An Inspector Calls
Social Responsibility and Socialism · J.B. Priestley
- 1Priestley wrote the play in 1945 but set it in 1912, allowing the audience to see how the Birlings' refusal to accept social responsibility contributed to two World Wars.
- 2The Inspector embodies Priestley's socialist message: that we cannot live as isolated individuals, and that the comfortable classes have a duty to those they exploit.
- 3The cyclical ending -- the phone call announcing a real inspector -- suggests that society will keep being confronted with its failures until it learns the lesson of collective responsibility.
Key Quotes
"We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other"
The organic metaphor of 'one body' presents society as interconnected -- harm to one part damages the whole. This is Priestley's central thesis.
"A man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own"
Birling's individualist philosophy is positioned early in the play so the audience can watch it be systematically dismantled.
"They will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish"
The prophetic warning gains dramatic irony from the 1912/1945 time gap -- the audience knows the 'fire and blood' of two World Wars proved the Inspector right.