An Inspector Calls Flashcards
GERALD [laughs]: You seem to be a nice well-behaved family -
BIRLING: We think we are -
Act One
Dramatic irony, conveys how Birling and Gerald initially get on well, bond is strengthened by the time the inspector has finished interrogating them
BIRLING
But take my word for it, you youngsters - and I’ve learnt in the good hard school of experience - that a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own - and -
We hear the sharp ring of a front door bell.
Act One
Birling takes on an individualist and capitalist point of view here as he describes (and how Priestley shows) the juxtaposed points of view of the elderly and the younger generations.
When the socialist viewed inspector knocks it instantly kicks off the opposite views that are highlighted in the play
INSPECTOR
… what happened to her then may have determined what happened to her afterwards, and what happened to her afterwards may have driven her to suicide. A chain of events.
Act One
States the moral responsibilities that the human race faces when it comes to one another’s survival and how we are all equally responsible for one another and the choices we make, highlights how we everything we do sets off a chain reaction.
SHEILA
[laughs rather hysterically]
Why - you fool - he knows. Of course he knows. And I hate to think how much he knows that we don’t know yet. You’ll see. You’ll see. She looks at him almost in triumph.
Act One
Shows how Sheila is becoming more cynical of the inspector and how she deduces his personality out of him first, shows that the younger generation aren’t all wrong as once stated by Birling
INSPECTOR
She kept a rough sort of diary. And she said there that she had to go away and be quiet and remember “just to make it last longer.” She felt there’d never be anything as good again for her - so she had to make it last longer.
Act Two
Unusual and personal moment from the inspector, highlights how Eva smith might not be dead/might be a ghost etc. Priestley did this to let the actor/actress portraying him to delve into more character which ties into the fact that this is more play than it is novel.
BIRLING
You’ll apologize at once … I’m a public man -
INSPECTOR [massively]
Public men, Mr. Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges.
Act Two
Highlights how the inspector embodies the working class and reinstates the fact that Priestley wanted us to think about how we are all morally responsible for one another.
INSPECTOR
We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish. Good night.
Act Three
The inspectors final lines, socialist speech, makes the audience member reel at the fact that it foreshadows the first and Second World War
BIRLING
… we’ve been had … it makes all the difference.
GERALD
Of course!
SHEILA [bitterly]
I suppose we’re all nice people now.
Act Three
The older generation failed to learn their lesson that the inspector wanted them to think about, shows how the younger generation are more able to deal with certain responsibilities and how the older generation are corrupted by personal views/morals
BIRLING
A friend of mine went over this new liner last week - the Titanic - she sails next week - forty-six thousand eight hundred tons - forty-six thousand eight hundred tons - New York in five days - and every luxury - and unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable.
Act One
Conveys dramatic irony, refers to how Birlings own political ideology will “sink” as he is interrogated nice and hard by the inspector
