Robot Says…

The historical context of World War 1 is crucial to understanding the messages of "An Inspector Calls," which was written in 1945 but set in 1912, just before the war began. Priestley deliberately places the play in a time of ignorance about the coming conflict to highlight the arrogance and complacency of his characters.
Arthur Birling embodies this complacency when he states, “The Germans don’t want war. Nobody wants war,” and later, “There’ll be peace and prosperity and rapid progress everywhere.” These statements reflect the widespread belief before 1914 that war was avoidable, which Priestley uses to show how out of touch and short-sighted people like Birling were.
The inevitability of World War 1 serves as a critique of the capitalist and individualistic mindset represented by Arthur Birling. Priestley presents Birling’s confidence in progress and his dismissal of the possibility of war as symbolic of the selfishness and arrogance that contributed to global conflict.
Priestley’s use of dramatic irony—where the audience knows that war did, in fact, break out two years after the play’s setting—reinforces his message. The inevitability of World War 1 exposes the hubris of the pre-war upper classes, who failed to foresee the consequences of their actions and attitudes.
The Inspector’s warnings about responsibility and interconnectedness can be interpreted as a broader cautionary message about the social and political failures that led to World War 1. His speech, “We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other,” contrasts sharply with the self-centred attitudes that contributed to the war’s inevitability.
The play’s critique of social inequality ties into the causes of World War 1, such as imperialism and nationalism, which were driven by the pursuit of power and domination. Priestley uses characters like Sheila and Eric to represent hope for a more socially responsible generation, in contrast to the attitudes that led to the war.
By setting the play in 1912, Priestley draws attention to the failure of society to learn from its mistakes. The inevitability of World War 1 becomes a metaphor for the broader cycles of conflict and inequality that the play urges its audience to break.
The audience, watching the play in the aftermath of World War 2, would have been acutely aware of how the first war led to the second. Priestley uses this dual historical perspective to highlight the importance of social responsibility and the dangers of ignoring it.
Priestley’s broader message is clear: the arrogance, selfishness, and lack of foresight exhibited by the Birlings and others like them are the same traits that made World War 1 inevitable. The play becomes a call to action for the audience to create a fairer, more responsible society to prevent history from repeating itself. </aside>

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