An Inspector Calls — AO overview (superseded)

Use this as your checklist when planning and writing an An Inspector Calls essay.

AO1 — Response + references (what you say)

• Start with a clear argument about Priestley’s message.
• Build 3–5 points that stay locked to the question.
• Use short, embedded quotations (especially ones that show attitudes changing).
• Track character arcs (e.g. who changes vs who refuses to change).

AO2 — Writer’s methods (how Priestley makes meaning)

Zoom-in method:

• Word/phrase → connotations
• Method (stage directions, dramatic irony, tension, contrast)
• Effect on audience
• Link back to question

AIC methods to notice:

• Stage directions (tone, pauses, lighting, entrances)
• Dramatic irony (Titanic, war, class assumptions)
• Interrogation structure (one-by-one revelations)
• Foreshadowing + tension (the phone call ending)

AO3 — Context (why Priestley wrote it)

Use context to strengthen your interpretation:

• Set in 1912 but written/performed in 1945 (message to a post-war audience)
• Class inequality + capitalism vs socialism
• Changing attitudes to workers’ rights and responsibility
• Gender expectations (status, reputation, “respectability”)

AO4 — Technical accuracy (how you write it)

Checklist:

• Don’t retell the plot — analyse Priestley’s choices
• Embed quotes properly
• Use precise dramatic terms (stage directions, audience, tension)

Useful sentence stems:

• “Priestley presents ___ to expose ___.”
• “The stage direction ‘___’ suggests ___, shaping the audience’s response by ___.”
• “Priestley uses dramatic irony to make the audience ___, criticising ___.”