thanks for all the help guys, as the person above said i wasnt expecting to be spoonfed and im great non of you did that, you just gave guidance on where i should include such things, and where to expand. Also, yes GCSE's are examinations that happen in the UK. 14-16 is right, as I took my maths GCSE 1 year early, shortly after turning 15, and i was proud to get a B in it a year early, but because my school is god damn obsessed with grades, im currently awaiting my newer maths results because i had to retake the test to try and get a A grade. Also it is years 10-11, I'm not sure what this equates to in American "grades" though, sorry I asked for help because i really really suck at PEE (Point, Evidence, EXPLAIN, explain being capitalised because this is where i turn *bleep* at it) so thank you all for helping me on what to explain, and also for the replier who said not to put quotes in the middle of sentences, but from the above mention of PEE, you can see why i put them there. Make a point, give a quote, explain the meaning. thanks to you all and hopefully i'll finally get that English B I have been downgraded to :L PS. this is the final version i ended up with, although you all gave good advice, im not that great at english but tried to take on board what you guys have said and also what i have been taught, if you guys think this is worse, then please learn from it (lol) PSS, the paragraphs are broken, so i put // where they should be [hide] An Inspector Calls Priestley's play, 'An Inspector Calls' is a play about a rich, well off family and how they are all involved in the suicide of Eva Smith. It is set in the town of Brumley, an industrial city in the Northern Midlands in 1912, but was first played on stage in 1946, October 1st. In 1912 women were seen as cheap labour and less of a person than a man. The characters include Arthur Birling, Sybil Birling, Sheila Birling, Eric Birling, Edna, Gerald Croft and Inspector Goole. Each of these characters brings something unique to the play, with Mr Birling being the typical Edwardian wealthy male, and Edna being the typical maid etc. // Priestley ensures the first scene is set with a good wealthy atmosphere, by including stage directions and attention to prop detail, with things such as fine silverware, good furniture, and even going down to very small detail with things such as “cigar boxes”, which were expensive at the time. They are also drinking port, a more expensive drink compared to things such as beer. Simply showing this to the audience puts across a presence of greatness and/or wealth. Also, Priestley writes a page and a half a page of stage directions to set the right scene. The lighting is set as 'pink and intimate' until the inspector arrives in which it becomes bright and hard. The pink and intimate lighting shows a calm scene, bringing two families together. However the bright and hard lighting seems harsh and interrogating when the inspector arrives. This shows the interrogating nature of the inspector, and how he seems to quickly intrude a family’s life. // Priestley uses Mr Birling and the Inspector as metaphors. Mr Birling is a very narrow minded man and believes in his point of view very strongly, even if he is wrong. A quote showing this is "I say there isn’t a chance of war". This shows his arrogance because he instantly dismisses the fact that there may actually be a chance of war happening, this prompts the audience think that Mr Birling is very narrow minded. The Inspector is pretty much the opposite in that he is trying to make people more open minded about their actions, when he says “are you sure you don’t know?”. This asks the characters involved to think hard about what they have done and how it may have affected other people other than just themselves. The Inspector is also prompting the audience to think about the play’s characters, and their roles in Edwardian society, and asks them to think how the characters went wrong, and what they possibly should have done instead. // Mr and Mrs Birling show a high social class who like to show off their wealth, eg with “cigar box”, which is what many middle class people during that era would do. Sheila and Eric show the new generation who think more about other people. “And if I could help her now I would”, unlike their peers, which is a key thing about coming out of the Edwardian era. For example, Mr Birling doesn’t believe he has any part in Eva's death, but Sheila and Eric are more open minded to how they might have been involved. // Dramatic irony is shown a lot through Mr Birling. His thoughts are what he strongly believes in, even if he is wrong. An example would be when he says "you'll hear people say war is inevitable. And to that I say - fiddlesticks!" As we all know WW1 started in 1914, 2 years after this play is set. The audience knows this happens and can see Mr Birling's ignorance about how he thinks war is inevitable and how he believes the Titanic is "unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable!", he did this to show the ignorance of the wealthy Edwardians, and to use Mr Birling as a metaphor for most wealthy Edwardians of the time. Priestley did this to get people to realise that every action you do will have an impact, good or bad, on someone else, which is not what the wealthy Edwardian people believed. // The audience sees foreshadowing from Sheila because she seems to be able to tell what people did in their part of Eva Smith's death. For example, she knows that Gerald already knew Eva when the inspector questions him. Before he even admits she already knows about it. She also foretells that the inspector already knows all their secrets. "why - you fool - he knows... you'll see". This gives the effect of uneasiness on other characters involved, making them think that the inspector already knows everything, but he wants them to find them out for themselves with a little prompting. // I think the most effective method is using Mr Birling to show the ignorance and arrogance of the Edwardian Era and how people above your status are respected, and the people below are looked upon as vermin. Priestley set the play in 1912 because he felt people needed to change, and take more responsibility for their actions, and know what they do might affect someone else. He did this when the ww2 had just happened, just to prove a point. Because the wars started because of different countries, and England got dragged into it because of what someone else did. This is metaphorically Eva Smith, and how her death brought in many other characters unsuspectingly. Eg, Sheila making Eva without a job, which led on to more until she committed suicide. Eva, in a way, is like a suffragette. She suffered, and died, just to show people the right way forward, or to put across a strong point of view, just like the “real” suffragettes who fought for the vote, and also how one woman died for it. // [/hide]