Life and Times of JB Priestley
Born 13 September 1894 and died on 14 August 1984, aged 89. He fought in the First World War, was wounded and injured in a gas attack and then judged unfit for active service.
He went to Cambridge University, to complete a degree in Modern History and Political Science. He wrote about 16 novels and 50 plays. He had a long career as a political and social commentator. He co-founded the socialist Common Wealth Party in 1941. Priestley refused both a knighthood and a peerage but accepted membership of the Order of Merit because it was unconnected with political activity.
In the context of his interests and beliefs, it makes sense why Priestly chose to set his play in the year 1912, even though it was only seen by audiences from 1946 onwards. The central premise of An Inspector Calls is that the strong and powerful in society need to take responsibility for the weak and powerless – particularly unskilled workers who have no economic power.
The years before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 were a time of industrial and social unrest. Britain had a population of 33 million, but 10 million people were living in poverty. In 1906 jobless people from the Midlands marched to London to protest about their lack of opportunity. Cotton workers went on strike in 1908, and there was a miners’ strike in 1910. In the same year 700 cotton mills in Lancashire locked out workers who were demanding higher wages. 1912 saw further protests by workers in clothing factories and riots caused by the terrible poverty of the poorest paid.
In 1911 National Insurance and unemployment benefits were introduced for the first time and medical welfare for the poor was introduced. Sickness and maternity benefits followed in 1913.
The historical facts show us how wrong Mr Birling is on almost everything he has an opinion on! Even in his own time he is backward-looking and unenlightened as an employer. He is sitting in his comfortable house telling anyone who will listen that all is well in the world. The Inspector’s visit is designed to open his eyes to the world outside his front door.
The inequality of wealth and security is at the heart of the play, because the Birlings have built their own prosperity on the bedrock of refusing to pay more for ‘cheap labour’. Arthur Birling is too narrow-minded to see the bigger picture of protecting the domestic markets from cheap imports. The Inspector tells him he has a public responsibility to promote the welfare of his employees and community as well as his own family but Birling rejects this as ‘nonsense’. It is concerning that a man like Birling can be a former Lord Mayor, councillor and magistrate, in other words have massive amounts of influence on society, but be touched so little by what he sees.
‘An Inspector Calls’ represents three classes – lower (Eva Smith), middle (the Birlings) and upper (the Crofts). Priestley sees the post-War era in which he wrote his play, as an opportunity to address the question ‘what sort of society do we want to build’?
Why did Priestley set his play in 1912? It enables him to contrast the ‘old world’ of the Edwardians with the world of the audience for whom he has written the play. If those who have survived a Second World War do not learn its lessons, will there have to be a third World War in afew years time?