Priestley Portray the Differences Between Generations in “An Inspector Calls” Essay Example

t them. They both fail to learn anything from their experiences because they are so set in their ways, ways which Birling voiced at the start of the play during his speech, where he told them all to forget about “community and all that nonsense” and “make their own way”, and even after the inspector has called and exposes what each of them has done, the older generation still feel the need to cling to this way of life, and rebuild the wall that the inspector has previously knocked down.

We also find that the older generation are not just forgetting what the inspector has said, but they are also forgetting some of the things they did themselves – they seem to be misremembering what happened to suit themselves – and Mrs Birling is a good example of this when she says “he certainly