Act 2 - Key Quotes Flashcards
“We really must stop these silly pretences”
- Sheila
This shows how she has matured and has changed her views.
This links to upper class people being so worried about apperance and reputation.
“I’m afraid you’ll say something… you’ll be sorry for afterwards”
- Sheila
She is trying to warn her mother.
“You and I aren’t the same people who sat down to dinner”
- Sheila to Gerald
This shows how much Sheila has matured.
She doesn’t want to spend her life with someone she feels she doesn’t know.
She doesn’t care about business deals unlike her father.
“Public men, Mrs Birling,have their responsibilities as well as their privileges”
- Inspector Goole
He is acting as a mouth piece for Priestly, who was angry that capitalists and upper class men don’t care about the effects their actions have on the lower classes.
“It’s you - and not the Inspector”
-Mrs Birling to Sheila
This shows a crack in their ‘perfect family’ facade they have put up.
“ You know… that my husband was Lord Mayor only two years ago and that he’s still a magistrate”
-Mrs Birling
This shows how upper class people expect to be treated differently and expected lower classes to bow before them.
Priestly highlights the wrong in the class system
“She only had herself to blame”
-Mrs Birling
This shows that she accepts no responsibility for her actions and that she only cares about her reputation and not about how other people are affected by her actions.
“You seem to have made a great impression on this child”
- Mrs Birling
This shows she doesn’t respect Sheila and treats her like a child.
This also shows that she doesn’t believe this will change how Sheila thinks.
“Go and look for the father of the child. It’s his responsibility”
- Mrs Birling
She puts the blame on anybody but herself.
She only stops her rant when she realises that the father is her child.
