An Inspector Calls - Mr Birling Flashcards
Man of Business
“I’m talking as a hard-headed practical man of business”
About War
‘you’ll hear some people say war is Inevitable … fiddlesticks!’
The titanic
‘The Titanic – she sails next week…and unsinkable, absolutely
unsinkable.’
Birlings Knighthood
“I gather there’s a very good chance of a knighthood”
What Men have to do in society
“A man has to make his own way – has to look after himself – and his
family too, of course”
Birling angry at the inspector
“(rather impatiently) Horrid business. But I don’t understand why you
should come here.”
The community
“you’d think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were
all mixed up like bees in a hive – community and all that nonsense.”
Birling bragging about the people he knows
“I was an alderman for years – and Lord Mayor two years ago – and
I’m still on the Bench – so I know the Brumley police offers pretty well”
Birling trying to be right
“there’s every excuse for what your mother and I did”
Insults socialists
“Probably a Socialist or some sort of crank”
Mocks the younger generation
“Now look at the pair of them- the famous younger generation who
know it all. And they can’t even take a joke-”
Description of Mr. Birling
Arthur Birling is a heavy-looking,
rather portentous man in this middle fifties with fairly easy
manners but rather provincial in this speech.
