John B

John B. Priestley had formulated “An Inspector Calls” in 1945, where it was based in 1912. Both of these dates are pertinent because it exposes Priestley had wrote the didactic play in a community arising from the Second World War — when people looked back fondly at pre-war England. In addition, Priestley had used his play to show that the idea of a 1912 civilization was gradually being washed away but the upper classes and that the world needed to change instead of returning back in an egoistic society in pre-war England.
Through his play Priestley endeavoured to convey a message to the audiences, that we could not go on being self obsessed and that we had to change our political views. He used the Birling family as an example of the Capitalist family that was common amongst the higher classes in 1912, who took no responsibility for other people and he showed this with the power of Socialism, represented by the inspector; the uneasy facade put on by the Birling family to cover up their real flaws and how they have treated those whom they considered to be lower class could not stand up to any scrutiny without shame for what had happened, showing that they know they have been wrong.