists take into account both individual needs and greater social needs.

Examples of greater social needs include transportation, defence, education, health care, and preservation of natural resources. Some also define the common good as caring for those who can't directly contribute to production. Examples include the elderly, children, and their caretakers.

Workers receive their share of production after a percentage has been deducted for the common good. Key Takeaways  Socialism is a system that shares economic output equally throughout the population.

 It values the collective well-being of the community, rather than individuals.

 The government distributes resources, giving it greater control over its citizens.

Pen to paper: What is Socialism?

What political standpoint is Priestley and how do we know?

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The Edwardian period was indeed a “Gilded Age,” both in England and America. Yet social relationships were strictly defined, and interactions among and between the classes were governed by a series of complex and rigid rules—what we would call “manners”. The etiquette of the Edwardian era was second nature to the people who lived during this period, but to us it’s the fascinating behaviour of a unique cultural moment. Edwardians never, for example, shook hands. Women never removed their gloves in public. Men removed their hats in the presence of a superior, but not for a member of the lower classes. An Edwardian hostess carefully predetermined every aspect of a dinner party—not only the menu and seating arrangements, but even topics of conversation during the meal.

Read Birling: Giving us the port, Edna?’ to ‘I don’t often make speeches at you.’ Consider the stage directions used when the characters interact with one another. What does this reveal about the family relationships? Where do we see attempts to adhere to Edwardian etiquette?

Mrs Birling is presented as someone firmly rooted in Victorian values of ‘women should be obedient wives’ ‘When you're married you'll realize that men with important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time and energy on their business. You'll have to get used to that, just as I had.’

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How is the Birling household reflective of society at the time?

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BQ 3: What does Arthur Birling represent?

Do now:

Russia and Progress

The Soviet Union, now Russia, has always been at the forefront of many innovations; Russia had the first thoughts around space travel, created one of the first lenses that was used to create televisions, and was the second country in the world to create nuclear weaponry. Also creators of the AK47, a gun used in key military artillery, they have a reputation for inventions and forward-thinking.

Read from : ‘I’m delighted’ to (Edna enters)

Extract

Birling: Glad you mentioned it, Eric. I'm coming to that. Just because the Kaiser makes a speech or two, or a few German officers have too much to drink and begin taking nonsense, you'll hear some people say that war's inevitable. And to that I say – fiddlesticks! The Germans don't want war. Nobody wants war, except some half- civilized folks in the Balkans. And why? There's too much at stake these days. Everything to lose and nothing to gain by war. Eric: Yes, I know – but still - Birling: Just let me finish, Eric. You've a lot to learn yet. And I’m taking as a hard headed, practical man of business. And I say there isn't a chance of war. The world's developing so fast that it'll make war

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impossible. Look at the progress we're making. In a year or two we'll have aeroplanes that will be able to go anywhere. And look at the way the auto-mobile’s making headway – bigger and faster all the time. And then ships. Why, a friend of mine went over this new liner last week – the Titanic – she sails next week – forty-six thousand eight hundred tons – New York in five days – and every luxury – and unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable. That's what you've got to keep your eye on, facts like that, progress like that – and not a few German officers taking nonsense and a few scaremongers here making a fuss about nothing. Now you three young people, just listen to this – and remember what I’m telling you now. In twenty or thirty year's time – let's say, in 1940 – you may be giving a little party like this – your son or daughter might be getting engaged – and I tell you, by that time you'll be living in a world that'll have forgotten all these capital versus labour agitations and all these silly little war scares. There'll be peace and prosperity and rapid progress everywhere – except of course in Russia, which will always be behindhand naturally.

Pen to paper:

How does Mr Birling convey his opinions of business and current affairs?

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How are we meant to react to Mr Birling, irrespective of our political views?

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Do now:

Birling: (taking it in the same manner) Yes, you don't know what some of these boys get up to nowadays. More money to spend and time to spare than I had when I was Eric’s age. They worked us hard in those days and kept us short of cash. Though even then – we broke out and had a bit of fun sometimes.

Gerald: I’ll bet you did.

Birling: (solemnly) But this is the point. I don't want to lecture you two young fellows again. But what so many of you don't seem to understand now, when things are so much easier, is that a man has to make his own way – has to look after himself – and his family too, of course, when he has one – and so long as he does that he won't come to much harm. But the way some of these cranks talk and write now, you'd think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive – community and all that nonsense. But take my word for it, you youngsters – and I’ve learnt in the good hard school of experience – that a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own – and -

// we hear the sharp ring of a door bell. Birling stops to listen.//

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Date: ______

The motif of the call

Whenever the doorbell rings, or the telephone rings, marks a significant shift or event within the play. It appears to mark the entrance of, or avoidance of the truth.

Consider what is interrupted each time, and what is revealed as a result.

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Do now:

Priestley in Delights:

I have tried to make myself – and other people – aware of the harsh economic realities of our time. Again and again I have taken my typewriter to the factories, the mines, the steel mills. I denounced or jeered at those colleagues who would not look. I wrote some of the first detailed accounts of the depressed areas. Having been brought up on the edge of it, I knew what life was like “back o’ the mill”. I did not discover the proletariat at Oxford or Cambridge, for the West Riding working-class was in my blood and bones. I grew up among socialists. I watched the smoke thicken and the millionaires who made it ride away. I saw broken old women creep back to the mills, and young men wither because there was no work for them to do and nobody wanted them. I saw the saddest waste of all, the waste of human life.

How does this compare?

Mr Birling:

‘a man has to make his own way – has to look after himself – and his family too, of course, when he has one – and so long as he does that he won't come to much harm. But the way some of these cranks talk and write now, you'd think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive – community and all that nonsense. But take my word for it, you youngsters – and I’ve learnt in the good hard school of experience – that a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own.’

