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An Inspector Calls - CONTEXT, (The difference from 1912 and 1945 for women…
An Inspector Calls
- CONTEXT
Socialism and Capitalism
Priestly was a socialist
he was trying to echo the socialist feelings of the British public.
A socialist play - the rich are just as important as the poor
people were shown how a truly socialst Britain would be during the war.
the family are middle class
Mr birling is a symbol of conservative capitalist
convertible middle class suggest that this play is set in a capitalist state
Birling was capitalist
Winston Churchill, who was conservative, out and Clement Atlee became prime minister, who was labour. The Labour Party is socialist and is all about fairness and the people. Now, there was More focus on the poor.
Priestley’s Life and Work
henry Ibson was one of his major influences
wants to mirror audiences life
one of his major influences was a play called a goverment inspector by Nikolai Gogol (1836)
socialist- labour vote
He became well known to the British public from his moral boosting radio station podcast.
Constantly asking the audience who deserves our sympathy.
The first audiences were queuing to see the play- people must have enjoyed it and heard good things about it
his writing style was unique and original, and unlike many others at the time
he was very experimental
the play still holds a legacy today- very popular with modern audiences
he wasn't to express how people had different views on weather war was inevitable.
Priestly wondered how even though Britain survived the war how did it actually effect everybody, wanting to express how time were different before the war, and how peoples views may have changed.
he wonders what life would be like if everyone worked as a community instead of being dedicated to their 'appetites and prejudices in their vanities'
He wanted to represent the very opposite of what people where hoping for in 1945, by setting the play in 1912
the two world of rich and poor Edwardian Britain rarely met
he left the question to the first 1945 audiences as they left the theatre was what sort of world they would go out and build and Priestly gave them the answer, by giving people a glimpse of what the world could turn into through the play.
he saw many strikes and marches throughout his life especially about working women and their unfair wages, showing how he came to sympathise with Eva's money problems- less job opportunity for women
he also published: English journey, Doomsday men, Delight, dangerous corner, Bright day, Benighted and angel pavement, many of which seem to relate to these same views and ideas as 'an inspector calls.
Britain (1945-48)
The Welfare State
1912 when it was set is two years before the first world war and it was written in 1945 which was at the end of the second world war.
Clement Attlee(labour) came in as prime minister and Winston Churchill(conservative) was voted out in a landslide victory for labour
People who can afford to go to the theatre are the type of people who Priestley aims the play to are the type of people who he is mirroring.
NHS started in 1945 under Clement Attlee who was a labour Prime minister
1945 was the last year of WW2
The fact that they chose a socialist prime minister showed that they had a common purpose dedicated not to prejudices and to a great communal task
At the end of world war 2 the people of britain were desperat for a change and wanted a new britain and priestley helepd them for some sort of idea as to what kind of world they want to build
The working class in particular had aa tough war they wanted life after the war to be better , the classeshad mixed together as evacuees and in the armed forces and the poor had a better idea of the other half lived
Priestly used his stories and plays to try cheer people up because of the war in 1939 to 1945.
the war created need for employment shoot up, wellfare of working confiotns was also largely looked at.
Edwardian Britain
Play was to make people thing do we want to go back to an Edwardian Britain or do we want to move forward.
innocent time (1912) before the war in 1914
after 200 years of industrial revolution
there were downsides and positives of the Industrial Reverlotion
industrialisation made some people every rich
no support - wealth fare state
huge wealth gap, being poor was really hard
highly political play
Women's suffrage
In 1918 the Representation of the People Act granted some women the right to vote in parliamentary elections, and the Equal Franchise Act of 1928 gave men and women equal voting rights for the first time.
March 1st a million miners went on strike
The workhouse was a desperate place - where you would go if you didn’t have a job
For most people there was little education and no sanitation, no national health service
wealth
High classes women were raised to marry into a good family and be a wife outside of the house they were powerless and couldn't vote
If you couldn't get a job you would go to a workhouse
8million people were living on less than 25 shillings per week which is about 1.25 per week
to the audience of 1945, 1912 represented the calm and un-just times before the war- the time before they progressed as a country
People left with no jobs would have to either live on the street, work in a work house (terrible conditions), or find a charity that'll take them in.
Class System (1912)
in child evacuation classes mixed .
fairly wealthy middle class family/ well off
lines between the well-of and the poor. work paying conditions weren't protected so people who worked in factories didn't get much money
Upper class - owned most of the country and made most of the money
The difference from 1912 and 1945 for women is that women could vote so it was a political progress
it showed how times changed
Womens suffrage