“An Inspector Calls” By J B Priestley Essay

An Inspector Calls, by J B Priestley, is a repair in which he shows how the personalities of twain characters can contrast against each other. In this essay I intend to show how the characters Mr logrolling and his daughter Sheila contrast to show two views, which contrast on the death of a young wo human race, caused by the actions of the Birling family.An Inspector Calls is set in 1912, in the dining room of the Birling family. The play opens with the Birlings and Gerald Croft celebrating Sheila and Geralds engagement. From this we are able to learn that they are quite tumesce off as they are able to afford to relieve oneself a party, unlike most at this time. Once we are a few pages into the play an Inspector promises and commences to explain that a young woman has died, by committing suicide by drinking a bottle of bleach. As the play progresses the Inspector questions the actions of all the Birlings.At the beginning of Act One, we are given a few brief details somewhat Mr Birling by the author. We are told that he is a heavy-looking, rather portentous man in his middle fifties with fairly easy manners but rather provincial in his speech This suggests that he is a man of high standards and significance and is quite well mannered, but he is actually a man of low sophistication and a man who is non well educated. Priestley shows all of this by making Birling a single-minded man who wont adopt any new ideas like the higher-class mixing with the lower-class people.Birling is not a truly likable man as he is very vulgar and unsociable towards others. His first thought is to make money to overwhelm his family in whatever commission he can, and this usually means being harsh. He is mainly out for financial gain or else to improve his reputation. Birling is very ignorant about the real world and real matters he is a selfish person. Priestley has deliberately made Birling unreliable by using ironic references to the impossibilities and the progress of pop ulace Priestley has used the war (still to come) and the Titanic as examples of mankind (the actual failures).Birling believes that the route to success is through the world of businessand social reputation. He has a very high opinion of himself and has strong beliefs A man has to make his own ways Birling result only consider a man to be true if he has made his own way up the ladder from the bottom with little or no help. Although he may be single-minded and doesnt pay much attention to his family, he is still a successful businessman and has made his own honest approach to support. that with this in mind he still lacks refinement and good taste and he will not cede anything done to connect the death of even to the family as this may dirty the name of the family.In contrast to Birling, Priestley has created the character of Sheila. She is still very like Birling in the way of reputation and covetousness for money, but she is able to adopt new ideas and cultures, she also seems more in touch with the apparent world. She is living life to the full at the moment onward she gets tied down in her marriage to Gerald, which she doesnt seem to be very interested in.She is a very happy with her position in life at the moment, although she may have been pressurised into the engagement, for her fathers gain, she is still however looking forward to her wedding. Sheila has a bubbly personality that is only going to get destroyed by her familys greed and actions. Once Sheila learns of Eves death she is devastated that a young woman of her age has died, but once she sees the photograph the guilt hits her, as she knows that her actions may have contributed to her death. From this point we learn that Sheila is actually a very jealous person and could be a spoilt brat as she will use her high standing position to get what she wants I went to the manager of Milliards and I told him that if they didnt get rid of that girl, Id never go near the place again Here she has used her upstanding and her fathers reputation to get what she wants. She knows this will work as they are considered to be of importance to locals and who will try to satisfy their needs.She disagrees with her father as they both look at this different and see it different. Sheila soon learns from this mistake and matures as she says that Its the only time Ive ever done anything like that, and Ill never, do it again to anybody She may say that she is going to learn from hermistakes but she is not very trust worthy and it is difficult for someone to agitate from what they have always grown up with but she seems genuine and she may well change from this experience. By the end of the investigation Sheila realises that she has the responsibilities for others in the community as well as her self and her family. Priestley has made Sheilas character represent the In mop up I think that An Inspector Calls is a great play, which shows how two characters can contrast with each other on a the d eath of Eve Smith.By the end of the play we learn that Mr Birling hasnt changed his views at all as he still is out for financial gain and to make a better reputation for the family, but Sheila does change from realising that on that point is more to life than looking after yourself and family and that having a high reputation is not all that you have to look out for you have to look after the community also. They play ends with a spectacular ending as Gerald phones the Infirmary, only to find out there was no death and the Inspector wasnt real. They then realise that it was all a hoax, but once they realise this they receive a phone call from the Infirmary to say that a young woman has committed suicide by drinking a bottle of bleach.