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like bees in a hive

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Do now:

Read from (Edna enters) to (the other four exchange bewildered and perturbed glances)

The Inspector enters, and Edna goes, closing door after her. The Inspector need not be a big man but he creates at once an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness. He is a man in his fifties, dressed in a plain darkish suit of the period. He speaks carefully, weightily, and has a disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person he addresses before actually speaking. Extract

Birling: (somewhat impatiently) Look – there's nothing mysterious – or scandalous – about this business – at least not so far as I’m concerned. It's perfectly straightforward case, and as it happened more than eighteen months ago – nearly two years ago – obviously it has nothing whatever to do with the wretched girl's suicide. Eh, Inspector?

Inspector: No, sir. I can't agree with you there. Birling: Why not?

Inspector: Because what happened to her then may have determined what happened to her afterwards, and what happened to her afterwards may have driven her to suicide. A chain of events. Birling: Oh well – put like that, there's something in 37 | P a g e

Date: ______

what you say. Still, I can't accept any responsibility. If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we'd had anything to do with, it would be very awkward, wouldn't it?

Inspector: Very awkward. Birling: We'd all be in an impossible position, wouldn't we? Eric: By Jove, yes. And as you were saying, dad, a man has to look after himself- Birling: Yes, well, we needn't go into all that.

Consider the power dynamics within this scene: who has the authority? How do you know?

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BQ3: What does Arthur Birling represent?

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BQ4: Is the Inspector omniscient?

To be omniscient, is to be all-knowing. The root word ‘omni’ is take from Latin omnis ‘all’. Omniscient is often used to describe a narrator, character or audience, so that we can consider to what extent having all information about all characters will influence what you think of them.

Do now:

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Whole class feedback sheet:

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Response:

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Do now:

Read from (the other four exchange bewildered and perturbed glances) to ‘you were it was me all along, didn’t you?’

Consider what we have read. Do we as an audience feel that the Inspector is omniscient? Is Sheila right- did he know all along?

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BQ 5: What drives Sheila’s behaviour?

Do now:

Read from ‘you knew it was me all the time, didn’t you?’ to ‘Eric, take the Inspector along to the drawing room.’

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Sheila: I'd gone in to try something on. It was an idea of my own – mother had been against it, and so had the assistant – but I insisted. As soon as I tried it on, I knew they'd been right. It just didn't suit me at all. I looked silly in the thing. Well, this girl had brought the dress up from the workroom, and when the assistant – miss Francis – had asked her something about it, this girl, to show us what she meant, had held the dress up, as if she was wearing it. And it just suited her. She was the right type for it, just as I was the wrong type. She was very pretty too – with big dark eyes – and that didn't make it any better. Well, when I tried the thing on and looked at myself and knew that it was all wrong, I caught sight of this girl smiling at miss Francis – as if to say: 'doesn't she look awful' – and I was absolutely furious. I was very rude to both of them, and then I went to the manager and told him that this girl had been very impertinent – and – and – (she almost breaks down, but just controls herself.) How could I know what would happen afterwards? If she'd been some miserable plain little creature, I don't suppose I’d have done it. But she was very pretty and looked as if she could take care of herself. I couldn't be sorry for her.

Young women and marriage at the end of the 19th century (British Library)

Young and not-so-young women had no choice but to stay chaste until marriage. They were not even allowed to speak to men unless there was a married woman present as a chaperone. Higher education or professional work was also out of the question. These emotional frustrations could lead to all sorts of covert rebellion. Young Florence Nightingale longed to be able to do something useful in the world, but was expected to stay with her mother and sister, helping supervise the servants. She suffered from hysterical outbursts as a teenager, and could not bear to eat with the rest of the family. Elizabeth Barrett, meanwhile, used illness as an excuse to retreat to a room at the top of her father’s house and write poetry. In 1847 Charlotte Brontë put strong feelings about women’s limited role into the mouth of her heroine Jane Eyre: women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. (ch. 12)

How does this help us to understand the character of Sheila?

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Date: ______

Do now:

Read from ‘Eric, take the Inspector along to the drawing room’ to ‘well?’

Why does Sheila give Gerald the opportunity to discuss his involvement with Eva before the Inspector questions him?

Can we trust Sheila as a character?

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Date: ______

Do now:

Explore the contrast between Sheila and her father’s interrogations.

Consider:

 How they react to being questioned  How they respond to the idea of being to any extent responsible for Eva’s death  Their behaviour following the interrogation

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BQ6: How has Gerald abused his power?

Do now:

Notice Mrs Birling’s distrust in a female opinion: ‘You know him, Gerald -and you're a man.’

What does this suggest about the opinions and views of women? Why is this interesting to have been said by a woman?

Read from the beginning of Act Two to ‘When and where did you first meet her?’

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Why do the Birlings want to stop the Inspector questioning anyone?

How does Mrs Birling react to Gerald’s disclosure? How does this give a new insight into her character?

What does Gerald’s initial lie demonstrate to us as an audience?

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Date: ______

Do now:

The feminist theory of the male gaze

The “male gaze” suggests a sexualised way of looking that empowers men and objectifies women. Men, observing these female characters objectify women as sexual possessions and nothing more. The woman ceases to exist in any other form outside that of the sexual realm. She exists solely for the man, a mechanism to serve his ego, his libido, and his sense of possession. Reducing a woman through the male gaze demotes women from human equals to subordinate sexual objects. The spectator, in turn, is made to identify with this male gaze, and to objectify the women on the screen. The observer is superior/has more dominance than the one gazed at.

