grade 9 inspector calls essay gender

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Of all the themes in an inspector calls, gender is the one that lends itself best to remembering that we read this play from three different time zones: 1912, 1945 and 2020., so when writing about gender in this play remember this:, the play is set in 1912 - before women even had the vote, it was written for an audience in 1945 - when women were an emerging social force, but you are reading it in 2020, during the fourth wave of feminism , and post #metoo, with this, however, it's also worth remembering that context - which is writing about 1912, 1945 or 2020 - is only worth 6 out of 30 marks, so be interested but don't dwell on it....

Women in 1912 - When the play was set

Women hadn't yet won the vote - that came in 1918. upper class women were expected to be docile, pretty and focused on the domestic environment. they should be good, loyal wives, and although rich women would mostly have had nannies to look after their children, the nannies would all be women as well., mrs birling is an interesting character as the stage directions note that she is her husband's " social superior ." this suggests that she was from an aristocratic background, but married below her, as birling owned a business and had the wealth. this wasn't unusual as the industrial revolution had seen a lot of ambitious people from lower classes become wealthy. often men who had become wealthy desired a wife of a higher class in an attempt to climb the social ladder themselves. despite being of a higher social class, mrs birling is often submissive to her husband's wishes - as would have been expected of her in 1912., sheila's reaction to eva is also telling. women have almost always been judged on their looks - the battle to change this continues today. and sheila's reaction to eva's prettiness - the fact that eva looked better that her in a dress that sheila liked - is complicated. she shouldn't have had eva sacked for laughing, but sheila also shouldn't have felt so dismayed that she wasn't as pretty as eva. in some ways, we should feel some sympathy for sheila who - for no fault of her own - was made to feel bad because of her face or body shape., we should also remember that, at the opening of the play, sheila is being married off to gerald so that her father can unify their business interests and achieve " lower wages and higher prices ." this wasn't dissimilar to the way that aristocratic families had used marriage as a way to bring families together for hundreds of years. sheila's role, in this respect, is just to look pretty and do as she's told., gerald and eric's trips to the palace bar reveal that although sexuality was still very repressed in british life, it had a seedy underbelly. the bar itself - which is ironically named - was where rich men would have gone to find the kind of women they could pay to have sex with. at the time prostitution was illegal - which meant a woman could be put in prison if she was caught trying to sell sex - so there was an illusion of seduction that would have taken place before any cash was exchanged. what gerald does, really, is maintain a sense that he's not paying for a prostitute when in fact he was. in many ways, eric's rape was a more honest expression of what was happening., really though, what was happening was that people like george birling were driving women into poverty so that their sons could take advantage of them when they were at their lowest. the system was setup so that women would fail, and they could then be used for their most fundamental commodity: sex., women in 1945 - when the play was written, during world war i, a third of male population of the uk went to fight. and over 700,000 of them never returned home. as a result, women had to step up to the plate and be counted - a task that women fulfilled. world war ii killed almost 900,000 men, and because that conflict was so much more complex the roles that women played were infinitely more involved. women became spies, data analysts, armaments manufacturers, farmers, code crackers and did - as with the men - anything that was asked of them to bring down the nazis., the world for women after the two world wars was a very different place., despite this, there would have been a certain number of voices who wanted to return to the 'good old days,' and priestley was determined that this shouldn't happen. throughout the play, he reminds the female members of the audience that they had been belittled and downtrodden prior to the wars, and through the character of sheila he shows that another world was possible., though eric does change, he lives in his sister's shadow. throughout the play sheila goes from being a kowtowed young woman who has to check " is this the ring you wanted me to have " and into a strong, wilful young woman who is prepared to call her parents the children, and - although she's very polite about it - return the ring her cheating finance had offered again., also, i can't help but feel that the women in the audience would have felt a real sense of camaraderie with eva - the voiceless, faceless girl who suffered immeasurably at the hands of the men around her. both wars were, after all, started and fought by men..., women in 2021 - context means today as well, feminism has come a long way since 1945 - first, second, third and fourth wave feminism have chipped away relentlessly and seen to it that young women today don't look at themselves in the same way they once did. however, the play itself is a relic of its time and while writing an essay about it you are encouraged to bring your own feelings to bear. here's a couple of notes that might be worth mentioning..., eva is called " pretty " 12 times in the play - that's four times in each act. so please remember that eva's tragic death was not heightened or lessened by how "pretty" she was. her good looks have no relevance to how sad we should feel. even the inspector calls her pretty repeatedly, and because he speaks with priestley's voice (and he never corrects this message,) we have to take away the idea that priestley somehow thought her good looks were relevant when they're not. it's as sad when pretty people die as it is when ugly people do - and beauty is in the eye of the beholder anyway., it's also worth noting that the inspector (priestley) claims that eva - who had previously been starving - would have been happy working at milwards as she was " amongst the pretty clothes ." here, the inspector doesn't say that she was happy eating, or happy with the security of a home, or happy being able to see a future again but she was happy with "pretty clothes." is this an example of the inspector (priestley) belittling a women by presuming that she was happier with pretty clothes than she was by securing something more meaningful - like food, towards the end of the play sheila observes that gerald "came out of it better than the rest of us. the inspector said that." but take a moment to reflect on the fact that gerald took a girl who was starving and then "kept" her until he was finished and then kicked her out and ask yourselves whether or not you feel that behaviour makes him "better than the rest of us.", sheila does return the ring, very politely. arguably, however, she should have thrown it in his face and then had a strong word with both her parents about why they suddenly decided it was ok to marry their daughter off to a