Priestley wrote his play ‘An Inspector Calls’ to act as a message to his post world war two audience in concern with lack of parent to child relationship. He does this by showing how Eric and Sheila both evolve as the play goes on and how their both slowly detach from their parents’ unscrupulous views. The fact that they are the younger generation shows their moral reckoning of the collective social conscientiousness.

Priestley describes that the bourgois upper class parents had little support for their children during their youth. This is clearly presented in Mr Birling, who asserts his older generation control which was highly common in the upper classes and aristocracy of the Edwardian era. Hyperbole is used to present just how assertive Mr Birling was over his children as he labels Eric as a “hysterical young fool-“ This hyperbolic tone mirrors Mr Birling’s remorseless character as he resorts to using the word ‘fool’ to describe his son. This dehumanisation of people that have less status that the upper classes show misanthropic Mr Birling and in some cases, the upper classes as a whole were to not only the lower classes, but their on own children as well who were seen as immature. This lack of nurture for Eric could be the reason why he goes on to do these terrible acts in the play as he has an absence of a father figure to present him the collective social conscience that should be given from the parents. Rather, Eric had to go out and realise this acceptance all on his own with limited support which allows Eric to grow in maturity and as a character as a whole as the play advances, His moral awakening represents the awakening of the whole younger generation after the two world wars who emphasises the requirement of a stable family where the parents play a vital role in nurturing. This contradicted with the capitalist views of 1912 that are filled with feuds between parents and children which causes situations like Eric’s where he has little support from the older generation which only makes him pull away from their ideologies even more.

Another example where Priestley presents a clear divide between the older and younger generation is in Mrs Birling. Mr Birling is a character which is highly immersed in the idea of control over the family and she always tries to dictate the views of her children by objectifying them into immature, childish people who have little worth in the society that they live in. Mrs Birling steps in for Sheila by speaking for her when she thinks it’s necessary like when Sheila was claimed to be “over-tired. In the morning she’ll be as amused as we are.” This act of controlling Sheila’s state of mind and beliefs indicate to the audience that Mrs Birling views Sheila as a member of the youth who cannot speak for themselves. This dismissive tone of the bourgois reflects the wider idea of controlling the people who were below them in the Edwardian class system as it shows how the traditional older generation were tied to unscruplulous power. The is evident because as the play goes on, Sheila becomes a foil character to her mother which could display Sheila’s emancipation from her parents’ oppressive and unscrupulous personalities. The younger generation were under constant oppression by the older generation as they were seen as immature and unable to understand politics and the world at a larger scale which creates a conflict between the generations which solidifies the older generation’s power over the younger generation who want to think for themselves rather than be indoctrinated with outdated, traditional views and beliefs.

Priestley highlights the consequences with a lack of a father figure in the play by showing an example where Eric feels lonely and isolated from society due his lack of nurture and understanding. Eric describes his father as “not the kind of father a chap could go to when he’s in trouble.” Priestley uses Eric as way to show bildingsgromen and because Eric has had a lack of support from his father over the years, his understanding of the world and the way it works is vague and distorted. This lack of nurture from a parent would lead the child to go on and do acts which would be seen as morally and in some cases legally wrong. Priestley expands on this idea as his audience of 1945 would be much more understanding and aware of the issue of lack of a father figure to a child and the effects it would have in the future. On the other hand, Eric has been seen to make a huge progression as the play goes on and this would most likely be for the reason that he has had to discover the truth of the unscrupulous world of 1912 all on his own. Since he has had minimal help from the outside, he has fully understood the collective social conscience which would lead him to increase in maturity and become more of a man which would be in the audience of 1945. This progression in Eric is a representation of the whole male younger generation. who can take example of his to move away from the previous laissez-faire ideologies and adopt new and progressive, socialist and morally right ideas.

Finally, priestley uses an epigram in Sheila to display how she can grown to oppose her parents’, traditional and outdated older generation like views. Sheila tries to convey the massage to her family that “At least I’m trying to tell the truth” The use of an epigram proves how Sheila’s character has developed as the play has gone on and she now understand the collective social conscience that is contrasted by the bourgois, belittling views of her mother ad father. Sheila is also quick to accept her guilt right as soon as she has realised the magnitude of her actions and how is played a huge role in Eva’s life. This is the case as she now understand that she has done a morally wrong action in society and she knows that there is no need for justification because everyone knows that what she done was wrong. This is contradicted to her parents who always feel as if they need to justify themselves in order to retain their social status. After world war two, there was a large rise in disillusionment of the laissez-faire approach to society and Sheila aligns with the post-war critique to seek the collective social conscience rather than adopt and an outdated, unscrupulous view which was common in the older generations of the upper classes. The clear division between Sheila and her mother show the wider image of divide between parent and child which will only result in problems and societal issues.

Overall, Priestley wrote his play ‘An Inspector Calls’ to show the clear social division between class and age gaps from the previous times before the war to warn people about the consequences of not having a healthy parent to child relationship. Priestely does this by outlining the conflict between Sheila and Mrs Birling as the play goes on and by highlighting what effect the absence of a father figure had on Eric’s life but also how both of these common scenarios helped both Sheila and Eric to morally, progress in society and represent the post-war idea of socialism and emancipation.