calling Year 11 English Lit: An Inspector Calls: I think the Inspector Did It

[Waterparc]

please help. DS1 has to study An Inspector Calls. He was doing a question on the ending and we have just realised that Eva was killed by the Inspector who then prepped the other characters to confess in order to have the perfect defence.

is there a better explanation?

No single person killed her, it's about collective guilt. One unthinking action can devastate another's life, and everyone in that family had done something to hurt Eva. In the end, they all had to face up to their individual guilt, and accept they were all to blame.

As Clawdy said, each of the Birlings plus Gerald have a part to play in Eva’s demise. Please don’t stick to your initial reading of the play. The Inspector’s role is as a mouthpiece for Priestley’s views on social responsibility.

Thank you for replying. It's not my initial reading. It's an alternative reading. but it does make sense does it? Without the need for an alternative explanation that depends on the supernatural.

We're told that Eva had been dead for 2 hours before the Inspector's arrival.

Then at the end we're told she's just died on the way to the hospital from the same causes...

So I reckon the "inspector" poisoned her, called the ambulance saying he was aware that the Birlings had been mistreating her, nipped over to the Birlings', teed them up into a morbid joint confession, then scarpered.....

Face it, it's a lot better than the rather random "is it supernatural" ending thousands of students are forced to write about....

God, this is just the most shit play possibly ever written. Obvious moralistic didactic crap.

Nothing, other than 'Beloved' I had to read at university, is worse than this tripe.

I feel for kids having to study this. Far better short plays out there.

As you were.

Your poor DS. An Inspector Calls is such boring shite. Can’t believe they still make kids read it. We also had to go and see the play and watch the movie, both dire.

Is he also reading Of Mice and Men? I remember that was the other GCSE book and I liked it much more.

lol I've found my people. thank you.

It's crap isn't it?

I mean the ending is just like what DS1 himself would write to a short story where he was running out of time ...."and then we woke up and it had all been a dream".

I genuinely think my interpretation improves the shit ending.

What makes this almost criminal is that Pride and Prejudice was the alternative they could have studied.

Oh, Austen ain't all that either though. She's what I like to call, 'same story, different girl'...all her novels are the same. Such simpering perambulatory hogwash.

Easier to get a higher mark with Priestley anyhow!

I remember when I studied it (back in the 80s, I can’t believe it’s still on the syllabus) there was the question of whether Eva was one person or each person encountered a different girl as the inspector showed each family member the photo separately.

Aw, I loved this book. It had a profound effect on how I view social responsibility

There was a very good tv version a couple of years ago. And I saw it in Manchester many years ago, with a then unknown Hugh Grant playing Eric! For me, it works every time.

I'm reeling from the failure to adore Austen.... I even like Persuasion nowadays......

aha hedgehog,

do you murder people then pin the blame on local toffs, convincing them it's all a symbol...?

oh no now I'm going to be imagining Hugh Grant.... you've made it worse!

Shush! Tell no one!

I did this at GCSE 20 years ago, Jesus

Didn't she kill herself because of them all? I thought that was the moral of the tale?

Of Mice and Men isn't on the syllabus anymore. Ds and dd both did/are doing Dickens instead, Austen is another popular choice.

I think it helps to write essays on stuff you find annoying. If you love a text it's much harder to pick apart ime.

It is a very dated piece through.

Hedgehog i like this play too. Its obviously meant to be about class and how those without money and social standing are viewed as "lesser"

I also thought the TV version with David Thewlis was good.

Also plays are generally speaking much quicker to read.

It's years since I read it but I thought the dead girl wasn't one actual person but a device to get the family to realise how badly they treated people.

I interpret the play as each Burling met a different girl and the girl they talk about on the phone is another girl showing the wide reach of the “me me me” attitude. So many lives ruined etc.

That said I now teach Animal Farm for that unit of the Lit GCSE, much more interesting and slightly subtler (although not much!). My year 9s/high ability year 8s love AIC though!

Of MiCe and Men is still on the syllabus in Wales.

Oddly, I don't think it has dated at all. The themes are still relevant. And the hints about the coming war are chilling, even today.

I’ve been teaching it for 15 years.

Spare a thought for me please

Actually I don’t hate it. It’s easy to teach and the kids really ‘get it’ and actually in an age where young people are becoming more socially ‘woke’ it’s more relevant. It’s helps develop their empathy too which isn’t always the most notable teen trait.

@Clawdy.................i agree.