cheat and a liar, just because they wanted to further their business interests., please note : all of the above are, arguably, true - in that we can see the truth of them today. however, the play is a relic of its time and you should write your essays with an understanding of how it was written in 1945, with an attempt to present 1912, but you're reading it in 2020. times change, texts don't. they can only ever reflect the time they were from and your writing should show you understand this., key quotes and references, mrs birling: when you’re married you’ll realise that men with important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time and energy on their business. you’ll have to get used to that, just as i had. mrs birling reminds sheila of her place. as a quote this emphasises just how engrained the patriarchy was (the patriarchy is the social system that kept men in power) because in it we can see mrs birling almost teaching her daughter that she will have to accept being ignored in favour of business. however, at the end of the quote mrs birling does express some dissatisfaction, admitting that she had to "get used" to it, something which at least makes it clear that she didn't like the situation. the quote also, however, reminds us how hard men like birling had to work in order to build and maintain their businesses, suggesting that the system didn't entirely help them either., (half serious, half playful) “yes – except for last summer, when you never came near me” –sheila (act 1), suggesting that she doesn’t fully trust gerald , despite the fact that they’re going to be married soon, but again shows how she is childish, and relatively light-hearted, as she is still ‘half playful’ even in something which could be seen as quite serious., oh – gerald – you’ve got it – is it the one you wanted me to have, when sheila is given the ring, she asks gerald if it’s the one “you wanted me to have.” here, she completely removes the idea that she might have feelings about which ring she gets. this reflects both her position as a woman in a patriarchal society, and how, as a young girl, she still needs to have decisions made for her. it’s as if she wants to please other people so much that her own opinions don’t matter – this will change once her conscience is awakened by the arrival of the inspector., “these girls aren’t cheap labour – they’re people.” – sheila (act 1), priestly using sheila as his mouthpiece, in place of the inspector, and also highlighting the division between the generations further, and the moral aptitude of sheila. this shows that sheila is learning. she won’t see sheila in terms that are limited to her material worth to the company, but she sees them as people., mr birling: clothes mean something quite different to a woman…a sort of sign or token of their self-respect. the inspector: she enjoyed being among pretty clothes, i've no doubt., the first line here comes from mr birling in act 1, and as such is one that we are encouraged to mock - this is a man who thought the titanic was a great idea after-all. however, the inspector supports it later in the play when talking about sheila working in milwards suggesting that there is something more complex going on. does priestley think women are defined by their clothes, or is birling observing another kind of communication that exists amongst women as an attitude in the play, it's one that you're encouraged to have your own opinion on., gerald: eva was " young and pretty and warm-hearted - and intensely grateful. ", gerald describes eva in a manner that would leave some members of the audience a little uncomfortable. the first half of this quote is supposed to show eva in a positive light (though her tragedy was still tragic even if she was old, ugly and a bit sour) but the second half of it is quite shocking. of course she was grateful, gerald... she was starving and you fed her, used her, and then dropped her when you were done., inspector: and you think young women ought to be protected against unpleasant and disturbing things, gerald asks that sheila be allowed to leave the room, to protect her fragile female sensibilities, but the inspector challenges him. if gerald really believed women should be protected, why did he not offer the same treatment to eva why was this poor working class woman treated as badly as she was by a society that also treated upper class women as though they were too fragile to leave the house here, the inspector reveals the hypocrisy at the heart of the patriarchal behaviour of upper class men., “ women of the town” – mrs birling (act 2), mrs birling is using a euphemism here to talk about prostitutes. her shock shows just how little she understands about her son or gerald; and how little she understands about working class life in general . this is especially telling in mrs birling as she runs the charitable institute. we have to ask why a woman who holds the views she does would run an institute for desperate women, if not solely to wallow in the power it gives her., “you and i aren’t the same people who sat down to dinner here.” –sheila (act 2), again showing how she has matured enough to recognise that she has matured, and that both of the characters present have undergone great change (sheila and gerald), due to their confessions of involvement with eva smith, and this also shows how sheila has become rather perceptive over this play. h e re, because this follows her returning gerald's ring, it emphasises just how much she has grown as a person and as a woman. she now wants a little more from her life - in the same way that the women of 1945 were being encouraged to ask for a little more from theirs too, eric: i wasn’t in love with her or anything – but i liked her – she was pretty and a good sport, eric's description of his feelings for eva speaks volumes. he didn't love her but he wanted to marry her which shows a deep misunderstanding of the nature of relationships and love, and emphasises his immaturity. while the fact she's described as "a good sport" after presumably responding to his having raped her with a stiff upper lip, shows a quite staggering level of insensitivity. she's also called "pretty" again., “everything’s all right now, sheila” – gerald (act 3), he’s reverted back to his former patronising tone with sheila – so long as he wasn’t to blame for any suicides, he’s happy. gerald goes on to find out that inspector goole isn’t even part of the police force, and that eva smith/daisy renton doesn’t exist and seems more at ease than before, and doesn’t seem ‘shaken’ at all by the events that had taken place, and he seems to form an ‘alliance’ with the older birlings, by confirming the inspector wasn’t real, and shows that he was unable to change. over the course of the play, he changed to a more moral and humanistic person, but changed back to his former self, at the very chance of possibly being let off this crime. though it shows he expresses regret if it did happen, it shows that he doesn’t care if he wasn’t involved. in a nutshell: he thinks he got away with it, so he’s happy now., mrs birling: now just be quiet so your father can decide what to do, though she is her husbands "social superior" mrs birling knows her place. she leaves the room so the men can talk business as soon as dinner is over, and at the end of the play - in the quote above - she makes it clear whose responsibility it is to make the really tough decisions in their relationship..

