Blog 04: An Inspector Calls

In today’s blog, the focus will be the last key GCSE text for this week (on to A Level for a bit now): Priestley’s An Inspector Calls.

With all of these blog posts, I’ll be highlighting three important things to consider to elevate your exam responses.

Key Character

There are lots of options here, depending on the focus of the question — Mr Birling for tradition, Eric for youth v old age — but the Inspector himself is a central touchstone and the catalyst for the play’s action: not only does he shine a light on the Birlings’ hypocrisy, but his intervention causes concrete changes in the other characters.

Key Theme

I’ve already mentioned it, but change is really important. Priestley, as an avowed socialist (link to Historical Context [AQA AO3]: the ability to use this in discussing the quotations you use is really important), wanted to see changes in the post-WWII society in which he was writing (different from the pre-WWI context in which the play is set, crucially).

Key Quotation

If you’re answering a question using these character and theme ideas, you really need to make reference to Inspector Goole’s final line in the play: ‘And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish. Good night.’ The character is throwing forward to the horrific events of the twentieth century: Priestley is using dramatic irony to make reference to things with which we are already familiar, but the characters are not, underlining the extent to which the Inspector can be seen as an almost supernatural character in the play.

📌 If you want more of this focus on character, theme, language, and context to prepare you for your exams, get in touch.