Consider the language that Gerald uses to describe Eva and his interactions with her.

Read from ‘when and where did you first meet her?’ to (we hear the front door slam).

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Where does Gerald’s use of language reinforce the idea of the male gaze?

How is his version of events unreliable?

Why does the Inspector ask if Gerald was in love with her?

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Do now:

Read the following consideration of Gerald; to what extent do you believe Gerald is a trustworthy character? What evidence do we have to suggest this, or otherwise?

When Gerald’s affair with Eva Smith initially comes to light at the end of Act One, at first, the audience’s sympathy is likely to be with Sheila, who naturally feels anger at being betrayed, and is even more angry when Gerald tries to hide the facts from the Inspector, calling him a ‘fool’ for trying to do so. But as this part of the plot develops in Act Two, Gerald regains some audience sympathy, as well as some respect from Sheila. Sheila commends his honesty in admitting that he enjoyed his position as the ‘fairy prince’ in Eva’s life. Gerald also gains audience sympathy from the fact that he is the first character which Priestley depicts as having pity for Eva. He rescues her from a dreadful situation in which she is virtually being assaulted by a drunken old man, and at first, he only wants to help her: ‘I made her go to Morgan Terrace because I was sorry for her [. . .] I didn't ask for anything in return’. Sheila later says, ‘I believe what you told us about the way you helped her at first. Just out of pity’, and as Sheila has been established by Priestley as the moral voice in the play, the audience is likely to align their view with hers, thus making Gerald more sympathetic in their eyes.

Nevertheless, Gerald does eventually make Eva his mistress, and it is of course a very unequal relationship, which he brings to an end when it suits him. There is no suggestion that he would marry her, presumably because this would be unthinkable in 1912 for someone of his high social status. How severely they judge him for his extramarital affair will depend very much upon the audience’s attitudes towards sexual morality. Priestley puts into the mouth of

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the haughty Mrs Birling the word ‘disgusting’ to describe what Gerald did, but given that Mrs Birling has been presented so negatively, the audience is more likely to side with Gerald, and agree that ‘it wasn’t disgusting’. This is one of many examples in the play where Priestley attacks traditional moral views by having them expressed by a character who has been depicted as cold and unsympathetic. Just as the audience is not supposed to agree with Birling’s defence of private property (‘the interests of capital’), one suspects here that they are not supposed to agree with Mrs Birling’s defence of traditional sexual morality. The audience’s dismissal of Mrs Birling’s views is likely to be completed by her readiness to drop them later in the play once the initial shock of the revelation has passed, and she is grateful to Gerald for arguing so ‘cleverly’ in order to remove the risk of any public scandal.

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Do now:

Gerald: the girl saw me looking at her and then gave me a glance that was nothing less than a cry for help. So I went across and told Joe Meggarty some nonsense – that the manager had a message for him or something like that – got Consider the connotations of him out of the way – and then told the girl that if she didn't want any more of the word Meggarty- it has a that sort of thing, she'd better let me take her out of there. She agreed at once. similar sound to maggot..

Inspector: where did you go?

Gerald: we went along to the county hotel, which I knew would be quiet at that time of night, and we had a drink or two and talked. Inspector: did she drink much at the time? Gerald: no. she only had a port and lemonade – or some such

concoction. All she wanted was to talk – a little friendliness – and I gathered that Joe Meggarty's advances had left her rather shaken – as well they might—

Inspector: she talked about herself?

Gerald: yes. I asked her questions about herself. She told me her name was Daisy Renton, that she'd lost both parents, that she came originally from somewhere

outside Brumley. She also told me she'd had a job in one of the works here and had had to leave after a strike. She said something about the shop too, but wouldn't say which it was, and she was deliberately vague about what happened.

I couldn't get any exact details from her about herself – just because she felt I was interested and friendly – but at the same time she wanted to be Daisy Renton – and not Eva Smith. In fact, I heard that name for the first time tonight. What she did let slip – though she didn't mean to – was that she was desperately hard up and at that moment was actually hungry. I made the people at the county find

some food for her.

Inspector: and then you decided to keep her – as your mistress?

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Mrs Birling: what? Notice that Gerald doesn’t answer the question directly Sheila: of course, mother. It was obvious from the start. Go on, Gerald. Don't at first. mind mother.

Gerald: (steadily) I discovered, not that night but two nights later, when we met

again – not accidentally this time of course - that in fact she hadn't a penny and was going to be turned out of the miserable back room she had. It happened that a friend of mine, Charlie Brunswick, had gone off to Canada for six months and had let me have the key of a nice little set of rooms he had – in Morgan Terrace – and had asked me to keep an eye on them for him and use them if I wanted to. So I insisted on Daisy moving into those rooms and I made her take some money to keep her going there. (carefully, to the inspector.) I want you to understand that I didn't install her there so that I could make love to her. I made her go to Morgan

Terrace because I was sorry for her, and didn't like the idea of her going back to the palace bar. I didn't ask for anything in return.

Inspector: I see.

Sheila: yes, but why are you saying that to him? You ought to be saying it to me.

Gerald: I suppose I ought really. I'm sorry, Sheila. Somehow I—

Sheila: (cutting in, as he hesitates) I know. Somehow he makes you.

Inspector: but she became your mistress? This sense of the inevitable Gerald: yes. I suppose it was inevitable. She was young and pretty and warm is beginning to appear hearted – and intensely grateful. I became at once the most important person in through Sheila’s her life – you understand? observations

Inspector: yes. She was a woman. She was lonely. Were you in love with her?

Does Gerald believe that he has acted honourably?

