An Inspector Calls Prediction 2024

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What Makes a Grade 7 Essay on An Inspector Calls

• Quotes 9

• Explanations 21

• NAMED METHODS 3

• Context 10

• Society 2

• Patriarchal 0

• Thesis Statement Y

• Conclusion Y

• Words 643

You are probably wondering what an explanation is. It is anything which means: this implies, indicates, suggests, connotes, Priestley wants us to think, feel, believe, understand..

It is easier just to show you. Explanations are in italics.

Student Essay

2022 Theme Question

Priestley has each member of the Birling family confess to their exploitation of Eva in order to reveal social inequality for his audience. He presents this as a tragedy.

The Inspector’s portrayal of Eva’s death demands a reaction from each character. While Birling is dismissive, proclaiming “I don’t see what this has to do with me”, Eric is emotional, exclaiming “My God”.

Birling is unrepentant when he explains how he sacked Eva. He describes her as a “troublemaker” who went on strike for higher wages. Priestley reveals the social inequality between businessmen and their workers by revealing the need for workers to strike.

Birling’s justification for sacking Eva is that he must “keep labour costs down”. He views her only as “cheap labour”, and Priestley thereby emphasises how businessmen viewed the working classes as commodities. Her sacking begins a “chain of events” culminating in tragedy. Eric describes this as a “damn shame”.

Sheila meets Eva in her new employment at Milwards. She abuses her status to force the shop to sack Eva, which emphasises social inequality through class. Sheila’s obsession with fashion and appearance is a criticism of upper class women of the time. This obsession leads her to demand Eva be sacked. Priestley USES the triviality of a dress to contrast with the tragic impact on Eva to provoke our anger at upper class exploitation of the working classes.

Gerald’s actions also emphasise this inequality and exploitation based on class. He portrays himself as heroic, hearing Eva’s “cry for help” and “rescuing” her from the sexual advances of Alderman Meggarty.

He views himself as a hero, and Eva as helpless and powerless. He exploits this weakness to keep her as his mistress, despite his heroic self-image. We are disgusted that Eva is simply a tool for his sexual gratification. We are shocked when he simply ends the relationship when it suits him. Eva must have felt exploited by him, and this must have impacted on her decision to commit suicide.

The elite status of upper class men allowed them to act in this way without punishment. For example, Birling expects to be knighted despite his exploitation. We might say he is rewarded for it rather than punished. The Inspector conveys Priestley’s viewpoint when he warns that this suffering affects “millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths”.

Priestley also describes Mrs Birling as “her husband’s social superior”. This highlights how class divisions exist even within the family. She asserts her status by criticising her husband: “you shouldn’t say such things”. Her “cold” lack of emotion also leads to her unwittingly causing the death of her grandchild.

She rejects Eva’s appeal for financial help because of her view of class, and this leads directly to Eva’s suicide. Mrs Birling refuses to accept any responsibility, instead accusing the unborn child’s father.

In conclusion, this stubbornness and prejudice emphasises the tragedy of Eva’s death. We realise that the older generation will never change and consequently Eva’s tragedy will be replayed by many in society.

Original 615 words

502 words

23 marks

Examiner Comments

• This answer focuses very well on the question.

• It has a range of references

• These are selected well to back up the argument

• There are enough to make this a ‘detailed’ answer

• And they are woven into the explanations to back up a range of points

• This scores highly for AO1, response to task

• The answer also deals with Priestley’s ideas

• And the themes of the play

• The comments about characters refer to Priestley’s methods in how he presents them

• And the best example of this is in the discussion of Gerald

• To get the top mark in Level 5, the student should analyse other characters with the same level of discussion

My Comments

• Quotes 10

• Explanations 24

• METHODS 1

• Context 11

• Society 1

• Patriarchal 0

• Thesis Statement Yes

• Conclusion Yes

1.      A two part thesis statement! Hurrah. I particularly like the idea of tragedy. In a Greek tragedy, characters try to avoid their fate, but a fatal flaw in their character brings the tragedy about. Does Eva have a fatal flaw, a hamartia? We would probably argue that she doesn’t, it is society which is flawed. And therefore, tragedies like Eva’s are playing out to the “millions and millions” of working class people she represents. Take this idea, and you have a grade 9 thesis statement.

2.      And obviously I’m super excited about the 24 explanations. The previous answer was much shorter, with only 16 explanations. So, what is the deal?

3.      Look at context. The examiner was much more excited about Priestley’s ideas about socialism and capitalism than this student’s much narrower focus on class.

4.      The examiner’s comments about the analysis of Gerald are really helpful. One way of looking at this is to look at the characters from two perspectives – here it is that Gerald sees himself as heroic, but actually he is exploitative.

5.      You could easily do that with Eric – he believes he is doing the right thing, standing by Eva and offering to marry her, but he has probably raped her and stolen money from his father’s business.

6.      Then we have to link this to Priestley’s purpose – he might want us to question Eric’s apparent transformation, and suggest that upper class men have only a veneer of humanity about them, but privilege has fatally damaged them. They will therefore continue to exploit those around them, even those they apparently care for. You can also link this to the ending: if Eric genuinely learns the Inspector’s lesson, why is there the second phone call?

7.      Mrs Birling thinks she is right to deny Eva helped because she was obviously lying (which is true) and because she believes Eva tried to insult Sybil by calling herself Mrs Birling (which may also be true). But, charity is there to help people who need it, not people we like.

8.      Then we have to link this to Priestley’s purpose, which is to suggest that we need a socialist society, a welfare state, where those with power and social status are not sitting in judgement of the poor. Instead, the state will decide to act with kindness and generosity.

9.      So, we’ve considered the characters from two points of view: how they see themselves, and how Priestley wants us to see them.

10.  Then we have said WHY Priestley wants us to see them that way. We always relate the WHY to society and socialism. And the grade 9 falls into our laps.

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This post includes a grade 7 answer on the Inspector, and a grade 9 answer written by me to my predicted question.