Hi there, Mr. Barnes over here.

Fantastic to see you today.

Thank you so much for joining me.

As we do a deep dive into an Inspector course.

Today, we're gonna be focusing on the play as an allegory.

We're gonna be thinking about religion, sin, judgement , punishment.

We've got a really interesting lesson ahead and I know we're gonna have some fantastic discussions and share some brilliant ideas.

You are gonna need a copy of the text because you're gonna be looking for some evidence later in today's lesson.

And I do want to say this shouldn't be the first time you're reading the text.

I'm gonna assume some prior knowledge here.

So, if you haven't read the text before, you might want to go and have a look at some lessons and make sure you understand the plot and the characters before you begin this lesson here.

Alright, if you are ready to start, so am I.

Let's go.

So let's have a look at today's outcome.

By the end of today's lesson, you are gonna be able to explain how, "An Inspector Calls" could be interpreted as a religious allegory.

Okay, key there could, we're looking at one interpretation today.

So that first key word in today's lesson, is allegory, we just saw it in the outcome.

And that is a work, a piece of literature perhaps with a hidden meaning.

And often that meaning is either moral or political.

It means the characters and the events in the story symbolise kind of abstract ideas.

Other words we're gonna look out for then are repentance, and that's the feeling of regret for wrongdoings and seeking forgiveness.

If you are repenting, you are seeking forgiveness and it's accompanied by this commitment to change.

Redemption is the act of being saved from sin or error, and it often involves atoning, making up for those errors.

Purgatory is a temporary state where souls are purified before entering heaven, and that's according to some Christian beliefs.

And to describe something is biblical, it means we're relating it to the Bible, it's teachings, the stories, the principles of the Bible.

So if we say something is a biblical allegory, then we are saying, that it's a work with hidden meanings that might link to teachings or stories or principles from the Bible.

So as we explore religion in this text today, we are gonna break the lesson down into three learning cycles.

We are starting by thinking about this text as a religious allegory, particularly for purgatory, hell and judgement.

We are then gonna move on to thinking about sin as a crime and focus on the seven deadly sins.

And then we're gonna be finishing by bringing all this knowledge together to look at the character of the inspector and how he plays this kind of divine judge role in there and he represents biblical justice.

Let's start by thinking about the text though, as a religious allegory.

So it could be argued, it can be interpreted that "An Inspector Calls" is a religious allegory.

Not everyone will agree, but we are gonna be exploring this interpretation today because the play's characters, the events, the themes there could all symbolise different religious ideas and teaching.

It also conveys a really strong moral lesson about sin, about redemption, about judgement , about divine justice, which we could say, is you know, are all lessons that you learn through the Bible.

So arguably we can see that some Christian ideals can be aligned with the key themes in "An Inspector Calls." For example, we see ideas of repentance asking for forgiveness and redemption, trying to make things better.

We see this argument that sin causes moral corruption.

We see lots of examples of judgement and accountability.

Some characters do take accountability, others don't.

And we see confession and punishment.

Let's look at some very specific examples from the play, which are linked to all of these kind of themes.

So we see Sheila and Eric express their guilt.

We see them wanting to change by the end, whereas Mr. Birling is really blinded by his greed.

Greed is a sin and this makes him corruptible.

He ignores his social duty.

The Inspector forces each character to face their actions.

We see his judgement and he tries to force them to take accountability.

And we see through the Inspector's questioning, it really resembles a kind of confession from some of the characters.

An urging for them to tell the truth and show remorse for their actions.

So let's check then our understanding so far, "An Inspector Calls" can be considered a religious allegory because, is it A, it retells stories from the Bible? Is it B, it conveys moral messages about sin and justice? Or is it C, the characters represent biblical characters.

A, B, or C? What do you think? Pause the video and have a think.

Make your selection and press play when you're ready to continue.

Great work, if you said B there.

It conveys these moral messages and moral lessons about sin and justice.

These messages that we do see in the Bible itself.

So, we can argue then that Priestly uses religious allegory to explore these themes of punishment and justice.

Does this through the biblical ideas of heaven.

This is a place of redemption, of salvation for those who repent, who ask for forgiveness and seek moral goodness.

Also, we see references to hell and we see quite a few of these in the play.

Hell is a place of eternal punishment and it's for those who remain sinful, those who refuse to repent for their sins and it's punishment, therefore.

But we also see in "An Inspector Calls," I believe, this biblical idea of purgatory.

And that's this state of waiting.