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To what extent is Gerald a replication of Meggarty?

Implied consent and being a ‘fallen woman.’

Gerald assumes that he has Eva’s permission to ‘save’ her. The fact that he uses the word ‘install’ to describe her role as mistress shows that he assumed the answer would be yes, because of his social status.

 In effect, he has rescued her from one person assuming consent (Alderman Meggarty) and has ruined her himself with little thought for the consequences  This affair would have a huge impact on Sheila’s reputation as well.  Note that nobody in the family is really outraged by the fact that Gerald has been in a sexual relationship; they are only mildly outraged that he has cheated on Sheila – and even then, they expect Sheila to understand and forgive him

BQ6: How has Gerald abused his power?

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Do now:

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Whole class feedback:

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Response:

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BQ7: Why is Sybil Birling disdainful of the vulnerable?

Do now:

The symbol of the photo:

The photo represents the Inspector’s power; he uses it to direct the line of inquiry and order of who he questions first. It also reinforces the idea of the male gaze; the photo is an object, as is Eva. All characters are given no option but to look (“gaze”) at the image.

Or, you could argue that the photo is a symbol of the characters’ guilt; by being obligated to look at the photo, they must face the consequences of their actions.

However, you could interpret this that Eva still has power over each of the characters, by being present after death. Through her, they are forced to look their own misdeeds head-on.

Which interpretation do you most agree with and why?

Read from (we hear the front door slam) to ‘I hope so.’

Which characters have recognised Eva, and which have not? What might that imply?

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Do now:

The rescue of the ‘fallen woman’ Rescue of Fallen Women

Published in 1868, this pamphlet lists all of the refuges for ‘fallen women’ in London. A ‘fallen woman’ could be a prostitute (occasional or professional), or a woman who had had sex out of wedlock, whether voluntary or against her will – in short, a woman who transgressed Victorian sexual norms. ‘Fallenness’ was associated with a downward spiral that began with sex and led to loss of social position, ruin, and death.

In the latter half of the 19th century many middle-class philanthropists joined the cause to ‘rescue’ women from prostitution. As well as holding ‘meetings’ for women, support was provided in the form of free accommodation – interchangeably known as penitentiaries, refuges or houses – mostly run according to Christian principles; their aim was to rehabilitate women by providing religious and moral instruction and practical training for the service profession. Note that rescue work solely focused on regulating women's, not men’s, sexual behaviour. This pamphlet reveals the increase in rescue work mid-century, listing the majority of London refuges as established in the 1850s. In total, these refuges could accommodate 1286 women and girls.

The ‘fallen woman’ cause was supported by many high-profile Victorians including Charles Dickens, Prime Minister William Gladstone and Christina Rossetti, who volunteered at the London Diocesan Penitentiary, listed in this pamphlet.

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Mrs Birling part of the era that the rescue of the Fallen woman would have developed. She is part of Brumley Charity committee, a charity that provides financial assistance to those that are vulnerable and in need of help.

1. Who are possibly ‘fallen women’ within the play and why?

2. Does Mrs Birling appear to be the type of person who would volunteer to help the vulnerable? Why/why not?

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Read from ‘I should hope so’ to (Curtain falls quickly)

Mrs Birling: Yes, I think it was simply a piece of gross impertinence – quite deliberate – and naturally that was one of the things that prejudiced me against her case. Birling: And I should think so! Damned impudence! Inspector: You admit being prejudiced against her case? Mrs Birling: Yes. Sheila: Mother, she's just died a horrible death – don't forget. Mrs Birling: I'm very sorry. But I think she had only herself to blame. Inspector: Was it owing to your influence, as the most prominent member of the committee, that help was refused the girl? Mrs Birling: Possibly. Inspector: Was it or was it not your influence? Mrs Birling: (stung) Yes, it was. I didn't like her manner. She'd impertinently made use of our name, though she pretended afterwards it just happened to be the first she though of. She had to admit, after I began questioning her, that she had no claim to the name, that she wasn't married, and that the story she told at first – about a husband who'd deserted her – was quite false. It didn't take me long to get the truth – or some of the truth – out of her.

Notice the fact that the Inspector has to repeat questions to Mrs Birling in order to gain a response. What are her focuses within her responses, instead of the factual answer?

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Do now:

Inspector: And what did she reply to that? Mrs Birling: Oh – a lot of silly nonsense! Inspector: What was it? Mrs Birling: Whatever it was, I know it made me finally lose all patience with her. She was giving herself ridiculous airs. She was claiming elaborate fine feelings and scruples that were simply absurd in a girl in her position. Inspector: (very sternly) Her position now is that she lies with a burnt-out inside on a slab. (As Birling tries to protest, turns on him.) Don't stammer and yammer at me again, man. I'm losing all patience with you people. What did she say? Mrs Birling: (rather cowed) she said that the father was only a youngster – silly and wild and drinking too much. There couldn't be any question of marrying him – it would be wrong for them both. He had given her money but she didn't want to take any more money from him. Inspector: Why didn't she want to take and more money from him? Mrs Birling: All a lot of nonsense – I didn't believe a word of it. Inspector: I'm not asking you if you believed it. I want to know what she said. Why didn't she want to take any more money

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from this boy? Mrs Birling: Oh – she had some fancy reason. As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money! Inspector: ( sternly) I warn you, you're making in worse for yourself. What reason did she give for not taking any more money?

Is Mrs Birling guilty of hypocrisy? Why/why not?

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Do now:

The shift in Sheila’s character Here, we see Sheila address her mother several times in an attempt to make her realise that her hypocritical and prejudiced words are poorly timed and uncompassionate.