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• 1 October 2021 18 October 2022
• 1 Comment on Gender in an inspector calls

In the previous article in these series on the themes on ‘An Inspector Calls’, we looked at the issue of class division and social responsibility being explored in the play and also some of the wider social and historical context which the play was set in.

Some of what was mentioned in that article,   which you can read by clicking on here , also touched upon the issue of the status of women.

Themes in ‘An Inspector Calls’: gender

In addition to the social inequality and class division that existed in Britain at that time there was also the relatively low status of women. Thus Eva Smith suffered not only for being part of the poor working class, reliant on the mercy of her employers (the Birlings in this case) for survival, but also for being a woman. After being sacked by Mr Birling for trying to improve workers rights, she later resorts to earning money through prostition and uses the pseudonym, Daisy Renton.

Whereas ‘Eva Smith’ is a reference to ‘Eve’ (mother of humanity and thus the archetypal woman, and Smith is a common English name, with Eva Smith thus being representative of the average British woman,  ‘Daisy’ is a flower (and when women lose their virginity they can be said to be ‘deflowered’) and ‘Renton’ seems to connect with the word ‘rent’, that is to be paid for financially. In other words Priestly is also highlighting the sexual exploitation of vulnerable working class women by men.

Eva is made pregnant by Mr Birling’s son, Eric, but unlike him is physically impacted by it as the unborn child is inside her womb whereas Eric could live as if nothing had happened, though he did try and support Eva financially. However she refused as he was trying to use money taken illegitimately from Eric’s father’s business, and despite her poverty Eva’s morality was such that she refused to take stolen money. Ironically Eva had approached Mrs Birling in the past after her pregnancy when she went to a charity headed by Mrs Birling.

She sought help but Mrs Birling refused angered by Eva using the name Mrs Birling (which Eva was to somewhat justified in using in the sense that the father of her child was Mr Eric Birling). Mrs Birling, the mother, tells the inspector in the play that a the father (who ironically is her son little to her knowledge) ought to have born the responsibility of helping to support Eva and the pregnant child. Shortly after it emerges that her son, Eric is the father.

What is clear here is how vulnerable and precarious Eva’s existence was and how dependent she was on the good will of people richer than her. There is theme of money and financial aid with her rejecting the money offered to her by Eric as it was stolen money but trying to get aid from Mrs Birling’s charity. Despite doing morally the right thing by refusing the money that was taken from Mrs Birling’s husband when Eva tries to get financial support from the charity she is refused. This ultimately of course contributes to her tragic ending.

It could be argued that Priestly is also seeking to draw attention to the role of not just society, including the more well off in society, but the state. Later on in modern Britain single mothers would receive governmental monetary support to raise their children but not in 1912 when the play was set.

Priestly is highlighting the vulnerability of women, thus our need as a society to help them.

Women in 1912

The situation of women in 1912 was different to that of the 1940s when the play was written. By the 1940s women in Britain had experienced mass employment outside of the house. This was not the first time, the same had happened during the first world war.

However twenty years later it was another generation, and by then at least two generations of women, and two generations of men had personally experienced or been involved in the reality of mass female employment which included changing the financial status of women as their earning power increased.

It was something that was irreversible and though it may seem somewhat archaic today in modern Britain, the concept of a woman being exclusively a housewife eroded and was ended.

