Context

Question 1

Priestley was a socialist

Answer 1

He wrote the play to criticise Edwardian system at the time

Question 2

Lack of women rights

Answer 2

• Lack of women’s rights in all social classes
• They needed the protection of marriage and their husband to guarantee some kind of stability
• Women at this time didn’t get equal pay
• Priestly is also criticising the lack of rights women had (don’t even have the right to vote)

Question 3

Deep class divisions

Answer 3

• Priestley wanted to highlight how, a few upper and upped middle class people had disproportionate and vast power, which they used to exploit the working classes

Question 4

‘Undeserving poor’

Answer 4

• The idea that a lot of upper class people held, that the poor somehow were undeserving of aid and charity because they were somehow immoral, and they put themselves in that position where they were in poverty and in need

Question 5

World war 1

Answer 5

Play is set just before WW1, and a post-war-audience
- This play was trying to highlight, that Edwardian society had the seed of stability which led to the WW1