Would Sheila behave in such a way at the start? How does this demonstrate the change in Sheila’s character?

'Girls of that class' and 'A girl of that sort'.

When Mrs Birling makes references to Eva in this way, what could she be alluding to?

This was in the era of the Suffragette, women that actively campaigned for the right to vote. At the time, only men could vote in the United Kingdom, and any protest where women spoke openly for better treatment, or tried to change the way in which things were run was see as incredibly rude and undignified. Women were viewed as far lesser than men, and this set of double standards extended in many aspects of daily life. The way in which these women were treated was appalling; Emily Davidson, a teacher and activist who later died after being trampled by a horse whilst protecting at a racecourse, wrote to a friend to describe her experience of being force-fed in prison:

"In the evening the matron, two doctors, and five or six wardresses entered the cell. The doctor said 'I am going to feed you by force.' The scene, which followed, will haunt me with its horror all my life, and is almost indescribable. While they held me flat, the elder doctor tried all round my mouth with a steel

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gag to find an opening. On the right side of my mouth two teeth are missing; this gap he found, pushed in the horrid instrument, and prised open my mouth to its widest extent. Then a wardress poured liquid down my throat out of a tin enamelled cup. What it was I cannot say, but there was some medicament, which was foul to the last degree. As I would not swallow the stuff and jerked it out with my tongue, the doctor pinched my nose and somehow gripped my tongue with the gag. The torture was barbaric."

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How far does Priestley present Mrs Birling as an unlikeable character? Write about: • what Mrs Birling says and does in the play • how Priestley presents her by the way he writes. To understand Priestley’s character, Sybil Birling, we must comprehend that she is emotionally chilling, hypocritical, and calculated in her narcissism. Mrs Birling is introduced as, ‘a rather cold woman’ in the opening stage directions of Priestley’s play, and this brief yet concise description gives the audience an apt insight into this woman’s character and motivations. Priestley also ensures from the opening scene that we understand the power and authority both between the husband and wife as she is, ‘her husband’s social superior.’ Priestley’s use of social status to both drive and justify actions is a prominent theme throughout the play; Mrs Birling is a key lesson to the audience as to the chilling consequences of when power is abused by higher classes.

At the start of the play, Mrs Birling’s role as matriarch is immediately clear to the audience as a dominant presence over her children which we may expect of such an upper class family with high values and expectations. She uses Mr Birling’s first name in the way that one might scold a rebellious child, stating, ‘Arthur, I don’t think you ought to talk business on an occasion like this, ‘ at Mr Birling’s attempt to discuss business after dinner. Even at this early point, she refers to her children as infants, ‘Now stop it, you two’ which suggests that she is reluctant to slip out of the parental role to allow her children to make their own mistakes. Priestley uses this gentle chiding from Mrs Birling to foreshadow the events later on when both children move away from Mrs Birling’s advice and somewhat narrow-minded approach to Eva Smith’s situation.

Mrs Birling and Sheila’s relationship is strained from the opening scenes of the play, as Mrs Birling tries to enforce her traditional views of a successful relationship upon her daughter, referring to Gerald’s extended time at work to her daughter by stating, ‘you’ll have to get used to that, just as I had.’ The is a contrast to the relationship that we see between the Birlings, as Sybill is not portrayed as a submissive woman that would appease her husband for anything other than her own motives. Whilst this doesn’t improve, Sheila’s attempt to warn her mother ‘with sudden alarm’ demonstrates that Sheila possesses a social awareness that Mrs Birling lacks towards taking blame for her part to play in Eva’s death.

At the later point, when Mrs Birling is questioned, she has witnessed the transition that the Inspector has taken each of her family members through and is quick to separate herself from them, implying that they lack her strength or ironically, what she believes to be integrity; ‘Unlike the other three, I did nothing I’m ashamed of.’ This implies her disgust with her family, not perhaps with their part in Eva’s death, but the way in which they failed to justify their actions to the Inspector. Interestingly, Mrs Birling is the only family member that is unshakable to the Inspector’s shock tactics; in the extract, he repeatedly uses ‘you’ and ‘she’ within his aggressive speech towards Sybil in an attempt to make her link to this girl’s demise explicitly clear to her.

The stage direction, ‘agitated’ portrays the lack of impact upon Mrs Birling, and perhaps not because she is deliberately defiant, but that she genuinely does not

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see how she, as a successful, compassionate woman working for a charitable cause should be expected to demonstrate a sense of responsibility for a woman who deliberately antagonised her as Eva did by using the Birling name. Her reaction to the Inspector’s final attempts demonstrates that she is an immovable force, as ‘rather cowed’ she stands her ground by refusing to take any sense of ownership. In her opinion, Eva was a product of her own social class and nothing more than that.

Conclusively, Mrs Birling fails to learn anything from the experience of the evening; whilst time stands still, so does her ignorance to her impact upon those around her, and she remains concerned by nothing other than maintaining her reputation. Sybil and her husband smile ‘triumphantly,’ sinking as the caricatures that Birling has created to represent the obliviousness of the middle-upper classes that he is so disgusted with. The play closes with a deliberate frustration for the audience that we can only hope that the phone call will result in social and moral justice for both characters.

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Do now:

How far does Priestley present Mrs Birling as an unlikeable character? Write about: • what Mrs Birling says and does in the play • how Priestley presents her by the way he writes.

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BQ7: Why is Sybil disdainful of the vulnerable?

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BQ 8: Is Eric immoral or a product of his upbringing? Do now:

Eric is in his early twenties, not quite at ease, half shy, half assertive.

If we think back to our first introduction to Eric, how did it inform us to predict:

Eric enters, looking extremely pale and distressed. He meets their inquiring stares. Curtain falls quickly.

