CRAMMERS' GUIDE: 5 shots of context for 'An Inspector Calls'

Five shots of context for 'An Inspector Calls' 

AO3 on the AQA Syllabus is all about context, so here's 5 shots of it. Remember though, there's only one thing worse than forgetting about context, and that's using too much of it.

The exam board are pretty clear that weaker students often use context in a 'bolt on' kind of way, and that's a mistake. You should only use it when you can link it to the question, but as with all things, the more know, the easier you'll find it to do just that.

FIND FIVE MORE SHOTS OF CONTEXT AND MUCH MORE IN MY FREE GUIDE

1 The Titanic 

The Titanic was a huge passenger liner, a ship of a class that many at the time said was unsinkable. The Titanic set out on its very first voyage on the 10th of April 1912. It was making a journey from Southampton to New York. On the 15th of April, 1912 the ship sank near Newfoundland after hitting an iceberg. More than 1,000 people died.

The ship is important for your answers because it was a symbol of capitalism and of luxury. Birling talks about it positively. However, we, the audience know that the ship did sink despite Mr. Birling’s confidence. The audience may also have been aware that third class passengers were left to fend for themselves on the Titanic and that many perished below deck.

So Priestley uses dramatic irony  and the Titanic to expose Birling and his views about the beneficial effects of capitalism as misplaced and misjudged.

2 Priestley worked as ‘a very junior clerk’ at a local wool firm (Helm & Co.)

Priestley left school at 16. He took a job as a junior clerk at a wool firm in Bradford. He believed that these years (1910 – 1914) were the most significant of his life. For your exam, the wool company in Bradford is not so far away from ‘the works’ in Brumley that Eva Smith works at. Priestley would have seen the suffering of ordinary workers (‘Eva Smiths and John Smiths’) who had to live on very low wages at the time when the play is set Remember the play is set in 1912!

3 Priestley fought with the infantry in World War I (1914-1918)

Unlike many writers who served in World War I, Priestley did not begin as an officer. Instead he joined up as a Lance Corporal. He was badly injured by mortar fire while serving on the front-line and also suffered the effects of a gas attack! Only in 1918 was he commissioned as an officer.

For your exam this adds to Priestley’s understanding of and sympathy with the experiences of working class people. His experiences add extra irony to Birling’s belief that ‘Nobody wants war’. Priestley would  have felt that working class people suffered and died in the Great War (the other name for World War 1) merely in order to protect the wealth and privilege of the the people who already had land and businesses.

4 The Russian Revolution

In 1917 the Tsars of Russia were overthrown in the Russian revolution. This led to the establishment of the communist state of Russia (sometimes called the Soviet Union). Russian communism was founded on the ideas of a man called Karl Marx. Marx believed that the people should own the businesses and government organisations in a country. 

Just after World War 2, when Priestley wrote the play, people would have been aware of the strength of Russia’s armed forces and of its expansion into other countries in Eastern Europe. It would have seen powerful and intimidating and successful at the time. We are supposed to see Birling’s statement that Russia will always be “behindhand naturally” as ironic. 

Although Priestley disapproved of Stalin, the leader of Russia, he must have been at least a little sympathetic to Russian communism. In 1945,  he chose to have the play’s first performance in Moscow,the capital of Russia!

5. Women get the vote

The suffragette movement was founded in 1903. In 1918 married women over 30 were allowed to vote. Voting equality was not established until 1928.

While the play is not strictly a play about women. It is significant that Priestley chose a woman  as the ‘victim’ of his whodunnit?. As a woman Eva would not have had the vote. She would have been entirely without power in the society in which she lived. Priestley has a woman at the centre of the play,partly to expose the patriarchy’s lack of sensitivity to women,and partly because Eva Smith, a young, unmarried woman represents the most vulnerable group in British society of 1912.

5. Priestley was on the radio!

During World War 2, Priestley broadcast a show called The Postscript on Sunday nights on BBC radio. At its height Priestley had 16 million listeners. His influence was thought to be second only to that of Winston Churchill. However, in 1941, his reports were cancelled. It is thought that Winston Churchill’s government were unhappy with its content.

Priestley’s popularity shows that at the time the public had a great appetite for the ideas he was putting forward. So Priestley was speaking to an audience who would have been more sympathetic than perhaps a modern audience would be.