Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley - page 1
Keywords: Comment on the Presentation of the Younger Generation in ‘An Inspector Calls’.
By Viks on 19/11/2006 15:32:22
Level: GCSE Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11)
Page Number: 1 of 6 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6
Comment on the Presentation of the Younger Generation in ‘An Inspector Calls’.
J.B. Priestley wrote ‘An Inspector Calls’ in 1945, after experiencing two world wars, he set the play in 1912 which therefore means the audience knows the future for the Birling’s this is dramatic irony. J.B. Priestley presents each character very differently; he uses Sheila and Eric to represent the younger generation, although Gerald is in his thirties he behaves in a mature manner for his age, therefore I would class him as the older generation. I feel that Eva Smith should also be representing the younger generation and the way the society treats young girls who need help.
Eva Smith remains a mystery to us all, she never appears on stage and we do not know her real name. Even though we do not see her on stage, she is a main character as the play revolves around her. She left a diary and a letter before she dies which helps the Inspector link his events of her death with the Birling family. She died a horrible death in the infirmary just two hours before the Inspector arrived at the Birling's ‘she’d swallowed a lot of strong disinfectant. Burnt her insides out of course.’ Eric’s reaction to this was ‘My God!’ Mr Birling's reaction to this was ‘Yes, yes, horrid business. But I don’t understand why you should come here.’ Their reactions were somewhat different; this may have something to do with the younger generation acting a lot different to the older generation as Sheila acts in the same way as Eric ‘oh – how horrible!’ We know she is a pretty girl, as she made Sheila jealous of her at Millwards, this led to her loosing her job. We also know that she was popular with the men, she seemed to attract the attention to both Gerald and Eric.
Although she was reduced to earning her living by picking up men in the Palace Theatre Bar, she did not seem well suited to that way of life. She is classed as a worker, ‘Girls of that class’ Mrs Birling expresses this in order to show that she is higher then ‘the girl’ and that she doesn’t want to know about the girl’s death, according to her she thinks that she has nothing to do with Eva’s death. But in fact she does. J.B. Priestley
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