Notes on An Inspector Calls

Character Descriptions

• Arthur Birling:

  • "A heavy-looking, rather portentous man in his middle fifties with fairly easy manners but rather provincial in his speech."

• Sybil Birling:

  • "His wife is about fifty, a rather cold woman and her husband's social superior."

• Sheila Birling:

  • "Sheila is a pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited."

• Eric Birling:

  • "Eric is in his early twenties, not quite at ease, half shy, half assertive."

• Gerald Croft:

  • "Gerald Croft is an attractive chap about thirty, rather too manly to be a dandy but very much the easy well-bred young man-about-town."

• Inspector Goole:

  • "The Inspector need not be a big man but he creates at once an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness… He speaks carefully, weightily, and has a disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person he addresses before actually speaking."

Key Quotes and Themes

• Arthur Birling:

  • "The Titanic - she sails next week… Unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable?"

    • Themes: Dramatic irony, hubris, ignorance.

    • Genre: Political satire/dramatic irony.

    • Technique: Irony used to undermine his authority and show how unreliable capitalist thinking is.

  • "There'll be a public scandal - unless we're lucky and who here will suffer from that more than I will??"

    • Themes: Reputation, selfishness.

    • Relevance: Shows his primary concern is his social standing and potential damage to his reputation rather than genuine remorse.

  • "She'd had a lot to say-far too much so she had to go"

    • Themes: Class oppression, power, injustice

• Gerald Croft:

  • "I suppose we're all nice people now?"

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

    • Themes: Gender, denial, lack of change.

    • Genre: Post-war criticism/feminist critique.

• Sheila Birling:

  • "I suppose we're all nice people now?" (sarcastically)

    • Themes: Responsibility, irony, denial.

    • Genre: Morality play/character transformation.

  • "It frightens me the way you talk."

    • Themes: Change, fear of moral blindness.

    • Genre: Post-war morality play.

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

    • Themes: Class, gender, social conscience.

    • Genre: Character transformation/feminist angle.

  • "The point is, you don't seem to have learnt anything?"

    • Themes: Growth vs. ignorance, generational divide.

    • Genre: Morality play/Bildungsroman (coming-of-age).

• Eric Birling:

  • "You're beginning to pretend now that nothing's really happened at all?"

    • Themes: Guilt, morality, generational divide.

    • Genre: Psychological realism.

  • "I wasn't in love with her or anything - but I liked her?"

    • Themes: Gender, exploitation, immaturity.

    • Genre: Social realism.

  • "Why shouldn't they try for higher wages??"

    • Themes: Social Justice, youthful Idealism

• Inspector Goole:

  • "Each of you helped to kill her. Remember that. Never forget it?"

    • Themes: Collective responsibility, guilt.

    • Genre: Didactic drama/moral confrontation.

  • "This girl killed herself and died a horrible death. But each of you helped to kill her. Remember that."

  • "We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other."

    • Themes: Social responsibility, socialism, morality.

    • Genre: Didactic drama/morality play.

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

    • Themes: Power, responsibility, ethics

  • "There are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us."

    • Themes: Social responsibility, collective identity.

    • Genre: Allegory/socialist message.

• Arthur Birling (about the Inspector):

  • "Probably a Socialist or some sort of crank."

    • Themes: Capitalism vs. socialism, prejudice.

    • Genre: Political allegory/class conflict.

• Sybil Birling:

  • "Girls of that class."

    • Themes: Class prejudice, gender, elitism.

    • Genre: Realist drama/critique of Edwardian society.

• Arthur Birling:

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

    • Themes: Capitalism, Individualism, selfishness.

    • Genre: Social drama, political allegory.

• Gerald Croft (Ironically):

  • "You seem to be a nice well-behaved family?"

    • Themes: Hypocrisy, appearances vs. reality.

    • Genre: Dramatic irony/realist drama.