The document explores the themes and story types in J.B. Priestley's play 'An Inspector Calls,' highlighting its elements as a murder mystery, family drama, coming-of-age story, and morality play. It discusses key themes such as growing up, loss of innocence, family relationships, judgment, and social class, emphasizing character development and the significance of the inspector's role in revealing moral truths. Ultimately, it encourages readers to analyze the characters' transformations and the moral implications of their actions throughout the narrative.

1. An Inspector Calls
Themes

2. • To explore the main story types found in An Inspector Calls.
• To understand the different themes in the play.
To understand the themes of An Inspector Calls.
Learning Objective
Success Criteria

3. By now, you should have read the play
An Inspector Calls.
In the exam you may be asked a
question about the themes of the play.
Think back over the action of the play
– what themes did you notice?
If you were asked what the main ideas
in the play were, what would you say?
Write down your ideas.
To Begin
Romance?
Family
Relationships?
Adventure?
Death?

4. An Inspector Calls is all of these:
• A murder mystery
• A family drama
• A coming of age story
• An old-fashioned morality play
The Types of Story
Before we consider the specific themes of An Inspector Calls, it will be useful to
discuss the different ‘story types’ that are brought together in the play.
The audience gets a lot for its money in this play!

5. Murder mystery
The Types of Story
How can this be possible? Use your Story Types At a Glance sheet
(or your books) to write down which parts of the story are: morality play,
murder mystery, family drama and coming-of-age story.
Check your ideas with the rest of the class.
Family drama
Coming-of-age story
Morality play

6. Murder Mystery
The first type of story that the audience
notices is the murder mystery.
Think back to your reading and answer
these questions:
• Who or what is murdered?
• Who plays detective?
• Who is the murderer?
• Why did the murder take place?
The story begins with the entrance of an
‘Inspector’ early in Act One. It may appear to
be a standard investigation into a crime, a
type of Poirot or Miss Marple drawing room
mystery, but the story later develops into
much more than a simple mystery.
Think about how Priestley uses the mystery
theme to explore much greater issues.

7. From the very first scenes of An Inspector Calls, we see a family drama
beginning to evolve. We are watching the way that the members of a family
respond to one another. The opening scene is one of celebration within the
family. Who is celebrating? What are they celebrating?
Think carefully about:
• What family is at the centre of this drama?
• Who are the main players in this drama?
• What makes the relationships within the family dramatic?
• What has happened to the family?
Family Drama
Most soap operas (EastEnders, Coronation Street etc.) are family dramas.
What usually happens in a soap opera?
Do we see any similar events in An Inspector Calls?

8. Coming-Of-Age Story
Priestley shows us the young characters Eric and Sheila as they change throughout the story.
These characters undergo huge emotional and psychological changes throughout the play.
This makes the story a bildungsroman or coming-of-age story.
Think about the different things Eric and Sheila must confront in the story.
In what ways have they grown by the time the story ends?
How have the older characters reacted to what has happened?
Consider the following speech made by Eric at the end of the play.
How have the events of the evening truly changed both him and Sheila?
“What’s the use of talking about behaving sensibly? You’re
beginning to pretend now that nothing’s really happened
at all. And I can’t see it like that. This girl’s still dead, isn’t
she? Nobody’s brought her to life, have they?”

9. Morality Play
A morality play is a very traditional type of story. Many of the oldest forms
of drama in Western Europe are morality plays of the medieval period.
Morality plays were religious plays that sought to show people the error of
their ways. They tried to show characters confessing and repenting of their
sins. They warned against the temptations of the seven deadly sins (pride,
covetousness, lust, envy, gluttony, anger and sloth).
Now, think about what aspects of
An Inspector Calls could be seen as
an old fashioned morality play.

10. Social Class
The Themes
We have discussed the different types of story in the play but what about the
themes? What is the play really about?
The characters in the play deal with…
Loss of Innocence
Judgement
Growing Up
Family Relationships
Honesty and Trust

11. You might have included how Sheila is spoilt and appears to be
frivolous (excited about her engagement ring). She doesn’t
seem to have a clue as to why Gerald was cold and distant the
previous summer and takes out her feelings of inadequacy on
those less fortunate than herself. She does, however, seem
aware of what men can be and talks about Alderman Meggarty
in a disparaging way. The Inspector respects that she ‘isn’t
living on the moon’.
Growing Up and Loss of Innocence
One of the major themes of the story is growing up. To a certain degree this can be
tied into another of the key themes, that of loss of innocence.
The Birlings have led a sheltered existence until the opening of the play, particularly
Sheila. Create a grid with two sides. On one side, write down all the ways in which
Sheila, in particular, is sheltered (kept safe) and childlike at the beginning of the story.

