The document provides information about different types of power that may be explored in the play "An Inspector Calls". It defines six types of power: social, physical, political, linguistic, economic, and intellectual. For each power type, it provides a definition and challenges the reader to provide an example. It then prompts analysis of how these types of power are shown in the characters' lives and what kinds of power they have. Finally, it shares the opening stage directions from the play's first page and asks the reader to identify parts related to power and discuss who seems powerful and how it is depicted.

1. Saturday, 27 February 2016
An Inspector Calls – Power
Objective: To understand one of the key themes in the
play

2. 5 Minute Task
Write down all the different ways in which you can have power over someone.
Write down 3 ways in which you have power in your own life.
Write down two ways in which people can use power positively.
Write down two ways in which people can use power negatively.

3. Power
Write down all the different ways in which you can have power over someone.
Write down 3 ways in which you have power in your own life.
Write down two ways in which people can use power positively.
Write down two ways in which people can use power negatively.

4. Task: Match the types
of power to their
definitions.
CHALLENGE: add an
example to each one.

5. Social
Power

6. Physical
Power

7. Political
Power

8. Linguistic
Power

9. Economic
Power

10. Intellectual
Power

11. Having the ability to
make decisions which
affect other people.

12. Having more power in a
particular environment,
or being of a ‘higher
class’.

13. Having a stronger body
than someone else.

14. Being able to use more
sophisticated language
than someone else.

15. Being more
knowledgeable than
someone else, or being
more qualified.

16. Having more money or
more possessions than
someone else.

17. An Inspector Calls – Power
Social Power Physical Power Political Power
Linguistic Power Economic Power Intellectual power

18. Having a stronger body
than someone else.
Being more
knowledgeable than
someone else, or being
more qualified.
Having more power in a
particular environment,
or being of a ‘higher
class’.
Having more money or
more possessions than
someone else.
Having the ability to
make decisions which
affect other people.
Being able to use more
sophisticated language
than someone else.

19. An Inspector Calls – Power
Social Power Physical Power Political Power
Linguistic Power Economic Power Intellectual power
How are
these types
of power
shown in our
lives?
What kinds
of power do
we have?

20. An Inspector Calls – Power
A. Highlight all
the parts of
the text that
say something
about power.
B. What
does the
text tell us
about
power?
Who is
powerful?
How is it
shown?
Task 3: read
the stage
directions
from page 1
and
complete A
and B.
The dining room of a fairly large suburban house,
belonging to a prosperous manufacturer. It has
good solid furniture of the period. The general
effect is substantial and heavily comfortable, but
not cosy and home-like. (If a realistic set is used,
then it should be swung back, as was in the
production at the New Theatre. By doing this,
you can have the dining table centre downstage
during Act One, when it is needed there, and
then, swinging back, can reveal the fireplace for
Act Two, and then for Act Three can show a small
table with a telephone on it, downstage of
fireplace; and by this time the dining table and its
chairs have moved well upstage. Producers who
wish to avoid this tricky business, which involves
two re-settings of the scene and some very
accurate adjustments of the extra flats necessary,
would be well advised to dispense with an
ordinary realistic set, if only because the dining
table becomes a nuisance. The lighting should
be pink and intimate until the INSPECTOR
arrives, and then it should be brighter and
harder).

21. An Inspector Calls – Power
A. Highlight
all the parts
of the text
that say
something
about
power.
B. What
does the
text tell us
about
power?
Who is
powerful?
How is it
shown?
Task 3: read
the stage
directions
from page 1
and complete
A and B.
At rise of the curtain, the four BIRLINGS and GERALD
are seated at the table, with ARTHUR BIRLING at one
end, his wife at the other, ERIC downstage, and SHEILA
and GERALD seated upstage. EDNA, the parlourmaid,
is just clearing the table, which has no cloth, of desert
plates and champagne glasses etc., and then replacing
them with decanter of port, cigar box and cigarettes.
Port glasses are already on the table. All five are in
evening dress of the period, the men in tails and white
ties, not dinner-jackets. ARTHUR BIRLING is a heavy
looking, rather portentous man in his middle fifties with
fairly easy manners but rather provincial in his speech.
His wife is about fifty, a rather cold woman and her
husband’s social superior. SHEILA is a pretty girl in her
early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited.
GERALD CROFT is an attractive chap about thirty, rather
too manly to be a dandy but very much the easy well
bred young man about town. ERIC is in his early
twenties, not quite at ease, half shy, half assertive. At
the moment, they have all had a good dinner, are
celebrating a special occasion, and are pleased with
themselves.

22. PLENARY: rate your
own power by each
type.