Eric is standing just inside the room and the others are staring at him.// Eric: You know, don't you? Inspector: (as before) Yes, we know.

Notice that the Inspector enables our dramatic irony: the use of ‘we’ includes us, as we are always one step ahead of each of the characters’ disclosures.

Read from the start of Act 3 to ‘she didn’t want to see me again.’

Inspector: Don't start on that. I want to get on. (To Eric.) When did you first meet this girl?

Eric: One night last November.

Inspector: where did you meet her?

Eric: In the Palace Bar. I'd been there an hour or so with two or three chaps. I was a bit squiffy.

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Inspector: What happened then?

Eric: I began talking to her, and stood her a few drinks. I was rather far gone by the time we had to go.

Inspector: Was she drunk too?

Eric: She told me afterwards that she was a bit, chiefly because she'd not had much to eat that day.

Inspector: Why had she gone there?

Eric: she wasn't the usual sort. But – well, I suppose she didn't know what to do. There was some woman who wanted to help her go there. I never quite understood about that.

Inspector: You went with her to her lodgings that night?

Eric: Yes, I insisted – it seems. I'm not very clear about it, but afterwards she told me she didn't want me to go in but that – well, I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty – and I threatened to make a row.

Inspector: so she let you in?

Eric: Yes. And that's when it happened. And I didn't even remember – that's the hellish thing. Oh – my God! - how stupid it all is!

Legality and Morality

The Birlings justify their behaviour by using the law as a guideline, instead of a moral compass. Eric is an example of this, as his use of ambiguous language and tentative excuses imply he would like to believe he has valid reasons to excuse his behaviour.

If the character feels that they have not done anything legally wrong, they may feel that their behaviour or actions towards Eva were justified, or can be excused. Alternatively, if their morals and values support their behaviour, they will also feel as though they were in the right. Eric states, ‘I’m not very clear about it….I didn’t even remember,’ using his alcohol consumption to gloss over the parts of the story that he is too ashamed to recall.

Where have we see other examples of this?

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Why are the women fallen, but not the men?

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Do now:

Inspector: But you took her home again? Eric: Yes. And this time we talked a bit. She told me something about herself and I talked too. Told her my name and what I did. Inspector: And you made love again? Eric: Yes. I wasn't in love with her or anything – but I liked her – she was pretty and a good sport-- Birling: (harshly) So you had to go to bed with her? Eric: Well, I'm old enough to be married, aren't I, and I'm not married, and I hate these fat old tarts round the town – the ones I see some of your respectable friends with-- Birling: (angrily) I don't want any of that talk from you-- Inspector: (very sharply) I don't want any of it from either of you. Settle it afterwards. (To Eric.) did you arrange to see each other after that? Eric: Yes. And the next time – or the time after that – she told me she thought she was going to have a baby. She wasn't quite sure. And then she was. Inspector: And of course she was very worried about it?

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Eric: Yes, and so was I. I was in a hell of a state about it. Inspector: Did she suggest that you ought to marry her? Eric: No. She didn't want me to marry her. Said I didn't love her – and all that. In a way, she treated me – as if I were a kid. Though I was nearly as old as she was.

Consider Eric’s upbringing and how that might have influenced him to:

 Believe that women are seen as shallow

 Be incapable of discussing serious issues  Be obsessed with clothing and physical appearance (everyone in the play mentions Eva’s good looks at some point)  Think all women should be obedient to men (despite Sheila’s ‘playful’ warning to Gerald)  Perceive women as wives, daughters, workers or mistresses

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The issue of consent

The threat of assault heavily implies that Eric did not gain consent to have sex with Eva.

 “I was in one of those moods when a chap threatens to turn nasty”  The class system is what ultimately causes Eva to ‘consent’ – Eric “threatened to make a row” and if this caused Eva’s landlady to hear, it would be Eva who ended up evicted, rather than Eric who was in trouble for assault.

Our characters assume consent from Eva before she gives it, if she does.

BQ 8: Is Eric immoral or a product of his upbringing?

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Do now:

Sheila: This isn't my fault. Mrs Birling: (To Birling) I'm sorry, Arthur, but I simply couldn't stay in there. I had to know what's happening.

Birling: (savagely) Well, I can tell you what's happening. He's admitted he was responsible for the girl's condition, and now he's telling us he supplied her with money he stole from the office.

Mrs Birling: (shocked) Eric! You stole money? Eric: No, not really. I intended to pay it back. Birling: We've heard that story before. How could you have paid it back?

Eric: I'd have managed somehow. I had to have some money.

Birling: I don't understand how you could take as much as that out of the office without somebody knowing. Eric: There were some small accounts to collect, and I asked for

cash—

Birling: Gave the firm's receipt and then kept the money, eh?

Eric: Yes. Birling: You must give me a list of those accounts. I've got to cover this up as soon as I can. You damned fool – why didn't you come to me when you found yourself in this mess? What does this covering up reveal to us about Birling? Eric: Because you're not the kind of father a chap could go to when he's in trouble – that's why.

Birling: (angrily) Don't talk to me like that. Your trouble is –

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you've been spoilt—

Inspector: (cutting in) And my trouble is – that I haven't much time. You'll be able to divide the responsibility between you when I've gone. ( To Eric.) Just one last question, that's all. The girl discovered that this money you were giving her was stolen, didn't she?

Eric: (miserably) Yes. That was the worst of all. She wouldn't take any more, and she didn't want to see me again. (sudden startled tone.) Here, but how did you know that? Did she tell you?

Inspector: No. she told me nothing. I never spoke to her.

