An Inspector Calls

Both dismantle a family's self-image through relentless interrogation of the past — Willy Loman's American Dream and Arthur Birling's Edwardian confidence are the same delusion in different currencies

Historical setting used to interrogate contemporary politics, collective guilt exposed through a single investigation, a community forced to confront what it has done

The well-made play as social dynamite — Ibsen's Nora and Priestley's Sheila both wake up inside a domestic prison and refuse to go back to sleep

Both anatomise a ruling class that destroys the vulnerable without consequence — Tom and Daisy's carelessness is the Birlings' refusal of responsibility in American dress

Another British GCSE staple exploring class and fate — Russell's twins separated by class mirror Priestley's argument that accident of birth determines who thrives and who is destroyed

Post-war British literature confronting the myth of civilisation — Golding strips away social order entirely, Priestley strips away its moral pretensions