It's where souls were purified before they could go into heaven.

Or if they couldn't be purified, to hell.

So it's a place of waiting to face the consequences.

Okay, interesting here.

And you might be starting to make links from the play to this idea of purgatory.

Alright, let's check we understand though what purgatory, is true or false? Purgatory can be described as a place of eternal punishment for those who remain sinful and unrepentant as punishment for sin.

Is that true or false? Pause the video, select your answer and press play when you think you are ready to continue.

Yes, that is false.

Why is that false? Well this statement describes hell.

Purgatory, we've said is a state of waiting a purification, where souls face consequences before redemption, okay.

So before they can be let into heaven, before they can kind of be rewarded for redeeming themselves, for repenting, is this space of waiting and purification.

Alright, onto our first task then in today's lesson.

You are gonna read the Inspector's speech from Act Three, starting page 56, his line, "But," right to the end of his speech, where he says, "Night." And I want you to answer the following questions.

How far can the Inspector's final speech be considered a religious allegory? And could the play represent a type of purgatory? I could see some of you making that link.

How did the characters' conflicts and lack of resolution? We don't really know what happens to these characters right at the end.

How does this suggest moral purification? If you have a partner then, you can work with them.

I think this is a great activity that you can do through a discussion.

But do not worry if you are working at home by yourself.

You can just think through these questions independently or even make a few notes, if you wish.

Alright, Act Three, then you're gonna need your copy of the text.

Let's start to think about the Inspector's final speech.

Pause the video, give this a go and press play when you think you're ready to move on.

How did that go? How was it? Alright.

One of our Oak pupils Andeep gave this a go, well we're gonna use his answers to compare them to the discussions or the thoughts that we might have been having.

So for the first question, Andeep, noticed how the Inspector's final speech can be seen as a religious allegory through his use of imagery, like fire, anguish and blood.

All of these are evoking, connotations of hell.

Okay, so well done, if you picked out this imagery that reminded you of hell, an eternal punishment.

His language and prophetic tone, stress, sin, judgement , but more importantly the need for repentance or what the consequences will be if you do not repent.

And this really mirrors lots of biblical warnings, warnings we see in the Bible.

If you do not repent, if you do not apologise for your sins, if you do not seek forgiveness, then you will be punished for eternity.

I wonder if you had similar ideas to Andeep about that first question.

For the second question, Andeep talked about the character's unresolved guilt, okay.

So even characters who were showing remorse, we didn't see kind of them fully gain forgiveness here.

There is a real lack of resolution at the plays end.

So it could argue that they are in a state of moral purification, which we could link to the idea of purgatory.

They are in this space where they must confront their wrongdoings before they are allowed to achieve redemption.

And you could argue that there are some characters who are closer to redemption by the end of the play, than others.

So what do you think? Did you like Andeep's ideas? Were these similar or different to the discussions or thoughts you were having? Why don't you take a moment now to pause the video, reflect on your own discussions, and if you like any of Andeep's ideas and you want to make a note of them, now is the time to do so.

All right, pause the video and press play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, welcome back.

In our second learning cycle and we're gonna focus on the seven deadly sins.

So in religious teaching, sin is often seen as a moral crime, rather than a legal one.

And that means Christianity, particularly in a Catholic doctrine, really categorises the seven deadly sins as fundamental moral failings.

So it's not to say that each of these seven sins will be punishable by law, but if you are suffering from them, then you are failing.

In some way you are failing as a moral individual.

And now arguably in "Inspector Calls," it is the character's sins that are the crimes that lead to Eva's downfall.

Whether you could say any of these characters have broken the law, although you may wish to have that debate, it's fundamentally, it's the sins that they committed in regards to Eva that arguably have led to her downfall.

So I wanna remind you, if you don't know already what they are, the seven deadly sins, they can be described as, first one, pride.

Pride is the excessive belief in one's own abilities or importance.

Greed is the desire for material gain for things, for money at the expense of others.

Wrath is intense anger and this often leads to violence or harm.

Envy is the desire for something that someone else possesses, being jealous.

Lust, is intense desire.

Gluttony is overindulgence in food or drink.

And sloth is laziness or a lack of effort, especially in work or responsibility.

Now as I was reading that list, you might have started thinking, "That sin reminds me of one of the characters." That links to one of the characters in the play.

So which characters link to these specific sins and why? Why don't you pause the video.

If you've got a partner you can discuss this with them, otherwise you can think through this independently.

Which characters link to which of these sins, and why? Alright, over to you.