Source: ww2today.com

A woman in 1912 was seen as subordinate to a man and socially this persisted for decades after. The famous British comedian Harry Enfield pokes fun at this in some of his sketches in his parody of the early twentieth century British gender roles of the English middle-class, where women are expected ‘to  know their place’ which includes to be secondary ornamental aids to their husbands but not to dare be ‘uppity’ and talk about ‘serious’ topics which are reserved for men. We can find examples of this in the play for instance when Mrs Birling says to her male family members in Act 1:

“I think Sheila and I had better go into the drawing-room and leave you men-“

This was in the context of the female family members retreating and allowing the men to talk about serious things. Thus women did not have a say or voice in important affairs not just in the play, which is an attempt to reflect 1912 Britain, and thus had little role in formulating the society which they were part of, which they lived in. Powerless, voiceless, weak and vulnerable, all adjectives which can in someways be applied to Eva Smith.

A famous BBC sketch on old fashioned attitude towards women in early 20th century Britain.

We also see Mrs Birling say of Eva:

“ “ She was claiming elaborate fine feelings and scruples that were simply absurd in a girl in her position. “

Thus in this quote we can see both classism and sexism at the same time. ‘A girl in her position’. Position refers to her (Eva) social position as a working-class woman, and of course ‘girl’ refers to her gender. There is a supposition, a belief that a ‘girl’ and particularly of that social status should not be ‘uppity’ or have complex or ‘elaborate’ feelings. The working class ought to be simple and basic. Elaborate feelings are thus reserved for the rich. Everyone in that society has a designated role and place and there is little that they can do to challenge that or move out of it, i.e. social mobility.

Priestly however shows us that this dangerous and toxic cocktail of classism and sexism can be dangerous and have harmful consequences as we see in the death of Eva. He, similar to Dickens, provokes the sense of justice and morality amongst some in the affluent classes who would have seen this play and been appalled by the fate of Eva Smith and believed that such a thing could not be allowed to happen and on a fundamental level those deep social factors that contributed to her demise needed to be reformed.

To be fair Sheila does at one point attempt to point to the humanity of female workers when she says:

““But these girls aren’t cheap labour – they’re people” 

Sheila does seem to not fully agree with some of the ideas on class and gender roles prevalent at that time. This is in stark contrast to Mrs Birling who in the beginning of the play tells Sheila when she seems to be having a semi-humorous criticism of Gerald for being busy:

“Now, Sheila, don’t tease him. When you’re married you’ll realize that men with important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time and energy on their business. You’ll have to get used to that, just as I had.”

This is another quote that shows how deeply ingrained the belief in fixed gender-roles for men and women were at that time with Mrs Birling telling her daughter to conform to established gender-roles.

Historical context, Britain before and after ‘An Inspector Calls’.

Ultimately the world view that Sheila had in the play with female workers being ‘people’ (having humanity and not just to be utilised for labour) prevailed. Womens rights progressed in the subsequent decades. The British had two female prime ministers in later generations, Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May. However this was a result of centuries of long and hard struggle. A struggle which cannot be decoupled or delinked from the wider struggle of the working classes for greater rights. Though women were second-class citizens, so for centuries were the majority of their menfolk. Priestly shows however working class men could not seek to advance their rights and neglect the rights and status of women. The working class struggle had to embrace females.

Useful vocabulary for GCSE students in essays and exam questions.

• Misogyny – hatred of women.
• Misogynist – a man who hates women.
• Misogynistic – adjective of misogyny
• Patriarchal   –   a male dominated society
• gender-roles – The roles assigned to men and women in a society.

Example: ‘Priestly highlights the objectification of women as sex items with the words of the Inspector when he refers to Eric and  says:  ““just used her for the end of a stupid drunken evening, as if she was an animal, a thing, not a person,” (Act 3)”

• Suffragettes – a feminist movement of the early 20th century who campaigned for womens rights.
• Vulnerable – being weak and able to go through suffering easily e.g. Eva Smith was vulnerable.
• Conservative – old fashioned or seeking to maintain things as they are and prevent change, Mrs Birling can be said to be quite conservative.

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11a – ewan’s aic essay.

An Inspector Calls: How does Priestly present ideas about gender in ‘An Inspector Calls’?

Ideas about gender are very persistent throughout the course of ‘An Inspector Calls’. Priestley believed that, at the time, women were seen as second class citizens and he disagreed with this biased and unfair treatment of women.

A character who suffers harshly at the hands of sexism is the character of Eva Smith, a lower-class girl. Throughout the play men use their status to abuse Eva Smith in ways that they see acceptable. For example, in Act 2; when Gerald explains to the Inspector how he met Eva Smith (named Daisy Renton at this point) he says “Old Joe Meggarty… had wedged her into a corner”. This shows how an upper-class man was able to take advantage of the lower-class women. Priestley criticizes this behaviour and by the use of “old” implies that this is outdated or a traditionalist view, which he opposed. Also, the use of “wedged” conveys that Eva Smith does not want to be there and that she had no choice in being there. This reflects Priestley’s abhor of this treatment of women as it goes against their own personal interests. Alternatively, the use of “wedged” and a speech made by the Inspector at the end of the play, “that lesson will be learnt in fire and blood and anguish”, suggests that Priestly feels, or is even trying to encourage, that women rise up against their injustice, which is an example of dramatic irony as, in the 20 th century, women name suffragettes fought for the rights of women.

