[Music] hello my name is dr. Aden Elliott and welcome to dr. Aidan's guide to literature welcome to this video on JB Priestley's an inspector calls in the next few minutes I'll use just ten quotations to help you get an understanding of this thought-provoking play incidentally the quotes and page numbers are taken from the Hyneman version of the play our first quote comes from mr. Birling the Titanic she sails next week unsinkable absolutely unsinkable here Priestley is using dramatic irony where we know more than the characters the play was first staged in 1945 so the audience then and now knows that the Titanic sank in 1912 Burling also makes several other incorrect predictions the war won't break out with Germany and that further strikes are unlikely we now know those were wrong as well Priestley puts those words into burling's math to undermine our faith in his opinions about society in general and one of those other opinions can be seen here the way some of these cranks talk and right now you'd think everybody has to look after everybody else Burling believes people do not have an obligation to other people other than the family and he thinks people who believe otherwise are cranks an insulting term for people who have unusual ideas he means people like the socialist revolutionary Karl Marx although he isn't mentioned by name this play overtly challenges burling's attitude the next quote lets us know how Berlin views his workers if you don't come down sharply on some of these people they'd soon be asking for the earth these people are the workers in his factory notice he groups them all together as one if he gives them a small amount they'll come back for more and war he says this even after hearing the one of these people Eva Smith has committed suicide two years after he dismissed her for asking for higher wages then Sheila Berlin's daughter discovers that Eva Smith lost her next job as a shop assistant because Sheila had complained about her Sheila initially excuses her actions saying but she was very pretty and looked as though she could take care of herself I couldn't be sorry for her notice that Sheila thinks Eva's prettiness will somehow allow her to take care of herself and earn a living note also that this is Sheila's initial reaction as I just mentioned after this Sheila does begin to change and to take responsibility but Sheila's mother mrs. Birling will have no such change of heart I don't suppose for a moment that we can understand why the girl committed suicide girls of that class here mrs. Birling shows her prejudice without knowing much about Eva she concludes that the suicide is linked to her lower-class origins and it's impossible for people of her class to understand such people the word we' indicates that her class have similar values the next quote is from Gerald Sheila's fiance I hate those hard I'd doe faced women but then I noticed a girl who looked quite different she was very pretty this quote tells us Gerald visits places where there are prostitutes these are the hard I'd dough faced women he hates but Eva noted Gerald as Daisy Renton is the girl whose pretty note he uses the same word pretty that she Lee used earlier we also discover that Gerald saved Eva from being sexually harassed by a local politician a friend of the burling's this suggests the upper classes are hypocritical they act as if they are superior to the working classes but then use them as prostitutes when it suits them to protect the young woman Gerald moved her into an apartment and he defends his actions by saying I didn't install her there so that I could make love to her but she did become his mistress and he did keep it a secret from Sheila he then finished the relationship on the grounds that he had to go away for several weeks he argues that this was okay because Daisy knew it was coming to an end Gerald does not mean what he says he knows that he was using Daisy Renton for sex and could never have had a long lasting relationship with her she's the wrong class like the burling's he's a hypocrite the next quote deals with overt prejudice yes I think it was simply a piece of gross impertinence quite deliberate as naturally that was one of the things that prejudiced me against her case Eva Smith had come to a charity for help because she was pregnant and because the father wasn't around but mrs. Birling who interviewed her refused to help because eva had introduced herself as mrs. Birling for reasons that will become apparent in the next quote she thinks Eva was being impertinent impertinent means not showing proper respect to one's superiors and note that the she's only one of the things that made her prejudiced against Eva we've already heard that she judges people according to their social class mrs. Birling then says that the man who got the young woman pregnant Easter blame he should be made an example of if the girl's death is due to anybody then it's due to him she points the finger of blame assuming that it's a working-class man who got IVA pregnant but she's about to discover that the person responsible is her own son Eric should he be made an example of having shown how they are all involved in Eva's death the inspector gives his parting speech a lesson for the burling's and for us there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smith's still left with us intertwined with what we think and say and do Smith is a very common name in the UK there are literally millions of them and the inspector wants the burling's to realise and JB Priestley wants us to realize that we are all intertwined with or closely connected to each other what affects one of us affects all of us but once the inspector leaves only Sheila and to some degree Eric feel responsible the others make excuses for their actions Burling says there's every excuse for what both your mother and I did he dismisses the inspector as a socialist or some sort of crank that word crank again and Gerald suggests that they can't be sure that they all actually saw the same photograph the supposed dead woman could be different people but does that really make a difference the question Priestley wants us to ask at the end of this play is this do we have a responsibility for others or should they just expect to look after themselves so do look out for some of these features as you read and watch this play and I hope that this video has given you some useful insights that will help you to get greater enjoyment from JB Priestley's and inspector calls give a thumbs up if you enjoyed this video and subscribe now so that you never miss any of my future posts [Music]