An Inspector Calls Character Quotes

Question 1

Inspector Goole

Answer 1

• “We are members of one body, we are responsible for each other”
• “Because 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”
• “Pink and intimate” “Brighter and harder”
• “I never take offence” “I don’t play golf”
• “Goole”
• “Fire and blood and anguish”

Question 2

Mr Birling

Answer 2

• “Giving us the port Edna? You ought to like this port Gerald, as a matter of fact, Finchley told me it is the exact same port your Father gets from him”
• “As if we were all mixed up like bees in a hive - community and all that nonsense”
• “Hard- headed business man” “hard-headed practical man of business”
• “A man has to make his own way - has to look after himself”
• “Keep labour costs down”
• “The Germans don’t want war” “Fiddlesticks” “Unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable”
• “Broke out and had a bit of fun sometimes”
• “There is every excuse for what your mother and I did”

Question 3

Eric

Answer 3

• “Half shy, half assertive”
• “squiffy”
• “In that state when a chap easily turns nasty”
• “And that’s when it happened. and I don’t even remember - that’s the hellish thing”
• “Not the kind of father a chap could go to when he’s in trouble”
• “We did her in alright”
• “Its what happened to the girl and what we did to her that matters”

Question 4

Gerald

Answer 4

• “Easy, well-bred young man-about-town”
• “I don’t come into this suicide business”
• “Dough faces” “hard eyes” “big dark eyes”
• “I suppose it was inevitable. She was young and pretty”
• “I didn’t install her there to make love to her… I didn’t ask for anything in return”
• “She didn’t blame me at all, I wish to got she had now”
• “In a low troubled tone”
• “Distressed”
• “Now what about this ring Sheila?” “everything is alright now”

Question 5

Sheila

Answer 5

• “Mummy” “Daddy”
• “Child” “Childish”
• “Never let it out of my sight”
• “I think miss Birling ought to be excused”
• “You fool - he knows”
• “you’re forgetting I’m supposed to be engaged to the hero”
• “Mother” “Father”
• “Yes she is, why?”
• “But that won’t bring Eva Smith back to life, will it?”
• “Fire, blood, and anguish”

Question 6

Mrs Birling

Answer 6

• “Her husbands social superior”
• “Arthur you’re not supposed to say such things” “Now, stop it you two” “Don’t keep Gerald in here too long”
• “A trifle impertinent”
• “No, why should I?”
• *Defends and dodges questions through entire of act 2
• “They lie” “They accept stolen money” “they are to blame for their own situation”

Question 7

Eva Smith

Answer 7

• “Eva Smith”
• “There are millions and millions millions of Eva Smith’s”
• “Daisy Renton”
• “Lively good-looking girl” “very pretty girl with big dark eyes” “She had been pretty - very pretty”
• “Mrs Birling”