Can someone please mark this out of 30(all my teachers refused)

How does Priestley present selfishness and its effects in An Inspector Calls?

Priestley presents selfishness and its effects in An Inspector Calls through the juxtaposition as Eva and Gerald's relationship and Shiela and Gerald's relationship. This can be evidenced by the way Priestley presents the woman of the play to be similar as Shiela is described as " a very pretty girl in her early twenties" while Eva is described as "very pretty" and "twenty four". Both these women are taken advantage by Gerald to satisfy his two most prevent desires - lust and social stability. In Sheila, Gerald hides his true feelings and is forced by societal pressures to marry Sheila to form a public alliance between the Croft family and the Birling family. Gerald selfishly manipulates both women to reap the benefits while leaving both women negatively and permanently changed. This can be evidenced by Eva's suicide and due to his betrayal, Sheila has lost her devotion to him and their relationship is different to what it once was. Priestley does this to show how higher class men's selfishness destroys the innocence of women and conveys to the contemporary audience how upper class men selfishness affects all classes. He conveys this purposefully to highlight his overall socialist message while diminishing Capitalism as he show that high class men are allowed by society to be selfish and get away with it. This can further be reinforced by when Sheila says "wait, I must think", when Gerald's desperately trying to regain her trust and restart their marriage. This suggests Sheila is uncertain about the future of their relationship despite how all of Gerald's devious deeds were displayed to her. Contextually, we know that women of 1912 lacked rights and had to cling onto the social class of their husbands to climb the social ladder or remain at their already high class. This can be related to Sheila as Society places sole value on women ans their ability to attract the richest and highest value male, which is why Sheila understands that Gerald is of the highest upper class, born into wealth and higher than her Bourgeoisie family in status. Priestley does this to show a contemporary audience how the upper classes selfishness isn't properly punished and instead the weak and lower class pay for their selfishness like Eva smith.

Moreover Priestley presents selfishness and it's effects through Mr Birling. This can be suggested near the beginning of the play where Mr Birling says "we were having a nice little family celebration and look at the nasty mess now" Priestley artfully conveys Mr Birling as petty snd inhumane to force an audience to realise their own selfishness and he teaches them how to correct it through his mouthpiece - The Inspector. Priestley juxtaposes his pettiness with The Inspector saying he was "looking at what was left of Eva Smith" and "a nasty mess somebodies made of it". Priestley portrays The Inspector as somewhat omniscient by foreshadowing how the Birling families selfishness were at fault for Eva's death. Moreover, the brutal description of "nasty mess" is used by Priestley to highlight the severity of the families crimes. Moreover, Mr Birling says " Lower costs and higher prices". This is said in his speech and shows how he has no regard for the his hardworking employees. Furthermore, Mr Birling says "it's my duty to keep labour costs down" as a rebuttal to The Inspector questioning why he fired Eva. The use of "duty" highlights the key phrase "keep labour costs down". Priestly subtly highlights Mr Birlings selfishness in his own speech. This is because he doesn't mention the conventional "duties" of males in the 20th century like protection of family but instead he believes his responsibility is to himself and his wealth first. We know that Mr Birling is obsessed with wealth as he is symbolic of capitalism which Priestley despises. We know that Eva was fired for asking for higher pay as in 1912 women have payed a third of men, making it impossible to be self sustainable. This demonstrated how society perpetuated the suffrage of women to put men into power because due to the low wages, Eva Birling and other women had to rely on men. Moreover, as all working class men and women were played by upper class wealthy men, it shows how societies structure was inherantly bias to upper class men as they were responsible for everyone's wellbeing and the nations economic development, especially during 1912 the indutstrial revolution was in full force.

Finally, Priestley presents selfishness and it's effects by using the Inspector to convey his message in he didactic play. This can be evidenced by the quote" we are members of one body". Priestley artfully alludes to the Book of Genesis and the Holy Communion as Jesus's body was represented through bread and eaten to demonstrate togetherness and community. Priestley does this to appeal top the commonly Christian contemporary audience. Priestley does this to imply that the Inspectors is teaching the Birling family and Gerald on god;s behalf. However, The Inspector is also Priestley;s socialist mouthpiece , so Priestley relates Christianity to socialism, which forces a contemporary audience to become socialist to remain a faithful Christian. Even though eventually Sheila and Eric accept responsibility while Mr Birling says "I can't accept any responsibility" and Gerald and Mrs Birling agree, Priestley uses the Inspector to deliver a final message to suggest that every one in society should care for each other so that the "millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths" don;t suffer as a result. The repetition of "millions" highlight the Inspectors metaphor for the lower class in the phrase. Priestley does this to to convey the severity of families selfishness and to present to a contemporary audience how upper classes selfishness is very powerful. By using "millions" he is implying to the audience that upper class elite will even cause them to suffer. Moreover, The Inspector presents the effect of selfishness through the phrase" men will be taught in fire and blood and anguish". The polysyndetic listing highlights the key word's "fire", "blood" and "anguish", to convey the brutal effects of selfishness. Furthermore, the Inspector foreshadows World War One, which causes blood to be shed of the innocent but also leads to society deconstructing to work together to fight and protect England. Priestly uses dramatic Irony, so that the complementary audience realises that the selfish elite and capitalism were somewhat at fault for the suffering caused in both World War Two. This is a tactic used by Priestly to show how selfishness will lead to mass destruction and how selfishness and Capitalism are intertwined.