aic quotes

Question 1

is it the one you wanted me to have

Answer 1

the ring is a metaphor for a courting style of materialistic love, here in her need for reassurance by gerald shes showing how she relies on him for approval and how he will dictate her autonomy

Question 2

Now I really feel engaged

Answer 2

this is a deeply materialistic mindset and shows the hollow nature of her mariage, she does not love him for his character wether she only reaps the rewards of his company when met with something of physical value

Question 3

oh how horrible!

Answer 3

a clear sign of femenine compassion, despite her naive nature at her core as both a woman and a youth she has a real sense of empathy

Question 4

these girls aren’t cheap labour - they’re people

Answer 4

this is the earliest socialist statement, she openly commendms the key capitalsit values of a selfish egotistical strive for success despite being enveloped in a naivity, priestly is showing the receptibility of the youth to a needed societal change. using the terms girl and people humanises them deriving sympathy for both the socialist movement and sheilas character- girl somewhat gives youth and hence more empathy

Question 5

‘pretty?’ ‘i couldnt feel sorry for her’

Answer 5

sheila is a product of an enviroment that prioritises looks as the key factor to be physically attractive, and for her being deemed attractive is the most important thing as she must maintain her husbands loyalty- women had no votes, bank accounts or well paying jobs.
her assumption eva is well off based off of her looks shows the classist beauty standarsd, being pretty was what mattered- thats why gerald liked eva and not the ‘hard eyed dough faced woman’ whom he actually ‘hated’- but in order to maintain this you had to be able to afford cosmetics and clothing- likely why sheila was so harsh and possibly why sheila has sympathy for evas events.
goole interjects this with a harsh juxtopsotion alerting the audeince to the warped societal standard of questioning a dead girls appearance

Question 6

wed have to start all over again

Answer 6

sheila saying this has quite an abiguous meaning
it could show that even the young and deeply receptible youth- the proxy for the inspector- can stilll easily slip back into the comfort of capitalism and riches when complacant, triggering the cyclical ending as a warning sign
it could also show the change in sheila as she recognises that regardless of the truth behind the inspector she has changed morally and matured- meaning her previous warped view of gerlad no longer stands

Question 7

impertinence

Answer 7

a motif repeated by miss birlings, it has blantatly backwards connotations as it refers to the behaviour of inferiors and how societhy expects them to comply- hence acting as a metaphor for miss bs overalll backwards standards, sheila echos this multiple times at the beginning of the play showing her obedience and the damagning passing down of famiy views
later as an act of clear defiance sheila rejects it as ‘such a silly word’- this patronising tone mocks her mother and symbolises her new freedom

Question 8

(involanterily) my god!

Answer 8

eric clearly has in his core a real deep sense of compassion utterly vacant by his older peers- and we feel empathy for his volantary need to compress it as its viewed as a shunned femenine trait such as hysteria- meaning womb

Question 9

why shouldnt they try for higher wages?

Answer 9

eric is not as overtly socialist as his sister, but its clear as a youth hes able to visualise a moral form of capitalism based off of merit and hence a recepitbility towards socialism. he is a clear foil to his fathers behaviours

Question 10

thats when IT happened, i threatened to make a row

Answer 10

both of these have clear euphamistic colloquial language to soften the serverity of his actions, i thretaened is a very violent term but a row utterly softens the blow and downplays his actiosn, ‘IT’ leaves the serverity of the rape utterly up to the imagination in a way a visual description would be unforgivable

Question 11

i was in a state in which a chap easily turns nasty

Answer 11

chap is a third person idssociation from his actions, it downplays it and is so colloqial it soundsas if any man would be capable of rape. here he so blames the serverity on alchohol as he deems it easy to commi such as atrocity
nasty is euphamistic

Question 12

you dont understand anything, you never did, you never even tried

Answer 12

here the repetition and hyperbole shows erics naivity and feactured relationship with his nuclear maternal figure as it comes off as the kind of vast statemnts made by an angry teenager
we alsp get sympathy and a sense of juxatposed maturity as hes defying his family

Question 13

i hate those fat old tarts

Answer 13

eric is not that empathetic, he seeks out porisitues but has a masculine backwards view of women, he discorages non societal conforming ideals such as obesoty and aging- tarts is derogatory showing self loathing as hes after them

Question 14

i remember..