Another way that Priestly presents ideas about gender is through the anecdote that Sheila Birling tells in Act 1. She explains that she had Eva Smith fired from Milwards as she had looked better in a dress than Sheila had; “you might be said to have been jealous of her.” First of all, this shows Priestley’s belief that the upper-class were no different from the lower-class, as both seem as emotionally torn as the other (though at the time the upper-class would have denied as their status was what made them look good), which could have extended to how Priestly felt about gender, that men and women were no different from each other. As stated in the above brackets, the upper class wanted to look splendid in the eyes of others. However, during the 1900’s, women were seen as the possessions of men, which is highlighted by the fact that Sheila went to Millwards’; she even mentions to Gerald that it was “for his benefit” which tells us that she was only there to look nice for Gerald, which he is pleased by: “Good!” This shows Priestley’s distaste for the objectification of women during the 1900’s; he believed, and shows in the play, that this treatment of women leads to pathetic and “jealous” behaviour that will always leave a woman who is emotionally damaged, as implied by Sheila’s “jealousy” of Eva Smith, and physically damaged, as in the case of Eva Smith, who we know is supposed to have killed herself at the end of the play.

Finally, at the time that ‘An Inspector Calls’ is set, women were expected to have children at to look after them. This idea about the roles of women is put into conflict at the very end of the play. Eric tells us that “She thought she was going to have a baby,” which immediately places Eva Smith into what was expected of her at the time, however, she was not married and would therefore have been shunned by others, especially those of the upper-class (which was one of the reasons why Priestly was spiteful towards them). However, the fact that Eva Smith was expecting a child would have agreed with the audience at the time, who believed that that was the role of a woman. However, when we discover that Eva Smith, or a girl, has “just died in the infirmary” this destroys this view that women were responsible for looking after the child, which would have outraged the audience at the time. Priestly believed that it was unfair that people believed that women were solely responsible for the child: Mrs Birling even states “the father, of course” when asked who was responsible for Eva Smith’s death. This illustrates Priestley’s view that men were not as important as they believed (he even criticizes them by having Eric, the father, as a drunk, “he’s squiffy”, which highlights his own weakness) and that they also had a responsibility to bring up their children, whether in the upper or lower-class, which he tried to destroy the barrier between by writing ‘An Inspector calls’.

As we can see, Priestley was a socialist who believed in equality for all. At the time, women were seen as second class citizens and they had little say on how their lives were led. Priestley challenged this view by creating stark contrasts between the views of people at the time and the events that befalls the characters in the play; an example being Eva Smith, who would have been expected to look after the child, failed by killing herself and the child along with her.

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Mr Salles Teaches English

An Inspector Calls 100% Essay

I received 40/40 on my inspector calls gcse question thanks to you- securing myself 9, 9 in english lit and language. Would you like my script to use?

But honestly I can’t thank you enough. I’ve encouraged friends in year 11 to watch your videos so they can improve too🙏🙏

Thanks Noah - here is the essay!

Let’s call this an average of 7 words per line. Noah writes about 27 lines per page for the last 5 pages, and 13 lines on page 1.

That gives a total of (7x27x5) + (7x13) = 1036 words.

This is typical of full mark essays, and grade 9 essays. Points make prizes, simple as that.

If you aren’t practising writing fast, you aren’t practising getting grade 9.

Thank you for reading Mr Salles Teaches English. This post is public so feel free to share it. You probably know someone else who wants top grades.

This was written for the Edexcel paper.

Mark scheme:.

There is an assured personal response,

showing a high level of engagement with the text and

discerning choice of references to the text.

A critical style is developed with maturity,

perceptive understanding and interpretation with

The understanding of relevant contexts is excellent.

Understanding of the relationship between text and context is integrated convincingly into the response.

High performance-in the context of the Level of Demand of the question,

Learners spell and punctuate with consistent accuracy, and

consistently use vocabulary and sentence structures to achieve effective control of meaning.

The items in bold italic are different to AQA - but overall, both exam boards want the same thing from a grade 9 essay: it needs to be well argued and perceptive.

Mr Salles Teaches English is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts which help you get top grades, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

What Scores the Marks?

Your Thesis Statement should make it easy to work out what the topic of the question is.

Noah has gone into the exam knowing in advance that he wants to write a thesis statement which explains two aspects of context - one, that this is a socialist play, and two, that the tragedy is Aristotelian.

This means that he is not really integrating his context into his argument - it kind of stands on its own here. It is only at the end of the thesis statement that he uses the key words of the question ‘the younger generation’.

This means his thesis statement ignores the second bullet point of AO3.

So, my advice is, do plan your thesis statement in advance. But, in the exam, make it relevant to the question as quickly as possible by introducing the key words from the question in your first line.

Priestley portrays the younger generation of 1912 to promote his socialist message to their children in 1945. His play follows the Aristotelian conventions of tragedy in order to illustrate the terrible consequences of not following socialist principles in society between 1912 and 1945.

