An Inspector Calls Key Quotes

Act 1 Mr Birling: hard head

“hard headed businessman”

• Repetition: arrogance and self-importance

• Capitalist Ideology

• Lack of empathy: indifferent to the struggles of his workers.

Act 1 Mr Birling: low, high

“but are working together- for lower costs and higher prices”

• Said to Gerald at their engagement party

• Should be excited for engagement- only cares about business

• Juxtaposition

• Exploiting working class for more profit

Act 1 Mr Birling: titanic

“unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable”

• Dramatic Irony

• Symbolism: titanic sinking foreshadows fall of capitalism

• Foolish

• Unreliable character: can’t trust him now or later

What is Priestly’s purpose for Mr Birling?

represent selfish, capitalist values of the upper-class.

symbol of a greedy and morally bankrupt system that prioritizes profit over people

Priestley highlights injustice and harm caused by this mindset

What is Priestly’s purpose for Mrs Birling?

represent defensive, prejudiced views of the older, upper-class generation can be a danger to society

uses Mrs Birling's charity work to deliver a critique of hypocrisy and class prejudice in Edwardian charity system

What is Priestly’s purpose for Sheila?

represent the younger generation's potential for change, social responsibility, and a rejection of the older generation's capitalism and rigid class system

from naive and materialistic girl to someone who accepts her part in Eva Smith's death, challenges the status quo and highlights importance of social conscience

What is Priestly’s purpose for Eric?

represent the younger generation and criticize capitalist society, showing both its negative effects and its potential for redemption.

eventual acceptance of collective responsibility and his willingness to defy his father's values position him as a symbol of hope for social change

What is Priestly’s purpose for Gerald?

represent the self-interested and immoral attitudes of the upper class, showing how their privileged position insulates them from the consequences of their actions

embodies the inability of the aristocracy to change, even after being confronted with their exploitation of the working class

What is Priestly’s purpose for Inspector Goole?

mouthpiece for his socialist message centred on social responsibility, collective guilt, and the interconnectedness of all people

uses investigation of Eva Smith's death to reveal how the Birling family's selfish actions have consequences for others

forcing both the characters and the audience to confront own social and moral duties

Act 1 Mr Birling: suicide

“the wretched girl’s suicide”

• adjective- wretched

• dehumanising

• dismissive language- nothing to do with him

• ‘girl’- doesn’t see her as an individual

Act 1 Sheila: Stage Directions

“Sheila is a pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited”

• Young, naive

• Typical upper-class girl

• Behaves in way she’s raised to behave

Act 1 Sheila: got it

“Oh- Gerald- you’ve got it- is it the one you wanted me to have”

• You pronoun- Gerald has power

• Typical upper class relationship

• Ring symbolises acceptance of role of submission/ patriarchy control

• Hyphens represent how she is:

• Not sure how to react- no voice

• Excited

Act 1 Sheila: mummy

“Oh look mummy- isn’t it a beauty (admiringly) I think it’s perfect”

• Childish- needs parental approval

• Dependency on parents- victim of her upbringing

Act 1 Sheila: responsible

“(miserably) so i’m really responsible?”

• personal pronoun “i”

• guilty

• contrasts defensive parents

• questioning- self doubt, regret

• willing to reflect on actions

• contrasts defensive parents

Act 2 Sheila: fool

“Why- you fool- he knows. Of course he knows”

• Change in tone to Gerald

• Not passive anymore

• Intelligent- understood inspector’s power

• hyphens, before: excitement, now: frustration

• short sentence- factual

Act 2 Sheila: wall

“You mustn’t try to build a kind of wall between us”

• Metaphor- Mrs Birling trying to distance herself from lower class

• Imperative “mustn’t”- assertive

Act 3 Sheila: Frightens

“It frightens me the way you talk”

• “Frightens”- emotive language

• Emotional response to parents lack of remorse

• Tone of fear and disbelief

• Juxtaposition- contrast between younger and older generation

• Emotional metamorphosis

Gerald: Stage Directions

“easy, well-bred young man about-town”

• part of younger generation- ability to change

• privileged background

• taught to behave in a particular upper-class way

Act 1 Gerald: citizens

“After all, y’know, we’re respectable citizens and not criminals”

• Upper class is morally superior

• Lower class is inferior and criminals

• Juxtaposition represents stark divide between classes

Act 1 Gerald: eyes on the girl

“I hadn’t set eyes on the girl for at least 6 months. I don’t come into this suicide business”

• Noun for “girl”

• Objectifying her/ dehumanising

• Taken advantage of someone vulnerable- little care/affection for her

• Short sentences- dismissive

• “Suicide business”- metaphor

• Upperclass

• Lack of emotion/ empathy

• Factual tone

• Creates barrier between him and situation

Mrs Birling Stage Directions

“His wife is about fifty, a rather cold woman and her husband’s social superior”

• unlikable

• not empathetic

• foreshadowing for future events

• oxymoron- social norms women are meant to be loving

• priestly is showing her attitude is unnatural

Act 2 Mrs Birling: girl of that sort

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

• Sees lower class as morally inferior

• Exclamation mark- unbelievable

• Short sentence- factual tone- arrogant

• “That sort”- doesn’t explicitly say meaning- even speaking of the lower class repulses her

Eric Stage Directions

In his early twenties, not quite at ease, half shy, half assertive

• Not comfortable

• Dichotomy

Act 3 Eric: a chap

“Well I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty- and I threatened to make a row”

• Euphemism- softening

• Distancing himself from actions

• Ashamed of actions

Act 3 Eric: she was pretty

“I wasn’t in love with her or anything- but I liked her- she was pretty and a good sport”

• Metaphor- good sport- entertainment, accommodates his behaviour

• Objectifying Eva- typically happening to women in Edwardian time

Act 3 Eric: you killed her

“Then- you killed her. She came to you to protect me- you killed them both- damn you, damn you”

• Repetition- frustration

• Pronoun- You

• Religious connotations- hell

• Absolving himself from any blame

Act 3 Eric: the girl’s dead

“And I say the girl’s dead and we all helped to kill her- and that’s what matters”

• Collective pronoun- we

• Transformation

• Taking responsibility and involving whole family