An Inspector Calls Quotes (important)

'The Titanic...absolutely unsinkable.'

Mr Birling: dramatic irony about development.

'Germans don't want war.'

Mr Birling: dramatic irony about conflict.

'Nice, well-behaved family.'

Mr Birling: dramatic irony about his family.

'Community and all that nonsense.'

Mr Birling: community/ Capitalism.

'A man has to... look after himself.'

Mr Birling: responsibility/ Capitalism.

'Girls of that class.'

Mrs Birling: class difference/ prejudice.

'I did nothing I'm ashamed of.'

Mrs Birling: lack of responsibility.

'As if a girl of that sort would refuse money.'

Mrs. Birling: preconception/ prejudice.

'...famous younger generation who know it all.'

Mrs. Birling: youth vs. age.

'We helped to kill her.'

Eric: responsibility.

'Beginning...to pretend that nothing much has happened.'

Eric: young vs. old.

'As if she were an animal...not a person.'

Eric: social..class.

'You might have done better for yourself socially.'

Gerald: social attitudes/ class.

'We're respectable citizens not criminals.'

Gerald: class.

'Everything's alright now Sheila. (holds up ring.) What about this ring?'

Gerald: change/ ignorance.

'I'm rather more - upset - by this business than I probably appear to be.'

Gerald: responsibility/ change.

'It frightens me the way you talk.'

Sheila: young vs old.

'Don't be childish Sheila.'

Mrs Birling/ Sheila: generation gap

'I know I'm to blame.'

Sheila: responsibility.

'These girls aren't cheap labour-they're people.'

Sheila: class/ social attitudes.

'(she hands him the ring.)'

Sheila: change.

'All intertwined with our lives.'

Inspector: responsibility.

'And what happened to her afterwards may have driven her to suicide. A chain of events.'

Inspector: cause and effect.

'Public men have responsibilities as well as privileges.'

Inspector: class and responsibility.

'Millions and millions of Eva Smiths.'

Inspector: social responsibility.

'We are members of one body.'

Inspector: responsibility/ socialism

'If men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish. Good night."

Inspector: class/ responsibility/ socialism

'...we've been had...it makes all the difference.'

Mr. Birling: lack of social and personal responsibility.