Questions on social class are a staple of exams on An Inspector Calls, and student answers tend to fall into a familiar pattern. The Birlings are rich, Eva Smith is poor, and Priestley wants us to see that this is unfair. That summary is fine as an opening, but it cannot carry a whole essay.

The play does more with class than contrast rich and poor. It shows Mr. Birling's concern with a knighthood, Mrs. Birling's judgment of who deserves help, and Gerald's position as the son of a family with older money. Each of these adds a layer that a thoughtful student can explore.

When marking, the difference between bands often lies in how many of those layers the writer notices and how well they link them to a message.

Here is a way to structure your marking so those differences are easy to see.

What separates a top response

Top responses treat class as a system that shapes how people talk and what they notice. They examine the way Mrs. Birling speaks to the Inspector as if he were an employee, and how Mr. Birling assumes his social standing will protect him. They also link those attitudes to Priestley's own political views and to the mood in 1945.

• Shows how class affects the way characters speak to the Inspector
• Explains how Eva Smith's treatment reflects wider attitudes to working people
• Notes the different attitudes of the older and younger generation to class
• Considers Gerald's position between the two families
• Connects the play's message to the postwar appetite for social reform

Feedback that deepens the argument

A useful comment is to ask who has the power in each scene and how we can tell. That question brings language, staging and stage directions into the answer without a separate prompt for each. Students who respond well often start to notice small details, such as who sits, who speaks first and who interrupts.

You can also ask them to consider the audience in 1945. Many viewers had lived through wartime rationing and shared sacrifice, and the play speaks to that experience.

Avoiding a common marking bias

Markers can be too kind to essays that make confident political claims and too harsh on cautious ones. An essay that says the play proves capitalism is wrong is not automatically better than one that carefully examines how Priestley presents class. The rubric should reward evidence and analysis rather than the strength of the opinion.

Setting criteria before you start reading is the simplest way to avoid that drift. It gives you something to point to when a student asks why their bold argument earned a modest mark.

Consistency across many essays

Social class is a topic that produces a lot of similar-sounding writing, which makes fair comparison harder. AI feedback tools such as GraideMind can measure each essay against a shared rubric and draft comments on where analysis stays surface-level, so you can concentrate on borderline scripts.

Combined with your own reading, it gives students clearer, more even feedback, and it gives you a record of where the whole class needs to go next.