I'm sure you are making some really interesting links there.

Our Oak pupils gave this a go.

Let's see what they said and we can compare our answers to theirs.

So Jacob talked about Arthur Birling and he really represented greed.

He focuses on profit and his own status in society.

He dismisses the needs of his others, his workers, particularly Eva.

He prioritises wealth over social responsibility over doing the right thing for less, well off people in society.

Alex talked about the character of Eric and said that he could reflect both gluttony and lust.

So we see his excessive drinking, that's his gluttony and his exploitation of Eva, who, you know, he says he's attracted to, lust.

This really illustrates, a real indulgence in both his physical desires and he behaves quite recklessly.

Jun talked about Mrs. Birling and he talked about her pride because she had this real sense of superiority that she was better than others because of her position in society.

She really lacked empathy for those she saw as beneath her, like Eva.

And we saw that when she refused to help her.

Aisha talked about Sheila's envy.

She's really jealous of Eva's appearance, which leads to her making sure that Eva is dismissed and it highlights her own insecurities.

To your extent, did you agree with these, these similar ideas to what you thought? Did you have any indifferent ideas? Why don't you take a moment, pause the video and compare your ideas to the Oak pupils and if you want to make a note of anything that they've said, now's the time to do so.

Okay, welcome back.

Let's do a quick check before we move on.

Which answer do you think best describes Sheila's link with the sin of envy? Is it A, that Sheila Envy's Eva's freedom? Is it B, that Sheila is jealous of her mother's social status? Is it C, that Sheila is jealous of Eva's appearance or is it D, that Sheila envy's her father's wealth.

A, B, C, or D? Which one is the right answer here? Pause the video, have a think and press play when you are ready to move on.

You should have picked C there.

Obviously Sheila's envy shows itself through her jealousy of Eva's appearance and therefore getting Eva fired.

So arguably, Priestley uses the seven deadly sins to illustrate the character's moral failings within the play's moral framework.

So we're focusing on morals here, rather than legal crime.

The sins represent actions that conflict with the plays message.

So always taking it back to what is Priestly trying to tell us? What is his moral message? Well his message is about social responsibility, it's about accountability, it's about justice.

And we see the characters behaving in these sinful ways is in conflict to how, Priestley is encouraging his audiences to behave.

Now through the Inspector's role as a moral judge, these sins are revealed as crimes, okay? Not necessarily legal, but moral crimes.

And he highlights the consequences of these moral crimes, of this selfishness, of this lack of empathy.

So I'm gonna send you over now to our second task and you're going to need your copies of the play.

You're gonna read the following quotations about our five main characters.

So you're gonna read this quotation from Act One about Arthur Birling.

This little section about Sybil Birling from Act Two.

About Sheila, we're gonna focus on Act One.

Act Three to focus on Eric and Act Two to focus on Gerald.

So you can see the page numbers and kind of which sections which words you are looking between.

What I want you to do for each of those quotations is identify which sin or sins that quotation could present and why.

And I want you to explain how this sin acts as a crime, in the play.

And remember here we're not necessarily talking about a legal crime, but more of a moral one.

Okay, so you are gonna need to make sure you've got your copies of the play at the ready.

Pause the screen so you can see these page numbers, page references, and press play when you think you are done.

Alright, over to you.

Okay, welcome back.

How did you find that? Okay, we are gonna assess the quality of the work that we've just done.

I'm gonna do that by comparing our work to one of our Oak pupils Lucas.

So Lucas wrote that, "Arthur Birling's quote reflects greed, "his prioritisation of profit over moral responsibility." And in the play's moral framework, Birling's greed is presented as a crime because it reflects his selfishness and his lack of social responsibility.

By prioritising his financial interest over others, Birling contributes to societal inequality.

Why do we like Lucas's answer? Well, it's successfully done two things.

It's identified the sin as greed, but it's connected greed to the play's moral framework.

And then it starts to explain how it functions as a crime in the play here.

Right, I want you to check your own work now.

For each quotation, make sure you have identified a sin or more than one sin and connected it to the moral framework of the play.

And of course I want you to think about have you explained how the sins act as a crime.

Alright, time for you to pause your video, give this a go and press play when you think you have reflected on your answers.

Okay, we're now moving on to the final part of today's lesson.

The Inspector as divine judge and biblical justice.

So when considering the play as a religious allegory, the Inspector could be then interpreted as a divine figure, a figure that linked to the idea of God or a superior being.