Answer 14

sympathy for eric here as its clear he frequently vsitis his actions and has a grasp of his immorality, hes haunted by what he did

Question 15

she treated me as if i were a kid

Answer 15

this subverts negative stereotypes of the lower class through evas moral prissiness- she pities him despite him being a rapist he knows nothing of scoities standards only the actions of the influence of older men, and its also sad for eva how she ahs to aid soemone who abuses her- a sad testament to the hopeless nature of her situation

Question 16

there are millions and millions of eva smiths and john smiths

Answer 16

with eva having no face and indeitty in the play, its clear she can represent any of the working class and they all have her struggles, eva and john are both very common names and smith is the popualrist name, bt also derrives from the labour job blacksmith showing that class sint a choice but a generational path.

Question 17

young and fresh

Answer 17

here gerald is able to mask his lust for a chivalrous saving of a fallen woman, young and frsh draws connoations to food- lust, but also youth and virginity. he is completely objectifiying her

Question 18

the name eva

Answer 18

eve is a biblical name, the upmost purity, she is the creator of all of humanity and similarly eva is the faace and symbol of the vast majoirty of britain. eve is hebrew for life which is a sad irony as eva kills herself, showing life is virtually hopeless. theres an uncanny warped view of society as eve is supposed to corrupt adam yet the men steal evas autonomy

Question 19

burnt her insides out

Answer 19

this is very visual uncanny imagery which makes the extremity of her symbolic death all the more gruesome, burn links with hell- suidcide is a coneemporary christian sin- so here we can see eva is unphased byb the prospect of hell as her life is so poor

Question 20

with dignity- mrs b

Answer 20

she discuses her charity not with an air of compassion but a pride that shows she only acts upon societal merit

Question 21

pretty and a good sport

Answer 21

men utterly objectify eva- eric and many see her looks as priotiy over her character, in fact they only pay attention to her over the other tarts because of this, a good sport is both euthamism to the sexual act but also a hunting term revealing the predatory nature

Question 22

ive just taken it in that shes dead

Answer 22

this wave of shock comes after his visual recout of her appearnace, so this shock could be more a shallow horror as he views her as nothing more than an object of his desire, but also the sadness being insupressable shows his real feelings as it was deemed overtly femenine to be sad

Question 23

man about town

Answer 23

this has two meanings, we know gerald is a well off and persoanble socialite which is a good persona but it also alludes to him being a darker and more intense character as hes phsyically about town but also mimicing the women about town at the palace bar

Question 24

i made her take some money

Answer 24

gerlad paints himself as chivalrous, masking his usage of prostitutes as charitable as possible however this is a very shallow lust driven idea and also its clear he does not wish to truly help her as a bit of money is a momentary action

Question 25

provinical in his speech

Answer 25

this is reflective of his lower class backgrounds as he is not fully accustomed to the desired ettiquette of the upper class, with his superior wife having to frequently correct his language despite her lesser position as a woman
we see his insecurity

Question 26

you ought to like this port gerald
same as your father gets

Answer 26

ought highlights the care and thought mr b has put into appeasing gerald due to his higher social positon
he is trying to emulate the actions of mr croft in order to prove himself socially parralel due to his wealth
despite being likely richer and aelder mr b is forced to hold upmost respect for gerald due to his position as higher in the class system
it also reveals the true meaning of the marriage, an act of self promotion for the birling name- when its clear mrs croft worries of geralds positon mr b tries to settle her by promise of his knighthood- titles weere all that seemed to matter

Question 27

as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive- community and all that nonsense

Answer 27

this is a simile that depicts a horribly backwards dissisal ofthe socialist prospects driven by the labour gov in the 1945 new election
bees are famously knwon for a strong communal aspect and a camraderie that is vastly admirable, and so for mr b to dehumanise society and pass it off with such a sharp exclamation shows his backwards phsycological state
many middle class watchers would empathise with his nature of being highly self concious due to his scrutiny for being socially mobile and so would check with themslves to work for change

Question 28

‘listen’ ‘remember’

Answer 28

here mr b is using instructive verbs to try and lecture the youth, revealing of his hubris as it seems that he deems himself a divine voice and certainly a source of greater information due to his hard working industrialist mindset
hes also trying to assert his dominence over the youths in order to keep the power dynamic and to convert them to his capitalist ideals by repressing critical thinking

Question 29

‘you boys’ ‘youngsters’

Answer 29

hes also trying to assert his dominence over the youths in order to keep the power dynamic and to convert them to his capitalist ideals by repressing critical thinking
he is openly patronising to the youths as he views their lack of hard work to get into a financially comfortable position as emasculating, this may stem from resentment as he is still trying to gain the societal respect of the old money families

Question 30

‘hard school of experience’

Answer 30

mr birling feels that the best way to mature and ahve a greater understanding of the world is through hard work, hipocritical as he views his own workers as liabilities between him and a greater profit, hes trying to emasculate the youths whom he may resent for their comfrotable upper class position due to birth rights.

