An Inspector Calls Flashcards
“Edna, the parlourmaid”
Edna represents the female working class at the time
“of the dessert plates and champagne glasses,
etc, and then replacing them with decanter of port, cigar
box and cigarettes. Port glasses are already on the table”
Shows the Birlings wealth as they have a lot of different dishes and cutlery for their celebration and have enough money for clothes of the period
“All five are in evening dress of the period”
Shows their wealth as they have enough money for clothes of the period
Arthur Birling is a heavy-looking,
rather portentous man in this middle fifties with fairly easy
manners but rather provincial in this speech.
Shows that Mr.Birling may have come from a working class family but has moved up the ranks.
His wife is about
fifty, a rather cold woman and her husband’s social superior.
Shows that Sybil Birling shows not a lot of emotion and is quite higher in her ranks than her husband
Sheila is a pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with
life and rather excited.
Shows that the celebration is about her as she is the most excited and can be compared to Eric
Gerald Croft is an attractive chap
about thirty, rather too manly to be a dandy but very much
the well-bred young man-about-town.
He seems quite rich as he has money for expensive clothes and well-bred suggests he comes from a richer family than the Birlings
Eric is in his early
twenties, not quite at ease, half shy, half assertive.
Eric can be compared to his sister but more antisocial. Eric could be foreshadowing his unease later in the play.
When was it set?
An evening in Spring 1912
The lighting
The lighting should be pink and intimate but when the inspector arrives it should be brighter and harder