12. Sheila grows and changes over the course of the play – indeed,
she and Eric are the only two to really be affected by what has
happened. She is appalled by the death of the girl and eager to
take the blame for her part in it. She recognises her own
failings and vindictiveness and sees that all of the family should
change. She becomes more capable of holding her own side of
an argument with her parents.
Growing Up and Loss of Innocence
On the other side of your grid, write down what Sheila has experienced by the end
of the play. At the end of the play, she hands back her engagement ring and says:
‘You and I aren’t the same people who sat down to dinner here.’
To what extent do you find this true for Sheila?
What has she learned during the course of the evening?

13. Another theme is family relationships.
The relationship between Sheila and
Eric and their parents is central to the
action and drama of the play.
Think about how the siblings’
relationships with their father
changes over the course of the story.
Think about what type of father
Arthur Birling seems to be.
Think about how the siblings’
relationships with their mother
change. Think about what type of
person Sybil Birling seems to be.
Family Relationships

14. Family Relationships
You might want to use the following quotations to help you with your thoughts:
MRS BIRLING: I should think not.
Eric, I’m absolutely ashamed of you.
ERIC: Well, I don’t blame you. But
don’t forget I’m ashamed of you as
well – yes, both of you.
SHEILA: You’re ready to
go on in the same old way.
BIRLING: And you’re not, eh?
SHEILA: No, because I remember
what he said, how he looked,
and what he made me feel.
Fire and blood and anguish.
And it frightens me the way
you talk, and I can’t listen
to any more of it.
BIRLING: Now look at the pair of
them – the famous younger
generation who know it all. And they
can’t even take a joke.

15. Judgement
Central to the issues of the story is the
theme of judgement. The Inspector,
whether he is a real inspector or not,
embodies the idea of a judging force.
He comes into the family and lays bare
all of the horrible things that they have
each done.
Why do you think it is important that
the characters (and the audience) are
left wondering about the nature of
Inspector Goole by the end of the
play?
Why is it important that, at this point,
the judgement is not a legal or
religious one but a moral one?
What does the following conversation
tell us about this theme in the story?
SHEILA: I’m going anyhow in a minute
or two. But don’t you see, if all that’s
come out tonight is true, then it doesn’t
much matter who it was who made us
confess. And it was true, wasn’t it? …
That’s what’s important – and not
whether a man is a police inspector or
not.
ERIC: He was our police inspector all
right.
SHEILA: That’s what I mean, Eric. But if
it’s any comfort to you – and it isn’t to
me – I have an idea – and I had it all
along vaguely – that there was
something curious about him. He never
seemed like an ordinary police inspector.

16. Did you include any or all of the following?
• Even within the middle classes, there was a social hierarchy. Sybil Birling is her
husband’s ‘social superior’.
• Relationships and marriage were not necessarily about love in the middle class of 1912.
Arthur Birling is particularly pleased with the engagement of Gerald Croft to his
daughter as this will have business advantages for him.
• Arthur Birling is conscious of his lower standing than that of the Crofts. He brags to
Gerald of his hopes of a knighthood soon.
• The Birlings try to intimidate the Inspector by talking about their friendship with the
Chief Inspector and the fact that Arthur Birling plays golf with him.
• Arthur imagines that the Inspector was ‘probably a Socialist’. This would put him in the
political group that was against the notion of the upper classes. They believed hard
work should determine status in society.
• Sybil Birling, in particular, seems to consider the working classes as different. She
mentions ‘girls of that sort.’
Social Class
The characters in the play are all upper middle class, apart from the Inspector and Eva
Smith/Daisy Renton. What things do you notice about social class and the class structure of
1912 from the play? Write down your ideas.

17. Gerald lies to Sheila
about his actions the
previous summer.
The Inspector claims to be from the police
force but no-one has heard of an Inspector
Goole and it is only at the end of the play
that the real police call on the family.
Honesty and Trust
Another key idea from the play is the use of honesty and trust.
Think back over your reading.
• Who is truthful?
• Who lies?
• Why do they lie?
• Who are the most truthful
• members of the ensemble? Why?
Think about the following lies and the reasons for them.

18. Let’s Review
Choose one of the themes of the play that we
have explored today:
• Social Class
• Judgement
• Growing Up
• Family Relationships
• Honesty
Choose something different from your partner.
You have one minute to check through your
notes about this particular theme of the play.
You now have one minute to talk your partner
through the theme.
Go!
1
Timer
STOP!