PLEASE MARK MY ENGLISH LITERATURE EXAM (its out of 30)

How does Priestley explore the importance of social class in An Inspector Calls? In the play, An Inspector Calls J.B priestley explores the themes of socialism and social class to criticise the economic/political state of England in 1912. The play was written in 1945 yet set in 1912 this is important to the theme of social class because of the two contrasting political states of 1912 and 1945. Furthermore priestley believed is socialism and equality and therefore illustrated it through the characters Sheila, EricIn Act one, Mr Birling states ‘lady croft - while she doesn’t object to my girl - feels you might have done better for yourself socially’ here priestley uses the pronouns ‘my girl’ when referring to sheila this show that Mr Birling sees his daughter as a sense of pride. The verb ‘done’ and the adjective ‘better’ suggest that marriage to the Croft family and Mr Birling is more of a competition that he could have ‘done better’ in. The adverb ‘socially’ illustrates that marriage is to help boost social ranking and that sheila and gerald only got married for sociability. This links to the theme of social class because it shows that in 1912 marriage was a joining of property and to help you climb up the social ladder into higher ranking friendships , this would have been shocking for the audience of 1945 because of the socialist ideology that was being spread. This is associated with the question because the importance of social class in An Inspector Calls was used to exaggerate the extreme lengths that the upper class of the Edwardian era would undergo to be socially higher up.In Act three, Priestley explore the importance of social class when the inspector states [that eric] ‘just used her for the end of a stupid drunk evening, as if she was an animal, a thing, not a person’, the use of the adjectives in this phrase express the oblivious but detrimental effect that the Birlings had on Eva smith. The adjective ‘just used’, ‘end’ and ‘stupid druken evening’ all highlight how fleeting and insignificant Eric saw the evening, contrasting by a great extent with the long term consequences of his actions. The tricolon starts with two nouns that dehumanize Eva, the noun ‘animal’ has connotations of being beneath human value and the noun ‘thing’ illustrates that Eric doesn’t see her as ‘a person’ but rather as something he can use and control. This would have shocked the audience because it shows that during the Edwardian era people of the proletariat had no value and that the bourgeoisie had a large amount of power. This links back to the question because the quote shows the extreme class divide and the detrimental effect they have on the lower class.When the inspector says ‘there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with their live their hopes and fears, their suffering and chances of happiness’ we clearly see that Priestley is using the inspector as a mouthpiece and wants to criticise the class divide that existed in the pre-war Britain.In conclusion, through the actions of the Inspector, Eric and Sheila, it is clear that Priestley wanted the post-war Britain/audience to understand that the class divide caused lack of responsibility and an oppressive state of power the bourgeoisie had over the proletariat. Furthermore he wanted to express the unity that Britain needed during 1912 and before world war one.