The play shows us a telling example of man's inhumanity to man. Discuss this statement

Essay by DaSunwalker April 2004

download word file, 9 pages 5.0

Downloaded 32 times

A young girl dies and a whole family is apparently responsible. The family are interrogated, and one by one the mysterious Inspector Goole makes them admit to what they have done, but Inspector Goole may not be all that he seems...

J.B. Priestly tells of this interesting sequence of events in his play, 'An Inspector Calls.' He brings back to life the cruel Edwardian world in which children are brought up to spend their lives in factories; a world in which people are born solely for the purpose of keeping business men rich. In this essay I will discuss whether the play shows us a telling example of man's inhumanity to man.

The family, which allegedly cause Eva to commit suicide, are the Birling family. They are a rich upper class family who are blind to the poverty of their employees. There are five members of the Birling family.

Arthur Birling is the head of the family and owns a large factory.

He is very pleased with life in general but is blind to the troubles of the world around him. Arthur is intent on bringing up his son Eric to follow in his footsteps but is having difficulty in doing this.

Eric is the youngest in the family who has not yet reached 20. Eric has a drinking problem, which he is determined to hide from his parents. Eric is finding it hard to live up to his father's expectations.

Sheila is Eric's brother and is engaged to an older man called Gerald. Sheila is also very pleased with life and is very excitable. At the start of the play Sheila is very selfish although she does feel for people less well of than herself. As the play progresses she becomes less selfish, in fact she and Eric are...