An Inspector Calls: A TusiNotes Gradebooster Guide (Tusi Notes)

This TusiNotes Gradebooster Guide looks at J.B. Priestley's play An Inspector Calls through the eyes of a playwright and tutor of writing for the stage. Used alongside the text and standard note guides, it will provide insights for students from GCSE up to undergraduate level. Teachers will find new ways of looking at the play and ideas for in-class exercises.


The author
Priestley’s ‘time plays’.
Priestley’s politics.
Study exercises.

The Playwright’s craft:
Set up; characters; opening dialogue.
The use of dialogue as a means of altering a character’s status.
Exposition; sowing the seeds of what is to come.
Dramatic irony explained and exemplified.
The inciting incident.
The protagonist and conflict.
The importance in drama of what is at stake.
Study exercises.

The moral heart of the play
Weltanschauung.
Morality and the law (what might the inspector hope to achieve?).
An Inspector Calls and the detective mystery (Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler).
Drama and change (who and/or what changes? - story arc and character arc).
Study exercises.

Four points for reflection:
What happens after the inspector has left?
What might happen when the other inspector arrives?
An Inspector Calls compared to A Christmas Carol.
Who (or what) is the inspector?
Study exercises.