Question 31

‘squiffy’- mrs bs reaction

Answer 31

very telling of how the upper older class are highly resistent to any form of modernisation or change that may threaten the victorian societal values they are a sole benefactor of, mrs b deems this slang like word and effeminate and it may also represent a new era of language that she wants to prevent the youth entering, hence why she scolds sheila for her usage

Question 32

‘dont’ ‘wont’- mrs b

Answer 32

this is showing of mrs bs and indeed the upper class and generation who are beneficial to the victorian societal standards resisitence to change, she sees an open minded attitude towards socialism as an act of submission to change and a sign of weakness, hence why she repeats these words at the inspector- she is indignant and unchangeable

Question 33

‘you have no power over me’

Answer 33

this links to how mrs b views changing of values and opening her mindset as an act of submission, she feels agreeung or indeed listening to the inspector indicates her weakness- it is apower dynamic, priestley is exposing how the upper class had concrete mindsets that could not easily be shifted

Question 34

‘naturally one of the things that prejudiced me against her..’

Answer 34

mrs birling is so confident in her backwards victorian societal values that she feels prejudice against the lower class is a birth right that she feels no shame in admitting to- indeed it is ‘natural’ a primative instict that she does not need question
one of the things implies that aside from her initial horror of her name being associated with the lower inferior class she has other causes for prejduice likely the girls class and gender

Question 35

‘i dont suppose for a moment we can understands why the girl comitted suicide, girls of that class..’

Answer 35

very telling quote on how the upper class view the mindsets of the lower inferior class.
she does not think they could remotely visualise nor relate to the struggles of eva as the mindsets of the lower class are indistinguishable and alien to those who she deems smarter and better like herself
the repeated usage of girl infantilises eva as thoguh she is an intelligent women with high struggles she is diminsihed to a child
‘that’ others the lower class and gives an air of distain and appall

Question 36

as you said father..

Answer 36

at the beginning of the play eric is under immense pressure to conform to his fathers expectations and indeed that of his ‘respectible friends’ makes eric a more sympathetic characteras hes just trying to acho the behaviours of other men as he is repressed to think criticalaly by his portentous and pompous patriarch

Question 37

what about the germans,
why shouldnt they try for higher wages

Answer 37

even at the beginning of the play we see eric as a young man has a much higher sense of justice and compassion than his father and even shows early signs of defiance

Question 38

pretty and excited

Answer 38

at the beginning of the novel we see how shallow and repressed younger upper class girls are even in a rapidly changing era for womens rights- sheila has no depth to her chracater

Question 39

‘pink’ lighting

Answer 39

shows how the birlings are living in a separated world from the rest of lower class victorian society, represnts rose coloured glasses

Question 40

youre not supposed to say such things

Answer 40

despite being unmoved by actual atrociities such as suicide and the death of her grand child- mrs birling cannot comply with societal change or normalising a bridge between classes, hence why she scolds her husband for complimenting the cook despite the fact she would usually wholey comply with his words as she is a submissive woman
shes hiporitical in this as she is with eric being made an example of as she carried a lower class man for the benefit of wealth yet does not want to endorse other forms of scoial mobility like the youths affairs with eva

Question 41

come down sharply

Answer 41

arthurs key motto is that a person has to make their way for themselves using hard work and an assertive mindset in order to climb socially, however due to the scrunity he faces from his old money peers such as the crofts and his wife he gains his desire for power and control through opressing his workers. he also does this as capitalism breeds greed and he wants the highest profits for himself now he is financially comfortable, meaning his workers are a liability more than somehting he wants to aid in success

Question 42

‘cold woman’

Answer 42

this is an oxymoron that villainises the character of mrs b so that the reader wouldve been immediately put off her morals. even in the 1940s the idea of a mother still drew heavy connotations to a warm nurturing woman, and so the idea of her being callous and cold is a direct juxtoposition of this, showing how her miopic backwards values are halting her ability to have humanity

