The Marking Criteria

Band 3• Students demonstrate: • 3.1 Sustained response to task • 3.2 Sustained response to text • 3.3 Effective use of details to support interpretation • 3.4 Explanation of effects of writer’s uses of language and/or

form and/or structure and effects on readers/audience • 3.5 Understanding of ideas/themes/feelings/attitudes

• Information is usually presented in a way which assists with communication of meaning. Syntax and spelling are generally accurate.

Band 3: Keep Quoting

• Sustained: quote• Interpretation: because,

therefore, consequently•Writer: Priestly• Effects on audience: we, us

Difference Between D and C• Typically, grade D responses:• � identify the effects of writers’ uses of language, form and

structure, e.g. • Sheila gets Eva sacked from Millwards because she was “jealous

of her”. • Whereas grade C responses:• � explain the effects of writers’ uses of language, structure and

form, e.g. • Sheila gets Eva sacked from Millwards because she was “jealous

of her” and this gives her a motive to use her wealth and family name to threaten the shop owner.

Past Questions: Foundation17.How does Priestley present Gerald in An Inspector Calls?• Write about:• what Gerald says and does• how other characters respond to him• the methods Priestley uses to present Gerald.

OR18.What do you think Priestley is trying to tell us about

responsibility in the play An Inspector Calls?• Write about:• what some of the characters say and do• the methods Priestley uses to present his ideas on

responsibility.

Past Questions: Foundation1 7 How does Priestley present Eric in An Inspector Calls?

• Write about:• what Eric says and does• how other characters respond to him• the methods Priestley uses to present Eric. (30 marks)

OR

1 8 Write about the differences between Sheila and Sybil Birling in the play An Inspector Calls.

• You should write about:• what they say and do• their different attitudes• the methods Priestley uses to present Sheila and Sybil Birling.

What Methods Means• The characters are not real people, they are

used to represent Priestley’s ideas• The characters represent some of the deadly

sins, Priestly has a religious message• The characters represent the problems of the

class system, and the hypocrisy of the upper class

• The Inspector may not be a real person, but supernatural: the play is a whodunit

Band 4• Students demonstrate: • 4.1 Considered/qualified response to task • 4.2 Considered/qualified response to text • 4.3 Details linked to interpretation • 4.4 Appreciation/consideration of writer’s uses of language

and/or form and/or structure and effect on readers/audience • 4.5 Thoughtful consideration of ideas/themes

• Information is presented in a way which assists with communication of meaning. Syntax and spelling are generally accurate.

•

Band 4• Qualified: alternatively, on the other

hand, whereas, in contrast, however

• Considered: appears, suggests, implies

• Thoughtful: perhaps, might, may, possibly

Band 4: Alternative Points of View• Eric appears to be the only person to have committed

a crime, stealing from his father. However, Priestly may want us to forgive him, because Eric is trying to compensate for his irresponsible behaviour in getting Eva pregnant.

• On the other hand, Priestly might also want us to see that Eric is still deeply irresponsible. When his father accuses him, “you stole the money”, Eric replies, “not really”. This implies that Eric will continue to be irresponsible even after the Inspector has gone. At the end, we realise Priestly is suggesting that Eric will never fully face up to his own mistakes.

How to get a CAim for a B

Alternative Viewpoints: Eric

• Alcoholic, Rapist and Thief?“well, I was in that state where a chap

easily turns nasty – and I threatened to cause a row”

• Unloved, Undervalued, Repentant?“(shouting) And I say the girl’s dead and we

all helped to kill her – and that’s what matters.”

Alternative Viewpoints: Sheila• Vain, Jealous, Vengeful, Obsessed by status

and wealth?“I knew anyhow you were lying about those

months last year when you hardly came near me.”

• Repentant, Eager to Learn, Brave, Eager to change the world.

“I remember what he said, how he looked and how he made me feel. Fire and blood and anguish.”

Alternative Viewpoints: Gerald

• Capitalist, Manipulative, Selfish, Sexist, Hypocrite

“It happened that a friend of mine...had let me have the key to a nice set of rooms he had – and had asked me to...use them if I wanted to.”

• Young, Loving, Generous, Reformed“She didn’t blame me at all. I wish to God she had

now. Perhaps I’d feel better about it.”

Priestley’s Purpose

• A Socialist and/or Communist, committed to overthrowing the rich.

• A Christian, a man of the people, committed to treating fellow man with respect, regardless of wealth.

• A Dramatist, catching the mood of the people, the zeitgeist, reflecting the real world, and the interest in whodunit fiction.

Priestley’s Purpose

• A Socialist and/or Communist, committed to overthrowing the rich.

“Gerald...we’re respectable citizens and not criminals.

Inspector Sometimes there isn’t as much difference as you might think. Often, if it was left to me, I wouldn’t know where to draw the line.”

Priestley’s Purpose• A Christian, a man of the people,

committed to treating fellow man with respect, regardless of wealth.

“We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other...if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.”

Priestley’s Purpose• A Dramatist, catching the mood of the people, the

zeitgeist, reflecting the real world, and the interest in whodunit fiction.

• The photograph(s)• Quizzing one character at a time• Knowing what is going to happen “INSPECTOR

holds up a hand. We hear the front door...Eric enters.”

• “Eric You know, don’t you?”• Goole – the supernatural ghost of Christmas

Future

Advice from the Examiner

Characters are not real people

• The Examiner wants you to consider Priestley’s purpose in creating the character.

• “Sheila was a construct used by Priestley to put forward his messages”.

The Play is for Performance

• Better candidates were able to see the text as a drama and commented on stage directions, lighting and other dramatic devices, making reference to the effect on the audience (rather than the reader) to show that they had a real sense of the text as a performance.

