An Inspector Calls

Question 1

When was AIC written?

Answer 1

1945

Question 2

When was AIC set?

Answer 2

1912

Question 3

Arthur Birling

Answer 3

represents capitalist businessman

Question 4

Sybil Birling

Answer 4

social superior of Arthur Birling
Represents the upper-class, socially prominent wife

Question 5

Sheila Birling

Answer 5

represent impressionable, socially aware younger generation and the feminist movement

Question 6

Eric Birling

Answer 6

represents impressionable, socially-aware younger generation and the consequences of toxic masculine culture

Question 7

Gerald Croft

Answer 7

socially superior to the Birlings
represents privilege, dominance of upper classes and patriarchy

Question 8

Inspector Google

Answer 8

represents ideals of socialism and social responsibility, and the ideal justice system

Question 9

Eva Smith

Answer 9

neglected lower-classes

Question 10

“Good solid furniture […] champagne glasses […] evening dress”

Answer 10

These are all symbols associated with wealth and indicates this is the house of the “prosperous manufacturer” and creates sense of luxury
Priestley’s audience of 1945 would be suspicious of the upper classes as after two world wars the class system in the Uk had experience major changes and left people more cautious of the authorities

Question 11

“Pink and intimate” lighting

Answer 11

implies people who are blissfully ignorant of the struggles of the wider world

Question 12

“in twenty or thirty years’ time … you’ll be living in a world that’ll have forgotten all these “Capital versus Labour agitations and all these silly little war scares@

Answer 12

dramatic irony
only envisions a world of personal freedom and wealth, reflecting on the life he currently has
Birling’s cruel dismal of the serious threat of war would turn the audience against him as of 1945 they would have just experienced it

Question 13

“We can’t let these Bernard Shaws and H.G. Wellses do all the talking”
“But the way some of these cranks talk and write now, you’d think everybody has to look after everybody else”

Answer 13

dramatic irony marks Birling as an unempathetic, unlikeable man
insulting language to belittle people
Famous socialists
doesn’t see them as viable opposition however Labour won by a Landslide in 1945 against Winston Churchill’s conservative party
Birling’s blatant optimism, ignorance and arrogance would make the audience resent him

Question 14

The Titanic […] unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable

Answer 14

Priestley uses the Titanic as a symbol of Capitalist ideals
represents strength luxury progress. The fact it sinks shows how Priestley feels about this system of government

Question 15

“A man has to make his own way - has to look after himself […]. But the way some of these cranks talk and write now, you’d think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive - community and all that nonsense”

Answer 15

Mr Birling’s ideal of a ‘self-made man’ is the perfect summary of Capitalist Thinking
Birling thinks highly of his own experience, repressing how the upper classes and Capitalists in 1912 believed themselves to be infallible
‘’community and all that nonsense’’ - above caring for others
rejects responsibilities and fails to recognises that everyone in society relies on each other for progress and a good standard of living
simile ‘’ bees in a hive’’ is animalistic, attempting to portray Socialism as primitive and demeaning

Question 16

Q: What is the role of the Inspector in “An Inspector Calls” regarding responsibility?

Answer 16

A: The Inspector serves to highlight that all actions have consequences and demands that characters be held accountable for their actions, urging them to take responsibility for others.