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How much do you know about setting in a play? Find out in this quiz.

An Inspector Calls - Setting

Step into the Birlings’ dining room and watch one evening unravel. This quiz explores how a single setting shapes tension, secrets, and Priestley’s message.

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Fascinating Fact:

The whole play is set in the Birlings’ dining room, a confined space that traps the characters together.

In GCSE English, you need to explain how the fixed setting of An Inspector Calls supports Priestley’s ideas. The single dining room creates a tense, almost claustrophobic atmosphere where characters cannot escape each other, so every entrance, exit, and stage direction adds pressure, reveals secrets, and highlights themes of guilt, power, and social responsibility.

Key Terms

Setting: The place and time where the action happens, including the room, furniture, and atmosphere on stage.
Stage directions: Instructions in the script that tell actors how to move, speak, and react within the setting.
Closed setting: A story or play that takes place in one main location, often increasing tension between characters.

Frequently Asked Questions (click to see answers)

How do I write about setting in An Inspector Calls for GCSE?

Mention the single dining room, key stage directions, and details like lighting or furniture. Explain how these choices build tension and support Priestley’s message about class and responsibility.

Why is the Birling dining room an important setting in An Inspector Calls?

The dining room keeps everyone together, so no one can easily escape questions or blame. This confined space turns a private celebration into a public examination of the family’s behaviour.

How can this setting quiz help my GCSE English revision?

The quiz reminds you of key details about the dining room, tests how well you link setting to tension and theme, and gives practice for exam questions on dramatic techniques.

Try These Related Quizzes

1 .

Where does the action take place?

In the local police department

In Mr Birling's warehouse

In Eva Smith's bedsit

In the Birlings' house

All three Acts take place in the dining room of the Birlings' home, although various characters enter and exit the stage during the play

2 .

The play is set during which year?

1905

1912

1921

1929

Although the play was first performed in the 1940s (it appeared on stage at the New Theatre in 1946), it is set in 1912

3 .

The set furniture should be 'good', 'solid' and 'of the period', appropriate to a prosperous man such as Mr Birling. What effect is this furniture intended to create?

That of a substantial and comfortable home

That of a cosy and homelike place

That of a cold and severe institution

That of an orderly court of law

The introduction to Act One specifies that the dining room should not feel cosy and homelike

4 .

Mr Birling comments, "Now you three young people, just listen to this - and remember what I'm telling you now. In twenty or thirty years' time - let's say, in 1940 - you may be giving a little party like this - your son or daughter might be getting engaged - and I tell you by that time you'll be living in a world that'll have forgotten all these Capital versus Labour agitations and all these silly little war scares." In terms of setting, what is significant about Mr Birling's remarks?

His comments bring together the setting of the play with the first audience's knowledge of recent events

His comments demonstrate his fatherly wisdom

His remarks are only important because they demonstrate his inability to see into the future

His remarks are not relevant to the setting of the play

Mr Birling's inaccurate view of the future draws the audience into the events of the play while reminding them that its lessons are as relevant to a 1940s audience as they are to the fictional Birling family

5 .

An Inspector Calls is set in which country?

United States of America

Germany

Great Britain

Ireland

The play is set in Brumley, a fictional city in the North Midlands

6 .

Which of the following best describes the mood at the beginning of the play?

Sombre

Violent

Depressed

Celebratory

The family are busy celebrating Sheila's engagement to Gerald when the Inspector arrives

7 .

Why is this date significant?

The First World War has just ended

The First World War will begin in two years

The Second World War has just ended

The Second World War has just begun

The audience knows, although the Birlings do not, that war looms on the horizon for Britain

8 .

Which of the following is true of Brumley?

It is an industrial city

It is a small, pleasant village

It is a suburb of London

It is a small market town

The fictional 'Brumley' is introduced as an industrial city

9 .

Which of the following is responsible for the tension evident in the opening scene?

A conflict of ideas between the young and the old

An anxiety over class differences

Anxiety over socialism

All of the above

These tensions are apparent in the lecture Mr Birling gives to the younger members of the gathering, setting up many of the important themes of the play

10 .

Over what time period do the events of the play take place?

One month

One year

One evening

One decade

Although the characters discuss the events of Eva's life, which take place over a longer period of time, the action of the play takes place in a single evening, over three continuous Acts

You can find more about this topic by visiting BBC Bitesize - An Inspector Calls

Author: Sheri Smith (PhD English Literature, English Teacher & Quiz Writer)