Quotations: Gerald Croft

“I don’t come into the suicide business”

• Dramatic irony. The intended purpose is to foreshadow to the audience that each character has a personal contribution.

• Gerald is in denial of his actions, unravels his hidden ignorant nature.

• Language at the start of the play is adherent (supportive) of Mr Birling (‘you couldn’t have done anything else’). His language is disrespectful of the situation and could perhaps indicate his vast animosity towards the lower class.

“I went down into the bar for a drink. It’s a favourite haunt of women of the town”

• Uses euphemism in ‘haunt of women’ to mask true intentions.

• ‘women of the town’ are prostitutes. Gerald’s intention for being at ‘the bar for a drink’ wasn’t as it seems. His motives are sexually driven (portrays lust which is one of the seven deadly sins).

• Pause (punctuation) suggests he contemplated the consequence of telling another lie.

“She was young and pretty and warm-hearted - and intensely grateful.”

• “young and “pretty” shows the male gaze, Gerald values Eva’s appearance before anything else.

• Values semblance (appearance) before emotions.

• Gerald is a dramatic device for Edwardian men during 1912 who only treasured outmost appearance of women and their dispositions.

“[Daisy] gave me a glance that was nothing less than a cry for help”

• Seems to genuinely care about Daisy.

• Viewed himself as heroic when saving her from Meggarty (saviour complex).

• Noun “cry” is symbolic of distress and highlights Eva’s vunerability.

• Noun “help” reinforces the susceptibility of Daisy.

• Gerald sees himself as nothing less than a hero and had a caring attitude to those in need.

• Priestley could have done this to demonstrate how vulnerable and needy the proletarians were during the Edwardian Era, but also using Gerald as a dramatic device to show how bourgeoisie Edwardian men exploited working class women who would desperately cling onto them due to their financial support.

“I became at once the most important person in her life”

• Accentuates that there is definitely an extensive agenda to Gerald helping Eva.

• One could say Gerald only aided Eva because he saw a despairing and penurious (needy and poverty-stricken) woman who most likely cling onto him for support. This is what Gerald wanted, a woman to assert his dominance and power on. The typical traits of an Edwardian male in the patriarchal society at the time.

• ‘the most’ is superlative.

• The fact that Gerald became the most important person in Eva’s life represents how little her support system was to begin with and this could constitute to how the working class in 1912 had little support.

“Everything’s alright now Sheila”

• Gerald thinks that because the Inspector was a ‘hoax’, he can revolve back to his previous ways and values.

• Structure of Gerald’s attitude and process of reformation through the play is critical.

• After claiming that he needs to ‘walk about for a while’ that audience may believe that Gerald used that time to contemplate on his actions towards Eva, but instead he decides to find out if the Inspector was real and is the one who initially proposed the idea of it being a hoax. This conveys his inability to take responsibility for his actions and shows he would rather discredit somebody than accept the consequences.

• Following the structure of Freytag’s Dramatic arc, each of the characters has their own individual climax. Gerald’s falling action, is perhaps the most prominent with a moment of final suspense and doubt at if he is going to accept his actions for responsibility and side with ‘the famous younger generation’ or stick to the capitalist sentiments of his new business partner.

• Like Mr Birling, Gerald wants to turn everything back to normal and return to being the ‘son in law’ Mr Birling always wanted and overlook the fact the had an affair. He does this through offering Sheila back the ring, however she states she must ‘think about it’. For Sheila to accept him, he must not be ‘the son in law’ Mr Birling always wanted and adapt his attitude and responsibilities to see that the way he acted, whilst arguably the best out of all the characters, was still unacceptable. However, he does not accept his moral responsibilities.