This is a very weak quote to back up the idea that Eric is a socialist. His words about the Birlings seeking higher profits justifying the workers’ need for higher wages would have been much better here.

" Why shouldn't they try for higher wages? We try for the highest possible prices ."

But, the examiner has a kind of checklist of Priestley’s ideas:

Eric is sympathetic to the working classes

He challenges his father’s capitalist ideas

Edwardian society was patriarchal, so Eric also attacks the sexist control of women

Noah writes about all of these, so it’s tick, tick, tick from the examiner.

Paid subscribers get a fully marked grade 9 answer every week. And they get access to the 50+ already published.

Substack lets you access all these for free in a 7 day trial!

Noah has introduced an alternative interpretation of Eric’s behaviour here, which is always going to give you higher grades.

He leaps to this a little too quickly, as we don’t see exactly what social responsibility Eric is denying - his alcoholism, his stealing from his father, his probable rape of Eva - but Noah is beginning to make the case that perhaps Eric has not learned the Inspector’s lesson or, if he has, that it will not have enough power for Eric to make use of it.

This is a sophisticated argument. Although the younger generation might hold socialist beliefs, they will never be able to live up to them because of the privileged lifestyle they’ve led, and the wealth they continue to enjoy.

There are no extra marks for using the words ‘proletariat’, ‘bourgeois’ (adjective) and ‘bourgeoisie’ (noun). Noah actually confuses the last two. So, I tend not to use these words - working class and upper class are good enough for me.

Notice how Noah writes about society and Priestley’s views - this is what earns the marks.

You should know by now that writing about the characters as ‘constructs’ is the way to show the examiners you understand the writer’s ideas.

Noah uses this as a springboard to analyse Priestley’s ideas about social responsibility.

Writing about one character as the ‘foil’ of another also emphasises how the play is constructed in order to promote Priestley’s message (in simplistic terms younger generation good vs their foil, older generation bad).

The quote ‘ we are members of one body ’ would have helped Noah here. It is one I would slip into every essay.

This paragraph has gone a bit rogue. Noah doesn’t tell us what was ‘vile’. He doesn’t link Mrs Birling’s actions, in denying charity to Eva, to the consequence: Eva’s suicide and murder of her unborn child.

So, he loses a lot of Priestley’s message and anger.

However, he is able to link to Priestley’s ideas, so it scores marks.

You’ll notice that Noah keeps bringing context into his explanations of Priestley’s ideas. This is excellent.

(You never have to introduce context by saying ‘contextually’, in the same way that you wouldn’t introduce your analysis by saying ‘analytically’).

This is a weaker analysis of Mrs Birling’s language, but the examiner is happy because Noah is linking it to Priestley’s socialist ideas.

Noah makes this relevant to the question by always referring to the perspectives of the older and younger generations.

This is a bit confusion.

Noah makes the strong case that Mrs Birling is being wilfully blind to Eric’s actions and responsibility.

He suggests that Priestley uses this to criticise upper class society, as this is what Mrs Birling represents.

But he also asserts that this is a criticism of the patriarchal society and that Mrs Birling is a victim of it. This needs a lot more explanation to make sense.

Points 1 and 2 score well, but point 3 is left hanging.

As soon as you say that the Inspector is a proxy for Priestley’s views, you are treating the Inspector as a construct.

So, you get higher marks.

Linking Priestley’s portrayal of the younger generation to his desire for social responsibility is a strong link to the conclusion.

The socialist and Christian context of 1945 is also cleverly linked to the theme of social responsibility.

Ready for more?

An Inspector Calls: A*/L9 Essay Example on Gender Inequality

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Here is an essay example on Gender Inequality in An Inspector Calls, on the theme of responsibility. I've also broken down the structure below so you can see what to put into each paragraph and how to organise all of your ideas - this is the most important thing for getting a high level in an essay!

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An Inspector Calls – Full Mark Essay L9 / A* grade

This is an example of a high grade A* / L9 essay for ‘An Inspector Calls’.

It was completed by myself, not in timed conditions, to set an example for high achieving students, so it is beyond the requirement of a high grade for GCSE. However, students are encouraged to read it and deconstruct it to get ideas for their own essays and structuring – it is also useful in terms of learning how to develop a sophisticated approach to essay phrasing, techniques, and vocabulary. I hope you enjoy reading it and find it helpful!

If you find this page useful you can take a look at our full ‘An Inspector Calls’ course here .

How does Priestley explore the issue of class in An Inspector Calls? 

Class is arguably one of the central issues presented in the play, as it is because of her lower-class that Eva Smith is able to be so badly exploited, which leads to her tragic suffering and eventual suicide despite her intelligence, beauty, and kindness. We are exposed to the privileges that upper and middle-class men and women have, as well as the fact that they don’t always realise that they have greater opportunities and stability. As a socialist, Priestley certainly viewed the division between classes as a serious issue in his postwar society; the play ultimately tries to convey his message of social responsibility in order to minimise these rifts between the different classes.