Question 43

‘happiest day of my life’

Answer 43

reveals the shallow and cold nature of capitalism as the gain of societal respect and wealth is so central in mr birlings life that it matters more to him than the marriage of his daughter or indeed his own marriage, he views everything as transactional- such as his relationship with mr croft being ‘friendly rivals’ they are only mattering through business terminology

Question 44

‘unsinkable absolutely unsinkable’

Answer 44

this is obviosuly dramatic irony to show the incorrect nature of the capitalist mindset and how miopic it is that it leads him to wrongly predict the biggest events of the 20th century
however deeper the titanic can be seen as a metaphor for mr birlings unwavering confidence in the economy that he aided to raise as the indutrial revolution occured as he became noveau rich, his hubris leads him to believe that the capitalist system is unbreakable, much like the titanic a huge sign of advancements in that era. ironically of course the titanic sunk on its first voyage, symbolic of how priestley thought the fragile nature of the edwardian soceity would collapse

Question 45

‘carefully and weightily’

Answer 45

unlike mr birling who speaks ‘provinically’ and in large quantities of dramatic irony or mocking with no real substance, the antithesis in the insector is able to speak with caution and care relying on the depth of what he says over its length, he has no need to gain domience

Question 46

‘fire and blood and anguish’

Answer 46

this shows the omniscient nature of the inspector as he is predicting the demise of man if they keep being selfish and materialistic, as jesus warns about in the beatitudes
this has biblical connotations to hell as this seems to describe a relm of pure torture, whatever the religious orintation of the audience many would be shaken by the prospect of eternal suffering
they would be particually receptive to this fear as they had recently only a year or so prior faced as a city the horrors of the blitz attacks and the second world war, where fire blood and anguish were all demonstrated n the streets of london, this seems to be foreshadowing

Question 47

we are all part of one body

Answer 47

this is ctually a quote from genesis which would be very recognisable to a 2pth century audience, here prietley would both be reminding the audienc eof the morality and agape that the bible teaches or implying that the inspector is a divine power teaching upmost morality and hence implying that socialism is a god approved political stance

Question 48

lower costs and higher prices

Answer 48

this is a rough summary of everything priestley deems wrong with the greedy and miopic capitalist mindset.
despite preaching the importance of hard labour that will result in ones prosperity like himself, mr birling does not attempt to aid his workers towards a better life and instead dehumanises them as csots, a liability in his own perosnal journey for a greater profit than he already comfortably has

Question 49

several hundred women
keep changing

Answer 49

this is very telling how mr birling views his staff. he is exploiting the economic crisis of victorian scoeiy, he knows his workers are despartae and in obscene poverty but instead of aiding them uses this as he knows they will comply to low wages. several hundred is vauge and shows how he does not view them as individual beings nor does he take the time to employ or care what they are doing. women also shows the levels of exploitative mr birling is as he is aware that lower class women are the most vunerable group and yet choses to act like that to them
the fact they keep changing means that he has no shame in making women he deems liabilities redundant

Question 50

i became the most important thing

Answer 50

this superlative shows how easily gentlemn are able to dictate the autonomy of lower class vunerable women, though gerald is just using eva for the transactional matter of sexual gratfication, she is so hopeless in her life that he becomes the center of her life despite his abusive nature

Question 51

ill never never do it again

Answer 51

the repeition of never shows how sheila is emphasising her regret and guilt, abeit a bit naive she still has a youthful compassion that means shes very receptible to the atrocities of the tragedy

Question 52

youre preteending everythings as it was before

Answer 52

this is a cyclical structure as the scenery and actions in the play from this from sheila begin to mimic that of the opening scene, sheila is the inspectors willing proxy upon his departure so this could be her warning them and the audience of the dangers of complacncy

Question 53

impression of massiveness

Answer 53

though he is dark and plain in appearance the inspector does not need to overcompensate as the depth of his character is no facade meaning he can simply dominate a room effortlessly

Question 54

im on duty

Answer 54

here it begins the inspectors clear moral superiority over the birlings, he rejects mr bs offer of alchohol- a motif thriughout the play of something that drives characters to corruption- as it may corrupt his character and he has a duty to uphold
we see the idea of duty return throughout often warped through the eyes of the miopic birlings, for example mrs b feels her duty is the charity comittee that she rules unfairly and uses to assert her dominence over vunerable young women