To really dislike An Inspector Calls?

[SheilaSybilCroft]

It’s been a GCSE text since the 1990s (and probably before.)

I really don’t like it. I hate the big fuss that is made out of eva smith being ‘pretty’ - as if it would be somehow acceptable to hound her out of jobs if she was plain and old!

She did lie to Mrs B: how was she supposed to know one story was true while another was a lie? And while attitudes to unmarried mothers have changed it’s ridiculous to pretend that someone in Eva’s position would have been met with sympathy and kindness if she’d just met a nicer sort of woman.

I know it’s an attack on the upper classes of the Edwardian period and the characters are representative rather than literal but the preachy tone and high handed sort of manner taken by the inspector is annoying.

And the film version the BBC did about ten years ago presents a saint like Eva and deviates from the text just enough to confuse students!

Or is it just me?

Simply put, I think it's just dated and any work of literature you have dissected many times becomes unbearable. It's a play of its era.

Yes I studied LOTF at school back in the 80s, in what is now called yr9. Loved it.

I feel bad now for having been so dismissive of Anita and Me - if Year 9 can engage with it I really ought to be able to, as a woman in the 40s! Maybe I was just in the wrong headspace when I tried, and I ought to give it another chance - I just have this memory of all these unremarkable anecdotes from somebody's childhood and I couldn't see what they were building towards.....

I know what you mean about AF and its political context. Having said that, I first read it without very much understanding of context (admittedly I did know what Communism was) - I still got a lot out of it though. I think it stands on its own as a work of value, even without reference to the historical context.....

Agree about LOTF being a masterpiece, did it for O level in the 70s. With that and To Kill a Mockingbird we got very lucky.

The thing my class loved about A&M was the idea of liminal spaces - because she’s a second generation immigrant, because she’s on the cusp of teenhood, because she’s an outlier in both her family and her friend group. Being on the edges of so many things, never in the centre of anything 🥰

One of my AF class called it a farmyard drama. Lolz.

Isn’t the comment about her being pretty made by Sheila? I’ve always thought that was a reference to the superficial nature of the young upper classes - why does it matter if she’s pretty?

Yes exactly - and the fact that that's all Sheila's been brought up to believe matters.

I have never met a teen that hasn’t at least quite liked/been interested/vaguely understood what was going on in AIC, and I do think it has a lot to offer students across the ability range.

However, in recent years I have been struggling with the ‘suicide because there was no other way out’ element of the plot, given the increasing vulnerability of many students. It’s quite possible I am overthinking things, but I keep wishing Eva had found a way to carry on! (I do realise there would then be no play 😹)

The Daldry production is still brilliant in its staging, even after all these years!

It’s typical socialist propaganda. That’s why those who set the curriculum love it so much.

Which literature without any political slant or bias would you like to be studied at GCSE?

That BBC adaptation needs to be burned - it shows Eva Smith when the whole point is she may not even exist.

What do you mean she might not exist!!!??? Don't all members of the household meet/know here?

I really like AIC and how Priestley uses the well-made play, the detective story, reworks the morality play. The play is always one of the most enjoyed texts by our students each year.

Is it more important to be useful than happy? How far are parents to blame for the actions of their children? Men vs women 'about town' - why so polarised? Just some of the questions I've enjoyed exploring!

But the reader doesn’t.

It’s a critical device. Her utter voicelessness. The way she only exists through her relationship with the rich. So, really, she doesn’t exist in her own right.

Plus - she could be several different women, inside the play 🤷🏻‍♀️

Ah, I see, thank you. I've never thought of it like that before. I've never read it, but I did see the play donkeys years ago.

Yes, good question. Should we scrap Animal Farm too? The Handmaid’s Tale? Macbeth? 1984? Things Fall Apart? ...

Jeez, OP - I do think there's no need to be so aggressive towards her. I honestly don't think she was being rude and unpleasant! If you're trying to 'keep things polite' you did a poor job there!

Yes! My lot love to talk about Gerald too as they hate him so much. They are SO INVESTED! The moment when the penny drops towards the end... an utter joy to witness every year. Then I hear the students all mill out into the corridor after lessons discussing it. Wonderful.

Tiktok keeps wrecking that bit now. "Miss, was Eva pregnant? I know whose it was. "

It's the equivalent of when kids used to write the ending at the front of mice and men. Twats.

I like it and enjoyed taking ds2 to see it.

What year do you teach Things Fall Apart? We’ve only ever looked at as extracts and as a class reader.

I've just read this for the first time to support my teens at GCSE. I liked it. It reminded me of Hard Times by Dickens at first. I was surprised at the end. I can see why it's still on the curriculum; it's just enough but not too much.

Year 10 (Edexcel IGCSE English Lit) Modern Prose for Paper 1.

Weirdly I don't think my classes have seen those Tik Tok videos... at least, if their reaction was anything to go by this year! And all classes try to read it at the same pace so they can't ruin it for each other! We do a cold read over a couple of lessons.

Possibly for "I don't play golf"? But apparently that is an iconic put down line from the play! Even if that was a trend, the applause at the end was still enthusiastic and went on for longer than I'd have expected.