An Inspector Calls 🕵

Inspector Goole

• “We are members of one body.”

• “Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges.”

• “Each of you helped to kill her.”

• “If men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.”

Arthur Birling

• “A man has to make his own way — has to look after himself.”

• “The Titanic…unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable.”

• “If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we’d had anything to do with, it would be very awkward.”

• “There’ll be a public scandal.”

Sybil Birling

• “Girls of that class—”

• “I accept no blame for it at all.”

• “As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money!”

• “Go and look for the father of the child. It’s his responsibility.”

Eric Birling

• “You’re not the kind of father a chap could go to when he’s in trouble.”

• “I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty.”

• “The fact remains that I did what I did.”

• “We all helped to kill her.”

Gerald Croft

• “Everything’s all right now, Sheila.”

• “I hate those hard-eyed dough-faced women.”

• “She was young and pretty and warm-hearted.”

• “What about this ring?”

Eva Smith

• “These girls aren’t cheap labour — they’re people.”

• “She’d had a lot to say — far too much — so she had to go.”

• “A lively good-looking girl — country-bred, I fancy.”

• “One Eva Smith has gone — but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us.”

Sheila Birling

• “But these girls aren’t cheap labour — they’re people.”

• “I’ll never, never do it again to anybody.”

• “You mustn’t try to build up a kind of wall between us and that girl.”

• “It frightens me the way you talk.”

Responsibility

• “We are members of one body.”

• “Each of you helped to kill her.”

• “Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges.”

• “If men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.”

Classes

• “Girls of that class—”

• “These girls aren’t cheap labour — they’re people.”

• “As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money!”

• “One Eva Smith has gone — but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us.”

Generational Divide

• “Young men are all right.”

• “The famous younger generation who know it all. And they can’t even take a joke—”

• “It frightens me the way you talk.”

• “We all helped to kill her.”

Capitalism

• “A man has to make his own way — has to look after himself.”

• “If you don’t come down sharply on some of these people, they’d soon be asking for the earth.”

• “We don’t live alone. We are members of one body.”

• “Community and all that nonsense.”

Guilt

• “I’ll never, never do it again to anybody.”

• “I accept no blame for it at all.”

• “The fact remains that I did what I did.”

• “Everything’s all right now, Sheila.”