Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
An inspector calls - Coggle Diagram
An inspector calls
contextual introduction
first performance
the play was first performed in Moscow and
Leningrad, Russia, in 1945. It reached London in 1946,
After its first London performances, the play was hugely successful.
- J.B. Priestley wrote ‘An Inspector Calls’ in a single week
Popularity
Its initial popularity and good reception is partly because the play’s style, genre, and topic
‘Drawing room plays’ were developed during the period, and their popularity continued into the mid twentieth century.
Drawing rooms were used to entertain guests, particularly amongst the upper classes.
‘An Inspector Calls’ also fits the trend of detective thriller and serious drama,
The play fell out of fashion after the 1960s. Theatre had moved on with a new movement
of Social Realist Theatre, which explored serious social issues within a contemporary setting.
‘An Inspector Calls’, in contrast, was outdated, and many felt it was written for the rich and
middle classes.
Several revivals at the end of the century, though, brought the play back to life and back into popularity.
Today, it is celebrated for Priestley’s criticism of Capitalism and middle-class hypocrisy. Critics view it as an accurate reproduction of pre-World War I society as it fell apart.
The victorian influence
charity
Before Queen Victoria’s reign, England had something called the ‘Poor Law’.
This law was set up
by Queen Elizabeth I to provide help for the poor by offering them money and support.
This is why workhouses were set up. People facing poverty had to work in awful conditions in order for others to think them worthy of being helped.
-
-