An Inspector Calls

2 Pages 617 Words

“An Inspector Calls” was written in 1945, in just one week, by Bradford born writer, John Boynton Priestley. In his life, he wrote over one hundred novels, plays and essays. In July 1941 Priestley and other members of a committee established the socialist common wealth party. He was very interested and involved with politics but had a large amount of trouble getting along with the policies of any one party. He also made an unsuccessful attempt to stand as independent candidate for parliament in 1944. Priestley travelled through the extremely poor parts of Britain, which gave the inspirations for his novels and plays. His inspirations helped him think through his political ideas and change them. Most of his plays were about middle class people because the audiences who watched and read them were generally middle class people so they could relate to the characters easily. He wanted all his characters to be as real as possible so he gave them a social background that would the recognised. He had the great gift of being able to write quickly and never having to correct his first drafts. All his writings contained important elements of time, which suggests that there are moments in out lives when we make decisions that, could lead towards disaster or success.

During the second world war Priestley wrote fourteen books and broadcast a radio programme called “Postscripts”, which was listened to every Sunday evening, but due to his unfortunate habit of criticising the government and discussing what he thought was wrong with the society they lived in, the BBC reckoned with the idea of stopping the programme and after a year the programme was stopped.

After studying one of Priestley’s most famous plays, An Inspector Calls, I am going to see how the dramatic qualities of act three shape the audience response and how they communicate Priestley’s message, which was,
“ We do not exist solely as individuals but as part of an...