Class Commentary
The play is set in the fictitious North Midlands town of Brumley in spring 1912. This was a deliberate choice of Priestley’s, so let’s start by analysing the significance of the setting. The history of the North Midlands area has been dominated by its industrial importance since the Victorian era: many of the first factories, railways and other key enterprises began in the Midlands as part of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century to mid-19th century. Whilst Brumley is a fictional place, it represents the many towns and cities where the economy and lives of its people centred around industrial business. Using this locale, Priestley can draw upon his British audiences’ knowledge of such towns and the people who lived there: both the prospering upper-class Mr Birlings and the struggling lower-class Eva Smiths. The characters in this town are archetypesaudiences would be able to easily recognise, making their stories more relatable and compelling. Although written in the 1940s, Priestley chose to set the play in the spring of 1912. This choice impacts the audience’s understanding of the play in two ways, historically and culturally. The economy of Britain in the early 1900s was controlled largely by private companies and individuals, like the Birlings, as the Liberal government adopted a laissez-faire policy, whereby the governing bodies do not intervene with the economic order. Because of this, businessmen like Mr Birling were able to control the workforce as they dictated the rate of growth. Many references to events of the time pop up throughout the play, notably with Mr Birling’s mention of the Titanic and the impossibility of war as seen in quotes like “a few German officers talking nonsense and a few scaremongers here making a fuss about nothing.”
The time period between 1912 and the play’s debut in 1945 saw much social and cultural change, including the sinking of the Titanic (1912), the Russian Revolution (1917), the women’s suffrage movement (1928), and both World Wars – the last of which had only just ended and the consequences of which were still reverberating across the globe. Any audience watching the play has the advantage of this historical knowledge and can recognise just how wrong Mr Birling is about almost everything. This is a great examples of Priestley employing dramatic ironyto add a layer of meaning to the play. It also distances his audience from his characters, making it easier for viewers to critique the characters’ flaws or false beliefs, reinforcing the themes of subjectivity and uncertainty.
It is also important to acknowledge the cultural impact of Edwardian society at play within the text. Following the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 and the end of her 63 year reign, a newly emerging era under King Edward VII was still in its early days. As such, many of the sensibilities and ideologies of the Victorian era were still heavily accepted and adhered to, influencing aspects of daily life such as morality, attitudes towards women, and class division. Victorian morals were often centred around the religious teachings of the Church and Bible, creating the rigidity and stoicismthat we now associate with people of the Victorian period. This influenced how many people led their day-to-day lives, looking to Christianity for moral guidance and fostering a conservative environment where values such as purity, honesty, sobriety, and charity were highly valuable, whereas outspokenness, individuality, and rebelliousness were frowned upon.
This, in turn, influenced gender roles within the time period and attitudes towards women. There was a clear binary between men and women: men were the bread-winners, heads of households, and the figures in society to be obeyed and in power, whilst women were seen as meek, sensitive, emotional, and suited only to being wives and mothers. Women were legally seen as the property of their fathers until they were married, when they became the property of their husbands. Where men were able to pursue any career they wanted to, women were not allowed to work in well-paid or high-ranking positions, often only being eligible for the domestic service (as servants) or in the ‘sweated industries’ in factories for long hours and very little pay. Furthermore, women of all classes were held to a much higher moral standard than men: the binaries of the Madonna–Whore complexwere the categories by which women’s moral behaviour were judged, with devastating repercussions for women who were seen to transgress from the ideals of purity and obedience; for example, any woman who had a child outside of Claustrophobic: marriage was then ostracised from society. The claustrophobic environment of Edwardian Britain is emulated within the play, with all of the action taking place within the Birlings’ dining-room. The play’s historical, political, and social context informs almost every element of the action, giving modern audiences the ability to compare their own context to that of the play.
Political ideology
One of the most vital lenses through which to understand An Inspector Calls is its underlying political ideology. Although the play is not an overt manifesto, Priestley’s beliefs as a committed socialist permeate its themes, characters, and structure. Socialism, as opposed to capitalism, promotes collective ownership, equality, and the prioritisation of community welfare over personal profit. The play is a direct critique of the class hierarchy and the self-serving nature of capitalist individualism, particularly embodied in the character of Mr Birling who dismisses responsibility for anyone beyond his immediate family and business interests. In contrast, the Inspector can be interpreted as Priestley’s spokesman, delivering the play’s moral argument about shared responsibility and social conscience. This is especially prominent in the Inspector’s final speech which explicitly warns that “we are members of one body.” This metaphor underscores the interconnectedness Priestley believed society must recognise. The timing of the play’s first production in 1945 – just after World War II and at the dawn/golden age of the Welfare Statein Britain – is crucial context: audiences were reflecting on the costs of inequality and considering alternatives to the pre-war order. Thus, Priestley’s message of collective accountability resonated powerfully then, and remains relevant today.
