AIC Quotes

The lighting should be pink and intimate until the INSPECTOR arrives

and then it should be brighter and harder.

BIRLING is a heavy-looking

rather portentous man

rather provincial in his speech.

Implies that Birling was born into a humble background in the countryside

a rather cold woman and her husband's social superior.

'His wife' - identity based off husband. patriarchal society. Icy

SHEILA is a pretty girl ... very pleased with life and rather excited.

pleased with life - contrasting Eva. never had to work hard in her life as everything was handed to her. oblivious to truth despite knowing she along with many others is not respected and prioritised in society. innocent and so habituated by the standards and expectations of society that it is no longer a concern. brainwashed to believe that these standards are set to better Britain for good. 'Rather excited' - childish demeanour contrasts her later maturity. shows how the shock of Eva Smith's suicide affects characters in the play as Sheila becomes upset and bitter. It can be linked when Mrs Birling says

rather too manly to be a dandy but very much the easy well-bred young man-about-town.

Linking to context

not quite at ease

half shy

Birling: Finchley told me it's exactly the same port your father gets from him.

Birling means to imply that he is the economic (if not social) equal of the Crofts

Sheila: except for all last summer

when you never came near me

Mrs. B: When you're married you'll realize that men with important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time and energy on their business.

Shows that women had little say. It suggests that she believes that it will never change. We later see evidence that Sheila has begun to fulfil her gender stereotypes. This shows the that Mrs. Birling reflects the views of her husband and that due to the time her daughter is oppressed just as she is yet she encourages this due to the time

Sheila: You're squiffy.

Forewarns us of the parents' ignorance to their children's' character. As a younger person

Mrs. B: Really

the things you girls pick up these days!

Birling: It's a pity Sir George and - er - Lady Croft can't be with us

but they're abroad and so it can't be helped.

Eric: We'll drink their health and have done with it.

This could foreshadow future events

Birling: your engagement to Sheila means a tremendous lot to me... You're just the kind of son-in-law I always wanted

Mr Birling's title is not as high as Sir or lady Croft's

perhaps we may look forward to the time when Crofts and Birlings are no longer competing but are working together - for lower costs and higher prices.

Shows that the older generation within the Birling family and perhaps society's strongest interest is money. The reader questions if the reason he's more excited about the marriage is because it will bring him great profit to his business. At the end of Birling's first speech

Sheila: is it the one you wanted me to have?

The word 'wanted' creates a sense of ownership and entitlement- it is almost as though he has a right to make Sheila's decisions for her

Sheila: Look - Mummy - isn't it a beauty?

Sheila is childish

Sheila: (kisses Gerald hastily)

Her love for Gerald is an afterthought

Birling: and I speak as a hard-headed business man...

conformity to stereotypes

you'll be marrying at a very good time... there's a lot of wild talk about possible labour trouble in the near future. Don't worry. We've passed the worst of it... And we're in for a time of steadily increasing prosperity.

Mr. Birling's dramatic irony highlights his stupidity to the audience as Britain later suffered an immense financial dip. Also

We employers at last are coming together to see that our interests - and the interests of Capital - are properly protected.

This idea of unity is ironic due to the class divide.

Birling: And I'm talking as a hard-headed

practical man of business... There'll be peace and prosperity and rapid progress everywhere

And I say there isn't a chance of war... the Titanic... and unsinkable

absolutely unsinkable

Birling: I might find my way into the next Honours List... see

I was Lord Mayor here... so long as we behave ourselves

Gerald [laughs]: You seem to be a nice well-behaved family -

"seem" - in reality

Eric: You'd think a girl never had any clothes before she gets married
Birling: clothes mean something quite different to a woman... a sort of sign or token of their self-respect.

Mr Birling foreshadows Sheila's story and Shows why Sheila may have taken such offence to Eva in the dress shop. Suggests all women think in the same way. Birling reinforces a traditional gender stereotype that women care more about their appearance and clothing than men.

Birling: Yes

you don't know what some of these boys get up to nowadays... They worked us hard in those days and kept us short of cash.

Birling: I don't want to lecture you two young fellows again. But what so many of you don't seem to understand now

when things are so much easier....

a man has to make his own way - has to look after himself and his family

'a man' - misogynistic as he doesn't even consider women as part of the competition -Syntax: He puts business and work over/before his family. Shows his individualistic and capitalist mindset.