The Inspector we know is responsible for embodying the principles of biblical justice.

He represents this idea of moral justice.

He emphasised this idea of repentance, of apologising.

He represents judgement and he represents punishment.

So what specific actions or methods does the Inspector use though to embody these aspects of divine justice? So think about what he does, think about his actions.

Think about his words.

How does he embody these aspects of divine justice? Alright, over to you for this one.

Pause the video, have a think, have a discuss with a partner if you've got one or just think through independently.

Press play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back.

Let's think of some of the things that you might have discussed then, shall we? You might have talked about him being an omniscient presence, okay? He knows everything and he exposes the characters' secrets.

He elicits confessions, he forces characters to admit their wrongdoings, much like a divine judge.

Think about when people are repenting to God, you know they are confessing for their crimes.

He delivers moral warnings and we see so many moral warnings in both the Bible and other religious texts.

This religious prophecy about behaving in the right way and warnings if you don't.

He also preaches about social responsibility and repentance and these are two clear messages in the Bible and other religious texts.

You must show responsibility for others, beyond yourself.

You must not be an individualist and selfish.

He stresses that as individuals you must be accountable for your actions if you really want to achieve redemption.

Alright, true or false, then? The Inspector's omniscient knowledge of the character's actions, support the idea that he's a divine figure.

True or false? What do you think? Pause the video, have a think, select your answer and press play when you're ready to continue.

Yeah, great job, if you said true there.

Why is that true? Well, the inspector reveals hidden truths, like for example, when he exposes Gerald's affair with Daisy.

This shows knowledge that perhaps only a divine figure would be able to possess.

So Priestley could then therefore be suggesting that morality, embodied by the Inspector's divine justice is more important than the law.

He's emphasising that personal accountability and repentance, is, perhaps kind of more powerful than legal punishment.

What do you think? Would you think a legal trial over the death of Eva Smith would've delivered true justice? Or do you think Priestly is suggesting morality is actually more important than the law itself? What are your opinions on this? Take a moment to reflect.

With a partner, you can discuss this together and share ideas and see if you agree or disagree.

Or just think this through by yourself.

What do you think? Over to you? Pause the video and press play when you're ready to continue.

I think that was a really interesting question to discuss, isn't it? Like how important is the law? I'm sure most of you will be saying, "Yeah, of course the law is important." But I wonder if you are starting to think, actually though morality and maybe these things that are not legal crimes, but still kind of sins that have these negative impacts on others that I think are really important that we, you know, do reflect on our own moral what we feel is morally acceptable.

Interesting discussions there.

Alright, we're onto our final task of today's lesson and you're gonna do a bit of planning for me here.

So you are gonna complete up to three single paragraph outlines, to answer the question, how does Priestley use religious allegory in "An Inspector Calls" to explore sin, morality, and justice? Okay, so you're not writing a full essay here, you're just planning some ideas.

I hope you've seen a planning grid like this before.

If you haven't, just to remind that your topic sentence is the focus, the main idea of a paragraph, your supporting details is in note form.

This is where we bring in quotes that we want to analyse, ideas that we want to, that support our topic sentence.

And our concluding sentence is where we can wrap our argument up by linking it back to Priestley's intention.

Alright, let's see if you can do one, two, or even three, different mini arguments here that you could use to answer the question you can see on the screen.

Alright, pause the video, good luck and press play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back.

Before we finish for today's lesson, we're gonna self-assess our paragraph outlines.

Can you make sure you've included a topic sentence that links to the question? Relevant supporting details in note form and a concluding sentence that brings your paragraph to a close.

Pause the video and take one more look at your plan.

Make any improvements now.

Right, okay, that was it.

We have reached the end of today's lesson.

Great job everybody.

On the screen you can see a summary of everything we have covered so far or everything we've covered in today's lesson.

We've learned "An Inspector Calls" could be interpreted as a religious allegory.

We talked about the seven deadly sins and how they are reflected in the character's actions and their moral failings.

We talked about the theme of purgatory and judgement.

These are explored through the character's unresolved guilt, that unresolved ending to the play.

We talked about how the inspector embodies biblical justice.

He reveals truth, prompting confessions and warning of consequences.

And we talked about really how Priestly, we could argue that Priestly is critiquing the law and actually suggesting that moral accountability is much more important than legal justice.

Great work today, some fantastic discussions and I hope you ended up with an essay plan that you are really proud of.

I hope to see you again in a lesson of ours soon.

Have a great day.

Bye-bye.