Sheila: She told mother.

Mrs Birling: (alarmed) Sheila!

Sheila: Well, he has to know.

Eric: (to Mrs Birling) She told you? Did she come here – but then she couldn't have done, she didn't even know I lived here. What happened? //

Mrs Birling, distressed, shakes her head bout does not reply.//

Come on, don't just look like that. Tell me – tell me – what happened? Inspector: (with clam authority) I'll tell you. She went to your mother's committee for help, after she'd done with you. Your mother refused that help.

Eric: (nearly at breaking point) Then – you killed her. She came to you to protect me – and you turned her away – yes, and you killed her – and the child she'd have had too – my child – your own grandchild – you killed them both – damn you, damn you

Mrs Birling: (very distressed now) No – Eric – please – I didn't know – I didn't understand

Eric: (almost threatening her) You don't understand anything.

You never did. You never even tried – you – Eric notes what he feels is a lack of effort from Sheila: (frightened) Eric, don't – don't Mrs Birling. Would trying have improved our Birling: (furious, intervening) Why, you hysterical young fool – opinion of her? get back – or I'll

Inspector: ( taking charge, masterfully) Stop!

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Eric has confessed to rape, and then theft. Which one receives more outrage at this point?

What does this extract reveal about Eric’s relationships with his parents?

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Do now:

How and why does Eric change in An Inspector Calls?

Write about:

- How Eric responds to his family and the Inspector - How Priestley presents Eric by the way he writes.

Eric is the son of Arthur Birling, a self-confessed eminent factory owner in the Midlands town of Brumley. In the first set of stage directions, Eric is presented as not quite at ease, ‘half-shy and half-assertive’ in contrast to Gerald who is older, attractive and an easy well-bred young man who is not quite a dandy. This first contrast of ‘easy’ versus ‘half-shy and half-assertive’ is an interesting one which is developed in the different journeys of each character as they interact with the Inspector.

Eric’s story and his relationship with Eva is developed in the background of Act 1 with tantalising details given to the audience, who become aware as Sheila does of Eric’s contribution to Eva/Daisy’s suicide. We may say the Priestley constructs Eric, and his sister, as a parallel for the audience (an audience with no prior knowledge of the play) who gain a new understanding of the privilege of class and the supposed comfort of money.

Priestley uses the three act structure to show Eric’s changing character, one who must learn the consequences of his actions, his social responsibility and his role within the Edwardian social hierarchy, which Priestley places in the spotlight. In Act 1 Sheila comments negatively on her brother. We aren’t told who is older, they are both in their early twenties which Priestley tells us in those crucially detailed opening stage directions. Sheila alerts the audience to Eric’s drinking, ‘squiffy’ a delightful Edwardian slang term for being slightly drunk. She retorts that he is an

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‘ass’ to counter his sniping comment to her accusation. Priestly presents a convincing picture of the petty squabbles between siblings which may seem an aside at this point in the play. On our further readings of the play, we understand that this naïve squabbling of the comfortable middle class Birling children turns and is projected out to the Birling parents and Gerald who stand on the other side of the emerging chasm between their different understandings of the impact of their actions on a vulnerable member of social hierarchy.

Priestley deliberately places Eric as a quiet background voice in Act 1 which is contrast to his assertive outspokenness in Act 3. In Act 1 Eric asks some provocative questions eg about war, which are immediately quashed by the pompous proleptic irony of the patriarchal Arthur Birling. The 1946 audience, fresh from the horrors of World War II (fire and blood and anguish) and also from World War I, know that Eric’s comment is perceptive. Re-reading the play shows us that Eric undergoes a significant transition from his childish ways in Act 1 to the more mature Eric at the end of Act 3 who sides with Sheila against his parents and Gerald, the ‘famous younger generation who know it all.

However, Priestley’s interrogations reveal Eric’s weakness of character and while we appreciate how he recognises his selfishness and the casual cruelty of his actions, we may question how far he changes and whether this change is one which he can sustain. It may be Priestley’s intention to leave the audience with this questions as they leave the theatre.

Priestley’s main device is dialogue and interactions with other characters, therefore we see how Eric interactions with his parents, his sister and Gerald change over the few hours of the play. It is interesting that Eric’s dialogue is at the beginning and the end. Eric is referred to occasionally, mainly regarding his drinking, which is a subtle but significant detail. The play leads to the revelation of Eric as the father of Daisy Renton’s child. Priestley places this revelation at the end of Act 2, using Mrs Birling ignorance of the situation, and dramatic irony. Sheila’s character interrupts to show the continuing realisation of realisation of the harm caused by the Birling family’s actions, and to draw the audience’s attention to the final participation in the crime: Eric.

Priestley shows Eric to have been a thoughtless and cruel individual in the antecedent action - when a chap turns nasty – who steals money which Daisy refuses to use. Eric is shown to be weak, potentially emasculated by his capitalist father who seems to see Gerald as a more worthy ‘son’. Eric is forced to mature, to cast off his shyness and realise he can be assertive. Priestley carefully contrasts Eric immaturity with Daisy’s maturity and independence, as Eric recalls and takes his turn in the narrative of the past. He refers to the women as ‘fat old tarts’ aligning him with irresponsible Gerald who disliked the ‘hard-eyed, dough faced’ women. Both privileged young men exploiting women who have been forced to turn to some form of prostitution.