But the way some of these cranks talk and write now

you'd think everybody has to look after everybody else

But take my word for it

you youngsters - and I've learnt in the good hard school of experience - that a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own - and -

\[We hear the sharp ring of a front door bell. BIRLING stops to listen.]

Irony as this is the only time Birling stops to listen to the Inspector. The "sharp ring of the doorbell is used to increase the tension and as an abrupt prelude to the inspector's arrival. It also represents the contrast of two political ideologies. Birling is in the middle of his speech expounding the virtues of Capitalism when the door-bell rings. The inspector

he creates at once an impression of massiveness

solidity

Inspector: Burnt her inside out

of course.

Eric [involuntarily]: My God!

This quote highlights to the audience the shock the suicide has brought onto the family

this is reinforced by Priestley's use of the exclamation mark

which not only shows how Eric is shocked but also reflects the audience's shock. The use of the word "God" shows religious connotations which would have a much greater effect on the 1946 audience as they were much more religious

Inspector: Yes

she was in great agony.

Eric: Is that why she committed suicide?

In asking whether his father should be deemed responsible for the girl's suicide

Birling: Perhaps I ought to explain first that this is Mr Gerald Croft - the son of Sir George Croft - you know

Crofts Limited.

Inspector: A chain of events.

The Inspector theorizes about the nature of responsibility: in some sense

Birling: Still

I can't accept any responsibility.

Birling: I don't like the tone.

Birling tries to patronise the inspector. It seems that in spite of portraying himself as a "hard-headed businessman

Birling: Well

it's my duty to keep labour costs down

Birling: It's a free country

I told them.

Eric: It isn't if you can't go and work somewhere else.

Eric puts the Inspector's notion of responsibility into contrast with Birling's previous lecture about the sole necessity of looking after oneself and not concerning oneself with the well- being of others. Eric sees that the "free" world that Birling sees is not so free

Birling: She'd had a lot to say - far too much

She frightened Birling

he believes due to his capitalistic ideals that he should never be challenged as he is a class above all his workers. He was offended and enraged by the strike. Shows his sexism and classism.

Birling: If you don't come down sharply on some of these people

they'd soon be asking for the earth
Inspector: it's better to ask for the earth than to take it.

Birling: Perhaps I ought to warn you that he's an old friend of mine

Eric: Why shouldn't they try for higher wages? We try for the highest possible prices.

Eric

Birling: you'll never be in a position to let anybody stay or to tell anybody to go.

Shows that Mr Birling's business comes over his family

Sheila: Oh I wish you hadn't told me. What was she like? Quite young?

She has started to shift towards the Inspector and Eric's side

Sheila: But these girls aren't cheap labour - they're people.

This shows us that Shelia has now came back to the real world and is starting to find a big difference between the upper and the lower class. Sheila is also showing shows that she feels sympathetic towards the lower classes and is starting to put herself into their position

Inspector: She enjoyed being among pretty clothes

Even the inspector makes assumptions about her likes

\[Birling looks as if about to make some retort

then thinks better of it]

Gerald: we're respectable citizens and not criminals.
Inspector: Sometimes there isn't as much difference as you think.

Once again

Sheila: I've told my father - he didn't seem to think it amounted to much - but I felt rotten about it at the time and now I feel a lot worse.

Priestley presents a contrast between Mr Birling's reaction and Sheila's reaction

this shows the gap between the two generations.

Sheila: Because I was in a furious temper.

Shows Sheila's self-awareness and growing maturity

Sheila: It was my own fault. [Suddenly

to Gerald] ... I expect you've done things you're ashamed of too.

Sheila: She was a very pretty girl too... and that didn't make it any better.

This shows Sheila's internalised sexism

\[She almost breaks down

but just controls herself.]

Inspector: you might be said to have been jealous of her.
Sheila: Yes

I suppose so.
Inspector: And so you used the power you had

Sheila: I'll never

never do it again to anybody.

Sheila: he knows. Of course he knows.

Sheila is arguably seen as one of the most intelligent characters here as she recognises that the inspector is here to test them and that he already knows everything that there is to know.

Gerald: Inspector

I think Miss Birling ought to be excused

Inspector: And you think young women ought to be protected against unpleasant and disturbing things?
Gerald: if possible - yes.

