Literature: An Inspector Calls - Themes in Depth
An Inspector Calls themes study is a GCSE English Literature topic that traces social responsibility, class, gender and the generational divide across the whole play, building a theme-based essay from contrasting viewpoints such as Mr Birling's individualism against the Inspector's insistence that society is a single body rather than a collection of separate people. It draws on knowledge of where each theme appears, analysis of Priestley's structural and dramatic choices, and understanding of his socialist message and Edwardian/wartime context.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- Identify exactly which theme the question names (such as responsibility, class, gender or the generational divide) and do not drift into a general character answer.
- List every character and moment where that theme appears, not just the most obvious one, so your essay covers the whole play rather than a single scene.
- Group your points around contrasting viewpoints, such as Mr Birling's individualism against the Inspector's collectivism, so the essay has a clear line of argument rather than a list.
- Use the play's structure itself as evidence: the cyclical opening and closing phone calls, and the change in lighting Priestley calls for when the Inspector arrives, from a warm, flattering glow to something colder and more exposing, both support arguments about the theme.
- Link the theme to Priestley's own socialist beliefs and the gap between the play's 1912 setting and its 1945 first performance, where it genuinely deepens the point.
- Plan a clear structure, with an introduction stating your line of argument, points moving through contrasting characters and moments, and a brief conclusion, before you start writing.
Worked example
Explore how Priestley presents the theme of social responsibility across the play, focusing on the contrast between Mr Birling's claim that a man is answerable for his own family and for nobody beyond it and the Inspector's insistence that society is a single body rather than a collection of separate people.
- State the contrast directly: Mr Birling's individualism and the Inspector's collectivism represent the two opposing worldviews the whole play argues between.
- Analyse Mr Birling's language: his repeated possessives draw a small, self-interested circle around his own household, marking out exactly who he thinks deserves his concern.
- Analyse the Inspector's language: his body metaphor expands that circle to include everyone, presenting harm to any one person as harm to the whole of society.
- Track the theme through a second character: Mrs Birling echoes her husband's individualism when she blames the unnamed father of Eva's child rather than accepting any responsibility herself, only for the irony that the father is her own son Eric to expose the hollowness of her position.
- Use structure as evidence: the play's cyclical ending, with a new Inspector and a new dead girl announced, suggests that unless society accepts the Inspector's message, the same irresponsibility will simply repeat.
- Final answer: Priestley presents social responsibility as a direct battle between individualism and collectivism, using Mr Birling's narrow language against the Inspector's expansive metaphor, and reinforces this with the Birlings' own hypocrisy and the play's warning, cyclical structure, to argue that only the Inspector's view can break the pattern.
Practice questions
Try each question, then tap to reveal the answer.
Q1Which two characters most strongly represent the older generation's refusal to change?Show answer
Answer: Mr Birling and Mrs Birling.
Q2Identify the theme most clearly shown by Mr Birling's predictions about the Titanic and the possibility of war.Show answer
Answer: Time/dramatic irony - his confident, wrong predictions undermine trust in the older generation's judgement.
Q3How does the play present class through the character of Eva Smith?Show answer
Answer: She is never given a voice of her own on stage, remaining an offstage, working-class victim whose fate is shaped entirely by the choices of the wealthier Birlings.
Q4What does Sheila's objection to the way her father talks about the women in his factory show about the theme of class?Show answer
Answer: It challenges her father's view of workers as an economic resource rather than individuals, showing an emerging class consciousness.
Q5True or false: the play criticises capitalism only through the character of Mr Birling.Show answer
Answer: False - it is also criticised through Mrs Birling's charity committee, which judges the poor rather than genuinely helping them, and through Gerald's business dealings.
Q6Give one piece of evidence for the theme of gender inequality in the play.Show answer
Answer: Mrs Birling's committee decides Eva Smith is undeserving of help partly because of assumptions about her morality as a young, unmarried, pregnant woman, a judgement not applied equally to Eric or Gerald's behaviour.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a English exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
State four pieces of evidence that Priestley presents social class as central to how Eva Smith is treated.
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Explore how Priestley presents the theme of responsibility using the contrast in the worked example above between Mr Birling's claim that a man is answerable for his own family and for nobody beyond it and the Inspector's insistence that society is a single body rather than a collection of separate people.
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Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.
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'The play is more about the generational divide than about social class.' To what extent do you agree?
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See real English past-paper questions, with official mark schemes →
Free printable worksheet
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