AIC

Mr Birling — individualism vs social duty

"A man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own."

Mr Birling — fear of workers gaining power

"If you don't come down sharply on some of these people, they'd soon be asking for the earth."

Mr Birling — dramatic irony undermining his authority

"The Germans don't want war. Nobody wants war."

Mrs Birling — denying Eva's right to moral feeling

"She was claiming fine feelings and scruples that were simply absurd in a girl of her position."

Mrs Birling — class assumptions about working women

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

Mrs Birling — unwitting self-incrimination about Eric

"He ought to be dealt with very severely."

Sheila — humanising the working class

"But these girls aren't cheap labour — they're people."

Sheila — the younger generation's transformation

"You and I aren't the same people who sat down to dinner here."

Sheila — genuine remorse and resolve

"I'll never, never do it again to anybody."

Eric — total rejection of his parents' worldview

"You don't understand anything. You never did."

Eric — honesty about his relationship with Eva

"I wasn't in love with her or anything — but I liked her."

Eric — lasting guilt, unlike his parents

"My God — I'm not likely to forget."

Gerald — his power over Eva's life

"I became at once the most important person in her life."

Gerald — acknowledging the class imbalance in feeling

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

Gerald — resistance to change, pragmatic return to normal

"Everything's all right now, Sheila. What about this ring?"

Inspector — power comes with duty, not just privilege

"Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges."

Inspector — hope placed in the younger generation

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

Inspector — collective guilt, no one is innocent

"Each of you helped to kill her."

Social responsibility — the Inspector's core challenge to Birling

"Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges."

Social responsibility — Birling's selfish individualism as the foil

"A man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own."

Social responsibility — Sheila recognising workers as human

"But these girls aren't cheap labour — they're people."

Class — casual, structural dismissal of the lower class

"Girls of that class—"

Class — upper class ownership of morality and feeling

"She was claiming fine feelings and scruples that were simply absurd in a girl of her position."

Class — Birling's fear of workers demanding equality

"If you don't come down sharply on some of these people, they'd soon be asking for the earth."

Responsibility — Sheila's honest acceptance of blame

"I know I'm to blame and I'm sorry."

Responsibility — Mrs Birling's refusal to feel guilt

"I did nothing I'm ashamed of."

Responsibility — the Inspector distributing blame equally

"Each of you helped to kill her."

Older vs younger — Eric's complete break from his parents

"You don't understand anything. You never did."

Older vs younger — Sheila marking the generational divide

"You and I aren't the same people who sat down to dinner here."

Older vs younger — the Inspector's faith in youth

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

Gender — Gerald's economic and emotional power over Eva

"I became at once the most important person in her life."

Gender — Mrs Birling denying a working woman's right to emotion

"She was claiming fine feelings and scruples that were simply absurd in a girl of her position."

Gender — assumptions about working-class women and money

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