The Inspector shows the hypocrisy in Gerald's wanting to protect Sheila from unpleasant things

Sheila: I know I'm to blame

When Sheila finds out what part she played in Eva Smith's death she begins to take responsibility and understanding the fact that actions have consequences. This shows she is beginning to take responsibility for her actions. She understands that it was her fault because she turned Eva Smith out of a job through spitefulness and jealousy.

MRS BIRLING enters

briskly and self-confidently

Mrs. B: You seem to have made a great impression on this child

Inspector.
Inspector: We often do on the young ones. They're more impressionable.

Mrs. B: forget about this absurd business.

She doesn't understand the severity of this situation

Mrs. B: Girls of that class -

Mrs. Birling thinks that she is socially and morally superior to the working class. She dehumanises and generalises them

Sheila: You mustn't try to build up a kind of wall between us and that girl.

Sheila repeats what the Inspector says which shows that she is becoming more like him

Mrs. B: [haughtily]: I beg your pardon!

Here Mrs Birling is seen as shocked through the use of exclamatory sentence. This is based on the fact that the inspector responded to her question which is not only seen as disrespectful but also unconventional behaviour from the lower class in Edwardian society

Mrs. B: You know of course that my husband was Lord Mayor only two years ago and that he's still a magistrate

Like Mr Birling

Mrs. B: No

of course not. He's only a boy.

Inspector: No

he's a young man. And some young men drink far too much.

Birling: And I don't propose to give you much rope.
Inspector: you needn't give me any rope.
Sheila: (rather wildly

with laugh) No

Inspector: And anyhow I knew already.

Shows the Inspector's insight and intuition

Mrs B [staggered]: Well

really! Alderman Meggarty! I must say

Gerald: I want you to understand that I didn't install her there so that I could make love to her. I made her go to Morgan Terrace because I was sorry for her

Perhaps Gerald truly had feelings toward Eva

Gerald: I became at once the most important person in her life

He makes out he was a hero to Eva/Daisy. He offered some positivity to her life but abandoned her whenever it suited him.

Gerald: I didn't feel about her as she felt about me.

Shows the privilege of the upper-class

Gerald: Nearly any man would have done.
Sheila: That's probably about the best thing you've said tonight.

Gerald shows the typical gender stereotypes and highlights the widespread attitude to the lower class.

Mrs. B: It's disgusting to me.

Short sentence is blunt and judgemental. Personal pronoun 'me' shows that it is her opinion and she does not need guidance from Mr Birling. It is strong physical and emotional response. There is dramatic irony

Gerald: she knew it couldn't last - hadn't expected it to last.

Her past from Mr Birling and Sheila's first encounter has taught her not to get too comfortable in situations as it could very easily end

\[She hands him the ring.]

This symbolises her rejection of the patriarchy

Birling: But you must understand that a lot of young men -

Birling also may have also had an affair

Mrs. B: Why should I?

She feels as though she could never be associated with someone in the lower class like Eva Smith and thinks that in no way is she responsible for the suicide. The rhetorical question shows her lack of responsibility.

Inspector: You mean you don't choose to do

Mrs Birling.

Inspector: (massively) Public men

Mr Birling

Sheila: we've no excuse now for putting on airs

Theme of appearance vs. reality as Sheila realises the vapidity of the Birlings' veil.

Sheila: Father threw this girl out... I went and pushed her farther out... [Gerald] dropped her when it suited him.

Sheila is the only one

Mrs. B [with dignity]: Yes. We've done a great deal of useful work in helping deserving cases.

In the time that the play was set

Mrs. B: Silly boy!

Mrs. Birling doesn't think Eric is capable of the things he did. Ironic because she is much 'sillier.'

Birling: Is there any reason why my wife should answer questions from you

Inspector?

Mrs. B: naturally that was one of the things that prejudiced me against her case.

'naturally' - she thinks she had the right to do this. 'prejudiced' - negative connotations that link to her treatment of Eva. She is accidentally admitting her prejudice

Mrs. B: I'm very sorry. But I think she had only herself to blame.

Mrs. Birling refuses to accept responsibility. She sees her role on the charity organization not as to help people but as a way to yield power and influence. "I'm very sorry" - ironic as she has no remorse

Mrs. B: Unlike the other three

I did nothing I'm ashamed of or that won't bear investigation.