AIC Context Flashcards
1
Q
Socialism
A
- Labour party came to power, and established the idea of socialism
- Priestley was apart of the middle class
- “everything in society is made by the cooperative efforts of the people and should be for the use of the people, not for profit.”
2
Q
Capitalism
A
- No welfare system
- no union or laws that helped, protected people at work
- no minimum wage
- people who complained would lose their jobs
- The wealthy controlled the lives of everyone below them
3
Q
Gender
A
- Women had fewer rights than men at the time
→ They hadn’t yet won the right to vote - not expected to work, unless lower class. Seen as cheap labour
- Higher class women expected to marry
- Women were subservient to men in the patriarchal society of that time.
4
Q
Priestley’s own views
A
- Priestley stated that it was the few years before WW1, (1911-1914) that “set their stamp upon me”
- He was born apart of the middle class
- believed that further world wars could only be avoided through cooperation and mutual respect between countries.
- AIC was written a week and a few days after WW2.
- Priestley deliberately set his play in 1912, 2 years before ww1. It represented an era when all was very different.
→ Class difference was much more distinct.
→ it was a time of strikes, food shortages and political tension
Seemed like nothing could change- (however the story ending with a change in Sheila and society forcing the Birlings to accept responsibility):
→ encourages people to seize the opportunity the end of the war had given to build a better, more caring society
5
Q
social class
A
- Edwardian england there was a divide: Upper, middle, lower class system
- 87 percent of all the money in england belonged to only 5% of the population
- The upper classes believed the capitalist system was perfect, they rejected any form of change
6
Q
Collective responsibility
A
- upper middle class is responsible for whether or not the lower class survived