According to Priestley, the upper classes cause issues in society due to their blind privilege. Gerald Croft, for instance, is an aristocrat whom Priestley describes as an ‘easy well-bred young man-about-town’. Priestley depicts Gerald as having an ‘easy’ lifestyle and demeanor due to his privileged social position; as a prominent up and coming businessman whose family are successful business owners, it could be argued that he has been handed his freedom and success without much effort or difficulty. The compound adjective ‘well-bred’ in particular displays Priestley’s socialist beliefs, as it implies that he is aware of yet disagrees with the fact that breeding is highly valued by the postwar British society and perhaps that family connections are more important than a person’s own character or intelligence; Sheila is only engaged to Gerald, after all, because Mr. Birling wants to secure business connections. Gerald’s flagrant exploitation of Eva’s kindness and beauty whilst being engaged to Sheila creates a layer of dramatic irony which criticises the idea that marriage for business purposes or family reasons is ever a positive or viable option. Though it could be argued that Gerald is a more sympathetic character than Sybil, he still demonstrates how the upper classes are so privileged and used to manipulate those around them that they are not even fully conscious of their behaviour. His excuse of continuing the affair with Eva because he felt ‘sorry for her’ could be interpreted as sensitivity, but it is likely that Priestley wanted to show instead how it demonstrates false sympathy, as he was only prepared to help Eva so long as she provided him with the affection that he craved. Additionally, Sybil as another upper-class figure demonstrates a different kind of high-class privilege: under the pretense of being charitable as she works for the ‘Brumley Women’s Charity’, using her prominent position in society to help only those she feels are deserving because they align with her own beliefs and values. She refuses to help Eva because she did not agree with Eva’s ‘elaborate fine feelings … that were simply absurd for a girl in her position’. The alliteration of ‘fine feelings’ emphasises Sybil’s snide superiority in that she is prejudiced towards Eva’s sensitivity and considers herself able to feel and experience more complex emotions than a lower class ‘girl’, a further diminutive term that underscores Sybil’s authoritative position and Eva’s own powerlessness in the situation where she is forced to finally seek charitable help after being thrown into a series of increasingly unfortunate positions. Therefore, whether they are consciously or unconsciously aware of their actions, the upper-class characters in the play are shown to manipulate the lower classes by abusing their privileged position; this demonstrates an inherent hierarchical structure in mid 20th-century British society which Priestley challenges and rejects. As a social realist play, the narrative represents a real-life situation that is familiar and known to the audience, so Priestley’s audience would have been aware of people holding the same values as Sybil and Gerald, looking down on lower classes or feeling like they could just exploit them as they pleased. In this way, Priestley asks his audience to question the fundamental beliefs of his society, by showing that they are not based on kindness and empathy, but instead superiority and oppression. 

An Inspector Calls: Character Revision

Although Priestley exposes the problems with the upper classes in the play, he also draws equal attention to the plight of the lower classes. This is primarily shown through the character of Eva Smith, who is arguably less of an individual person and more of an everywoman or symbol for the exploited lower class workers: her name ‘Eva’ is a Biblical allusion to Eve, the first woman created by God in the book of Genesis, and her surname ‘Smith’ is the most common surname in Britain. The symbolism of Eva’s name also shifts as her situation deteriorates; being forced out of work several times, she changes her name to ‘Daisy Renton’, the surname perhaps suggesting the idea of a ‘rent girl’ or prostitute. Interestingly, the Inspector describes Eva as a ‘young woman’; the concrete noun ‘woman’ implies his respect for her regardless of her lower-class position. In contrast, the other characters refer to her using belittling or derogatory language, Sybil calls her a ‘wretched girl’, the adjective ‘wretched’ perhaps implying a double meaning of ‘doomed’ but also ‘repulsive’, once again highlighting Sybil’s upper-class snobbery. Arthur Birling also refers to her patronisingly as a ‘lively good-looking girl’ who ultimately ‘only had herself to blame’. Though the compound adjective ‘good-looking’ could be interpreted as a compliment, the audience feels that it is somewhat off-putting and patronising coming from a character such as Mr. Birling, who is in such a position of authority and privilege as a business owner relative to Eva being a mere worker who is replaceable and expendable in his eyes. The concept of ‘blame’ is pushed increasingly away from the lower classes as the play progresses when the Inspector, acting as a mouthpiece for Priestley’s own socialist views, exposes all of the Birling family and Gerald too to be partially culpable, doing so through the prop of the ‘photograph’ which he shows, in turn, to each family member before exposing their encounters with Eva. The fact that nobody sees the photograph at the same time heightens the dramatic tension of the play, and its importance as a plot device is underscored at the end when Gerald points out that ‘There were probably four or five different girls’, ironically failing to recognise that the statement is irrelevant because it still demonstrates that each family member acted exploitatively towards a lower-class person, even if they were different people in the end. Ultimately the Inspector’s fire-and-brimstone speech where he declares that there are ‘millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths’ reinforces to Priestley’s audience the irrelevance of whether Eva is an individual or a symbol, as the point remains that the continual exploitation of lower-class workers by upper and middle classes results in mass suffering and oppression. 

