Concepts of time in An Inspector Calls

Concepts of Time in ‘An Inspector Calls’ 

Time is an important factor in Priestley’s play. He wrote the play for an audience coming out of the horrors of the Second World War, yet he set his play in 1912, two years before the start of the First World War. At the end of the play we are left with a sense that the events are going to start all over again. We wonder whether things will be different and how the characters will behave. 

The Inspector has a mystical, almost unworldly, quality. Consider the theories of time detailed below and how they relate to the role of the Inspector. 

- Ouspensky’s Theory: He suggests that when we die we re-enter our life once more from the beginning. We are born again to the same parents and continue to repeat all the evnts of our life as before. This cycle of identical lives would go on being repeated if we changed nothing of significance. If, however, we improved in some spiritual way, we convert the circle into a spiral of events that would, if we continued to make significant improvements, eventually open the way for us to escape from the repetitions and into a new life in which we did not repeat our mistakes.


Dunne’s Theory: He laid out the idea that you could be given the gist of seeing forward in time as well as looking back. This would mean that just as you can look back and see what actions led to your present situation, you could also look forward to see the consequences of your actions. So, if you wished, you could change those actions and so avoid the consequences.

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