An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestley (Book Analysis) E-Book

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• Kategorie: Bildung
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• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 24

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Unlock the more straightforward side of An Inspector Calls with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!

This engaging summary presents an analysis of An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestley, in which the enigmatic Inspector Goole arrives at the Birling household to question each member of the family about their connections to Eva Smith, a young woman who has just committed suicide. After proving that all of them are in some way responsible for her death, the inspector leaves, and the family makes a series of enquiries that seem to imply that no such death has taken place. However, just as they are beginning to convince themselves that it was all a trick, the phone rings again, and they are informed that a police officer is on his way to ask them some questions about a girl who has just died… An Inspector Calls is J. B. Priestley’s best-known play, and explores the weighty themes of prejudice, collective responsibility and the nature of time itself.

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• A complete plot summary
• Character studies
• Key themes and symbols
• Questions for further reflection

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Leseprobe

J. B. PRIESTLEY

ENGLISH PLAYWRIGHT AND BROADCASTER

Born in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1894.Died in Alveston, Warwickshire in 1984.Notable works:The Good Companions (1929), novelPostscripts (1940), radio seriesMargin Released (1962), memoir

J.B. Priestley grew up in Yorkshire, where he found his first job as a clerk in a wool firm. This first-hand experience of the working conditions of the lower-class in the industrial North would greatly influence both his fiction and his politics. Priestly served in the infantry in WWI before studying English Literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, and then settled in London to work primarily as an essayist, book reviewer, and novelist. In 1932, aged 38, Priestley wrote his first play, Dangerous Corner, and continued to work as a playwright throughout the 1930s, garnering great success thanks to his gift for the shrewd characterisation of ordinary people. During the Second World War, he wrote and presented a BBC radio series called “Postscripts”, a patriotic, morale-boosting programme which was ultimately cancelled by the BBC because of its harsh criticism of the government.

By the time Priestly wrote An Inspector Calls in 1945, he had become increasingly politically engaged, strongly believing in socialism as a force for good. In his work, Priestley explores the themes of collective responsibility and the concept of time; though he remains best known for An Inspector Calls, he was a prolific writer and continued to publish until his death at the age of 90.

AN INSPECTOR CALLS

A PLAY IN THREE ACTS

Genre: playReference edition: Priestley, J. B. (1993) An Inspector Calls. London: Heinemann.1stperformance: 1945Themes: responsibility, class, time, guilt, prejudice, mystery, foreshadowing

Taking place over three acts and set in 1912, just before the outbreak of the First World War, An Inspector Calls is J.B. Priestley’s best-known play. Priestley had harboured the idea of a mysterious inspector visiting a family long before the start of the Second World War, but his conception of the Birlings, a rather complacent, well-to-do family, did not coalesce until 1945. In the play, the Birlings have their evening celebrations suddenly interrupted by the arrival of an Inspector who has come to question them over the suicide of a young woman called Eva Smith (also known as Daisy Renton). One by one, the Inspector’s meticulously controlled lines of enquiry reveal that each character knew Eva Smith and was in some way responsible for her suicide. An Inspector Calls uses the characters’ various reactions to the suicide and the role of the Inspector to explore the weight of both individual and collective responsibility, and remains by far Priestley’s most studied and performed work.

SUMMARY

ACT 1