However, Priestley does not only criticise the upper and middle classes, as his audience is educated and themselves part of those upper levels in society, he instead demonstrates their potential for change. Both Sheila and Eric certainly affect Eva’s life negatively, but crucially they demonstrate an acceptance of those and show remorse as well as a willingness to be more socially conscious in the future. Sheila outwardly admits her faults to the Inspector: ‘I know I’m to blame – and I’m desperately sorry’, causing the audience to sympathise with her and realise that as she was young, she was perhaps merely copying the behaviour of her mother when showing jealousy and cruelty towards Eva in the department store. Eric arguably is one of the worst characters in terms of his effect on Eva’s life; as an alcoholic who likes to get ‘squiffy’, he is shown to be irresponsible and selfish, to the point where he impregnates Eva and then abandons her. Yet he also shows maturity at the end, stating ‘The fact remains, I did what I did’ – the repetition of ‘did’ in the past tense perhaps emphasises that he is now going to change for the better and become a more considerate man rather than a selfish boy. Overall, the younger generation’s willingness to engage with the Inspector’s message is presented as positive, and they symbolically represent Priestley’s hope that future generations will be more kind and considerate towards one another. 

Finally, Priestley uses the tensions between classes as a way of promoting his wider anti-capitalist and pro-socialist political stance. As a socialist, he believes that the typical views of a capitalist society where, as Arthur puts it, ‘a man must look after himself and his own’ are outdated and damaging to the population as a whole, because individuals feel no greater sense of responsibility to the wider community. The reflexive pronoun ‘himself’ and the possessive pronoun ‘his’ also underscore the selfishness that Priestley feels is inherent within capitalism, as in his view it encourages an individualist and anti-collectivist mentality that rewards people for selfish behaviour and discourages them from altruistic or compassionate behaviour. Arthur’s views are directly juxtaposed with the Inspector’s own, particularly towards the end of the play when he becomes more forceful with his opinions. He concludes that ‘we are all members of one body’, using the collective pronoun ‘we’ to reflect his universal perspective of being interconnected with all other individuals in society. The metaphor ‘members of one body’ further reinforces his socialist perspective, as it suggests that each individual is connected to a greater whole – perhaps also referencing Priestley’s own Christian beliefs about harmony within communities and taking care of others, particularly those less fortunate than ourselves. Though in modern British society it is common to be equally exposed to both capitalist and socialist perspectives, when the play was written in 1945 the Labour Party – of whom Priestley himself was a prominent member – had just won over the Conservative Party for the first time in history. Therefore, Priestley’s audience themselves were less accustomed to socialist opinions, and many of them continued to uphold the prewar Edwardian and even Victorian attitudes of class separation, rather than wanting to create a progressive society that encouraged equality between classes. By setting the play in 1912 but writing and performing it in 1945, Priestley also uses this time difference to demonstrate that views such as Mr and Mrs Birling’s are outdated in the modern world, encouraging his audience to distance themselves from a capitalistic mentality and instead embrace a more socialist and equalist approach to life. This double setting also allows Priestley to reinforce the absurdness of some of Arthur’s views – for instance, he declares that the Titanic is ‘absolutely unsinkable’; his assertive and confident tone is entirely undermined for Priestley’s audience by the situational irony that the Titanic sank soon after Mr. Birling made that statement. The effect is to demonstrate Mr. Birling’s idiocy as a whole and to deter the audience from believing his capitalist attitudes, as he is clearly so wrong about his other beliefs.

In summary, Priestley treats the issue of class as integral to the plot of ‘An Inspector Calls’. He criticises the upper and middle classes for their lack of awareness of their privileges and their misinformed judgment of the lower classes in an effort to create a harmonious future society where the problems of class difference and class oppression are greatly minimised, or ideally no longer exist. This is demonstrated within a political framework, in which the Inspector’s socialist views are encouraged in the audience, whereas Mr. Birling’s capitalist views are discouraged. Finally, Sheila and Eric, as younger generation characters, exemplify Priestley’s hope for the future as they show the potential to think for themselves and no longer just copy the entrenched values of their parents. 

Thanks for reading! If you found this page useful you can take a look at our full ‘An Inspector Calls’ course , as well as ‘ An Inspector Calls: Story Summary ‘, where we break down Act by Act for easier understanding!

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GCSE An Inspector Calls Level 9 Full Marks Exemplar Essay Gender

Subject: English

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

18 June 2019

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This useful resource is an example of a full marks exemplar essay which achieved 34/34 (including 4 SPAG). 977 words in total. This was written for AQA but would easy adapt to any other exam boards. Aimed at GCSE students studying An Inspector Calls.

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GCSE An Inspector Calls Exemplar Essays Level 9

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