An Inspector Calls Quotes

Question 1

Mr Birling: ‘Germans don’t want war.’

Answer 1

dramatic irony about conflict.

Question 2

Mr Birling: ‘The Titanic…absolutely unsinkable.’

Answer 2

dramatic irony about development.

Question 3

Mr Birling: ‘Nice, well-behaved family.’

Answer 3

dramatic irony about his family.

Question 4

Mr Birling: ‘Community and all that nonsense.’

Answer 4

community/ Capitalism.

Question 5

Mr Birling: ‘A man has to… look after himself.’

Answer 5

responsibility/ Capitalism.

Question 6

Mrs Birling: ‘Girls of that class.’

Answer 6

class difference/ prejudice.

Question 7

Mrs Birling: ‘I did nothing I’m ashamed of.’

Answer 7

lack of responsibility.

Question 8

Mrs Birling: ‘I did nothing I’m ashamed of.’

Answer 8

lack of responsibility.

Question 9

Mrs Birling: ‘As if a girl of that sort would refuse money.’

Answer 9

preconception/ prejudice.

Question 10

Mrs Birling: ‘…famous younger generation who know it all.’

Answer 10

youth vs. age.

Question 11

Eric: ‘We helped to kill her.’

Answer 11

responsibility.

Question 12

Eric: ‘Beginning…to pretend that nothing much has happened.’

Answer 12

young vs. old.

Question 13

Eric: ‘As if she were an animal…not a person.’

Answer 13

social class.

Question 14

Gerald: ‘You might have done better for yourself socially.’

Answer 14

social attitudes/ class.

Question 15

Gerald: ‘We’re respectable citizens not criminals.’

Answer 15

class.

Question 16

Gerald: ‘Everything’s alright now Sheila. (holds up ring.) What about this ring?’

Answer 16

change/ ignorance.

Question 17

Gerald: ‘I’m rather more - upset - by this business than I probably appear to be.’

Answer 17

responsibility/ change.

Question 18

Sheila: ‘It frightens me the way you talk.’

Answer 18

young vs old.

Question 19

Mrs Birling/ Sheila: ‘Don’t be childish Sheila.’

Answer 19

generation gap

Question 20

Sheila: ‘I know I’m to blame.’

Answer 20

responsibility.

Question 21

Sheila: ‘These girls aren’t cheap labour-they’re people.’

Answer 21

class/ social attitudes.

Question 22

Sheila: ‘(she hands him the ring.)’

Answer 22

change.

Question 23

Inspector: ‘All intertwined with our lives.’

Answer 23

responsibility.

Question 24

Inspector: ‘And what happened to her afterwards may have driven her to suicide. A chain of events.’

Answer 24

cause and effect.

Question 25

Inspector: ‘Public men have responsibilities as well as privileges.’

Answer 25

class and responsibility.

Question 26

Inspector: ‘Millions and millions of Eva Smiths.’

Answer 26

social responsibility.

Question 27

Inspector: ‘We are members of one body.’

Answer 27

responsibility/ socialism

Question 28

Inspector: ‘If men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish. Good night.’

Answer 28

class/ responsibility/ socialism

Question 29

Mr Birling: ‘…we’ve been had…it makes all the difference.’

Answer 29

lack of social and personal responsibility.

Question 30

Mr Birling: ‘I refused, of course.’

Answer 30

community/ Capitalism.

Question 31

Mr Birling: ‘I discharged her’

Answer 31

blunt description of sacking Eva Smith.

Question 32

SD Mrs Birling: (Mrs Birling enters, briskly and self-confidently, quite out of key with the little scene)

Answer 32

not intimidated by the inspector and is trying to put on a good front for the family.

Question 33

Mrs Birling: ‘Unlike the other three, I did nothing I’m ashamed of (…) you have no power to make me change my mind.’

Answer 33

not only deflects responsibility but she also puts the responsibility onto her family. theme of responsibility.

Question 34

Mr Birling: ‘As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money!’

Answer 34

shows his negative stereotypical view of the lower class - especially girls.

Question 35

Shelia: ‘Look - mummy - isn’t it a beauty?’

Answer 35

‘Mummy’= before the change. Seems shallow and immature.

Question 36

Sheila: ‘By these girls aren’t cheap labour - they’re people’

Answer 36

challenges her Fathers socialist views and underpayment of the workers.

Question 37

Gerald: ‘(Distressed) My God!… I’ve suddenly realized (…) - that she’s dead-‘

Answer 37

shows shock. It implies he really did care for Eva.

Question 38

Inspector: ‘We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other’

Answer 38

his final speech. Socialist ideas metaphor for every part working together for one cause.

Question 39

Sheila: (Miserably) ‘So I’m really responsible?’

Answer 39

realises that her actions have consequences.

Question 40

Eric: ‘I left ‘em talking about clothes again (…) Women are potty about ‘em’

Answer 40

gender inequality/ clothes.

Question 41

Mr Birling: ‘there’ll be a public scandal - unless we’re lucky - and who
here will suffer from that more than I will?’

Answer 41

theme of reputation and social class.

Question 42

Sheila: ‘You began to learn something. And now you’ve stopped. You’re ready to go on in the same old way’

Answer 42

theme of the generation gap and unchanging older Birlings.