The play is set in the Birling's house; as it is a safe place where life is secure and sheltered. The inspector takes the illusion of their life away and shows the Birlings what they previously prefer to overlook, the horrors and troubles of the real world. The play is set in 1912 but was written in 1945 after the Second World War. In the play there is lots of dramatic irony, which to an extent it relies on. Mr Birling flippantly brushes of ideas people have about a war in sight, dismissing them as "silly little war scares"....
Labour and Clement Attlee in 1945 who stood for a new way of life and change, against Winston Churchill who offered society restarting where it left off. People saw how the war had changed everything, and things would never be the same again as something as horrific as the Second World War could never be forgotten and voted for Labour which resulted in their famous landslide victory of May 1945. An Inspector Calls is an idealist play and is always relevant, as the theme of responsibility is still as germane today as it was a hundred years ago.