Eric is presented to us as the outcome of his narrow-minded middle-class

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upbringing. Even though he changes as a result of the Inspector’s interrogation, which confronts him with his misdeeds, we may still see him a unlikeable, weak young man who could not admit his relationship with Daisy and his responsibilities as a father. He says that his parents do not understand anything but it is only the confrontation with his role in the suicide/murder of Daisy which forces him to begin to mature. Priestley leaves with us with the ‘younger generation’ of Sheila and Eric; yet it is Sheila who seems to have a greater understanding of what needs to change and how they needs to change. Eric is in her shadow, despite his admission of ‘we did her in all right’ a strangely informal and colloquial phrase at this point of reducing tension; his anger at Birling and Gerald’s dismissal of the Inspector’s case. However it is Sheila who stands to exit and Eric who follows her lead.

Priestley shows us a privileged young man who is confronted with his actions and their consequences. We see Eric find his voice at the end and perhaps we find hope in the younger generation – a man and a woman who may go to on to make changes and realised that they can make some changes for the millions and millions of Eva Smiths.

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Whole class feedback:

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Response:

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BQ 9: Why are warnings and morals important? Do now:

The Inspector’s final speech uses rhetoric language to ensure that he makes a powerful and masterful exit, and the audience will remember his words. Consider: What is the key aim of his message? To what extent does this make us question his authenticity as a police inspector?

Read from ‘Didn’t want to see me again’ to ‘(drink which he hastily swallows)’

Birling: ( unhappily) Look, Inspector – I'd give thousands – yes, thousands Inspector: You're offering the money at the wrong time Mr Birling. (He makes a move as if concluding the session, possibly shutting up notebook, etc. Then surveys them sardonically.) No, I don't think any of you will forget. Nor that young man, Croft, though he at least had some affection for her and made her happy for a time. Well, Eva Smith's gone. You can't do her any more harm. And you can't do her any good now, either. You can't even say “I'm sorry, Eva Smith.” Sheila: (who is crying quietly) That's the worst of it. I Inspector: But just remember this. One Eva Smith has gone – but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with

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their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, and what we think and say and do. We don't live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they well be taught it in fire and bloody and anguish. Good night. // He walks straight out, leaving them staring, subdued and wondering. Sheila is still quietly crying. Mrs Birling has collapsed into a chair. Eric is brooding desperately. Birling, the only active one, hears the front door slam, moves hesitatingly towards the door, stops, looks gloomily at the other three, then pours himself out a drink, which he hastily swallows.//

Biblical allusion The Inspector draws upon the imagery of the bible to make his warnings.

The Book of Revelation, chapter 8, reveals seven Angels sounding a trumpet in turn to mark a different crisis of foreboding to Earth.

Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

What parallels can we see between this and the Inspector’s speech?

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Biblical Allusion

The Bible, Corinthians 12:12-26

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. [...] The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.

What parallels can we see between this and the Inspector’s speech?

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Do now:

Read from ‘Birling: (angrily to Eric) You're the one I blame for this’ to ‘Mrs Birling: Careful what you say, dear’.

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Do now:

Mrs Birling: ‘Careful what you say, dear.’ to ‘// As they stare guiltily and dumbfounded, the curtain falls.//’

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Do now:

Exemplar

How does Priestley explore responsibility in an inspector calls? Write about: • the ideas about responsibility in an inspector calls • how Priestley presents these ideas by the ways he writes. Priestley explores ideas about responsibility through the way Birling behaves towards Eva Smith. Arthur Birling explains the family’s philosophy when he says, ‘a man has to mind his ow business and look after himself and his own,’ which suggests that he feels that he only has responsibility for his own family and himself.

This is reinforced by the way the Birlings treat Eva Smith. First, Arthur fires her form his factory to make an example of her because she asks for higher wages and dares to take responsibility for others by speaking up on their behalf. Arthurs’s prime motive is to keep wages down so that he could profit. Priestley highlights this through Arthurs’s repetition of the phrase ‘hard-headed man of business’ to remind the audience that he represents Capitalism and the damage it can cause. Priestley shows the audience that this blind belief that profit and financial gain benefits all is incredibly detrimental and has tragic consequences.

Although all the Birlings are responsible for Eva’s mistreatment and death in some way, they react differently when they find this out form the Inspector. Mr and Mrs Birling do no changes and are only concerns about their

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reputation the possible ‘scandal’ many have on Arthur’s ‘knighthood.’ However, Sheila and Eric do recognise that they have behaved badly by the end of the play and therefore, Priestley is suggesting that it is the younger generation that have the power to adopt more socialist principles. Through their attitudes, Priestley, suggest that socialism is the way that society will change for the better.

How is each character legally and/or morally responsible for Eva’s outcome?

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Extended writing:

How does Priestley explore responsibility in An Inspector Calls? Write about:

• The ideas about responsibility in An Inspector Calls

• How Priestley presents these ideas by the ways he writes.

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BQ 10: What do we learn from this play?

Do now:

PD Ouspensky wrote around theories of time; Priestley was fascinated by his ideas and these very much influenced Priestley’s work. The key beliefs of his theories around time included:

 When we die we re-enter our life once more from the beginning.  We continue the cycle of the same lives, if no significant change occurs.  If there is spiritual improvement, we convert the circle into a spiral of events that would.  If there is a continuance of significant improvements, eventually the spiral will open an escape from the repetitions and into a new life where there is no repetition of mistakes. It meant that time could be manipulated and things did not happen in a traditional order.

How does this apply to the plotline of An Inspector Calls?

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In the play, is the Inspector giving them time? Why?

“It’s the way I like to work. One person and one line of enquiry at a time.” Shelia, “of course he knows…” “I’m waiting to do my duty” “I haven’t much time” “fire, blood and anguish” “a police inspector is on his way”

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Do now:

‘ Character Profiling

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BQ 10: What do we learn from this play?

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Do now:

Feedback:

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Response:

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