Important Stage Directions: The Beginning

• “are seated at the table...with ARTHUR BIRLING at one end, his wife at the other”

• Status of women• Control in the family• Division in marriage• We are not “all one body”

Important Stage Directions: The Beginning

• “The lighting should be pink and intimate until the INSPECTOR arrives, and then it should be brighter and harder.”

• Rose tinted spectacles – delusional• Pink, feminine, a female play• Hard, bright, a modern female message

Important Stage Directions: The Ending

• “As they stare guiltily and dumbfounded, the curtain falls”

• They = all, even the young• Admit their guilt, not to each other, but to the

audience• Curtain falls, like a guillotine, echoes the

French Revolution

How Many Characters?

• Question 18 generally was not quite as well done and some responses became descriptions of the selfishness of each character, all four Birlings and Gerald.

• Such responses would probably have been better had the focus been on one or two characters. The best responses considered the concept of selfishness in the play as a whole.

How to get an A or A*

Dramatic Irony

• “there’s a lot of wild talk about possible labour trouble in the near future...We employers at last are coming together to see that ...the interests of Capital...are properly protected.”

• The General Strike of 1926• The Great Depression• War as aggressive capitalism, exchanging lives

for wealth

Dramatic Irony

• “some people say that war’s inevitable. And to that I say – fiddlesticks!...There’s too much at stake these days. Everything to lose and nothing to gain by war.”

• 1914-1918 The Great War• 1939-1945 The Second World War• Who got rich?

Dramatic Irony

• “the Titanic...unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable”

• Tragedy• Delusion• Ignoring humanity, preferring “progress”

through Capital

Dramatic Irony

• “a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own – and –

We hear the sharp ring of a front door bell.”• Causes them to be inspected• Causes the death of Eva• Change of lighting to reflect sharpness of the

lesson the Inspector teaches

Examiner’s Advice: A and A*

• Typically, A*/A responses are analytical and exploratory.

• This means that candidates ‘write a lot about a little’: they tease out meanings and effects from a small section of the text, considering the impact of individual words and sounds, often thinking about possible alternative interpretations.

The Birlings: Seven Deadly Sins• Pride is excessive belief in one's own abilities.

It has been called the sin from which all others arise. Pride is also known as Vanity. Sybil

• Envy is the desire for others' characteristics, status, abilities, or situation. Sheila

• Lust is craving for the pleasures of the body. Eric

• Greed is the desire for wealth. It is also called Avarice. Arthur

Band 5:• Students demonstrate: • 5.1 Exploratory response to task • 5.2 Exploratory response to text • 5.3 Analytical use of details to support interpretation • 5.4 Analysis of writer’s uses of language and/or structure

and/or form and effects on readers/audience • 5.5 Exploration of ideas/themes

• Structure and style are used effectively to render meaning clear. Syntax and spelling are used with a high degree of accuracy.

Band 5: AWE!• Analysis: have more than one interpretation• Writer: Priestly• Exploration: have more than one

interpretation of character, Inspector and Priestly

Band 5: AWE!• Birling comments on his children at the end of the play,

“the famous younger generation who know it all”. Priestly might be showing us that Birling has learned nothing, which is why the telephone immediately rings, to announce “a girl has just died”.

• However, further dramatic irony may suggest that Birling is right. Perhaps Priestly is suggesting that, although Sheila and Eric “know it all”, the lesson they have learned is superficial. Therefore, because the younger generation has not learned the Inspector’s lesson, a real girl “has just died”.

Band 6• Students demonstrate:

• 6.1 Insightful exploratory interpretation of ideas/themes

• 6.2 Close analysis of detail to support interpretation

• 6.3 Evaluation of the writer’s uses of language and/or structure and/or form and effects on readers

•6.4 Insightful exploratory response to context(s)

• 6.5 Insightful exploration of a range of telling detail to support response to context(s)

• Information is presented clearly and accurately. Writing is fluent and focused. Syntax and spelling are used with a high degree of accuracy.

Band 6• Insightful exploratory interpretation• Close analysis• Evaluation• Writer• Response to context(s)

• Telling detail

Band 6• Evaluation• Writer• Response to context(s)

• Telling detail • To do these: write about the

ending, and Priestley’s political message

Band 6: Evaluate Context • The second death carries with it Priestley’s political point,

that the lessons of the WW1, represented by the death of Eva, were not learned, so that the Birlings now face, in the final word of the play, “questions”. Priestley’s question, in 1945, is how the ruling classes allowed WW2 to occur, so that “millions and millions of John Smiths and Eva Smiths” lost their lives again. Eric and Sheila therefore represent the younger generation who grew up in the inter-war years and failed to live up to their responsibility. Priestly’s play reflected the mood of the country who ousted Churchill’s Conservative government that had taken them to war, replacing them with the socialist Labour government. It is not Sheila and Eric, but their children who finally learn the Inspector’s lesson.

Past Questions

How to Choose the Best Question

Past Questions: Higher1 7 An Inspector Calls has been called ‘a play of contrasts’.

• Write about how Priestley presents some of the contrasts in the play.OR1 8 How does Priestley present the change in Sheila during the course of the play An Inspector Calls?

• How do you think this change reflects some of Priestley’s ideas?

Past Questions: Higher• 1 7 How does Priestley show that

tension is at the heart of the Birling family?OR• 1 8 Priestley criticises the selfishness

of people like the Birlings. What methods does he use to present this selfishness?

Past Questions: HigherQuestion 17

• Arthur Birling says, ‘If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we’d had anything to do with, it would be very awkward, wouldn’t it?’

• How does Priestley present ideas about responsibility in An Inspector Calls? Question 18

• How do you respond to Gerald in ‘An Inspector Calls’? How does Priestley make you respond as you do by the ways he writes?