Transcript An Inspector Calls by J B Priestley

An Inspector Calls
by J B Priestley
Social and Historical Context
In your coursework essay you will be
required to refer to the background to this
play and to Priestley himself.
Make notes as the PowerPoint
progresses…..
J B Priestley
Biography
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Born 13th September 1894 died 14th
August 1984.
Mother died in they year he was born.
Left school at 16 ‘to write’ and began work
in 1910 as a junior clerk at a wool firm.
Priestley stated that it was the period
1911-1914 that ‘set their stamp upon me’
(the time before the first world war).
Biography
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Priestley surrounded himself with ‘people
who read a great deal, cared a lot for the
arts and preferred real talk and hot
argument to social chit chat’.
He found himself having political
discussions with his father’s socialist
friends.
Socialism
What is socialism?
Socialist principles
“The establishment of a system of society
based upon the common ownership and
democratic control of the means and
instruments for producing and distributing
wealth by and in the interest of the whole
community.”
The Socialist party of Great Britain.
Back to Priestley…
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World war one broke out in 1914.
Priestley joined the infantry at age 20.
He left the army in 1919 after seeing active front
line service in France.
He narrowly escaped being killed when a
German shell exploded near him and was the
victim of a gas attack.
His experiences in the war affected his writing; “I
was lucky in that war and never ceased to be
aware of the fact.”
After the war…
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Priestley took a degree in Modern History
and Political Science at Cambridge
University.
In 1921 he completed his degree, married
and left for London with his wife.
He began his writing career with essays
and achieved success with novels and
plays
His work
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With the outbreak of WW2 in 1939,
Priestley continued writing and worked for
BBC radio. However, his programmes
were cancelled by the British Government
for being too critical of their actions in the
war.
The play, An Inspector Calls was written in
1945.
An Inspector Calls
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Was set in 1912 (before WW1) and first
performed in London in 1946.
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A thriller, An Inspector Calls has been
running in theatres ever since….
The Theatre
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Before WW2 theatres were very popular.
Since the introduction of cinemas, theatres had
been competing with musicals with lavish sets,
costumes and budgets.
With the coming of WW2, theatres opened and
closed erratically due to air raids.
Performances were relocated to the North or the
Midlands.
By 1944 the Old Vic Theatre Company had
returned to London and the play was first staged
in 1946.
The Play itself…..
The Play itself…
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A straightforward detective thriller……....or
is it?