An Inspector Calls Quotes Flashcards
Mr Birling: ‘Germans don’t want war.’
dramatic irony about conflict.
Mr Birling: ‘The Titanic…absolutely unsinkable.’
dramatic irony about development.
Mr Birling: ‘Nice, well-behaved family.’
dramatic irony about his family.
Mr Birling: ‘Community and all that nonsense.’
community/ Capitalism.
Mr Birling: ‘A man has to… look after himself.’
responsibility/ Capitalism.
Mrs Birling: ‘Girls of that class.’
class difference/ prejudice.
Mrs Birling: ‘I did nothing I’m ashamed of.’
lack of responsibility.
Mrs Birling: ‘I did nothing I’m ashamed of.’
lack of responsibility.
Mrs Birling: ‘As if a girl of that sort would refuse money.’
preconception/ prejudice.
Mrs Birling: ‘…famous younger generation who know it all.’
youth vs. age.
Eric: ‘We helped to kill her.’
responsibility.
Eric: ‘Beginning…to pretend that nothing much has happened.’
young vs. old.
Eric: ‘As if she were an animal…not a person.’
social class.
Gerald: ‘You might have done better for yourself socially.’
social attitudes/ class.
Gerald: ‘We’re respectable citizens not criminals.’
class.
Gerald: ‘Everything’s alright now Sheila. (holds up ring.) What about this ring?’
change/ ignorance.
Gerald: ‘I’m rather more - upset - by this business than I probably appear to be.’
responsibility/ change.
Sheila: ‘It frightens me the way you talk.’
young vs old.
Mrs Birling/ Sheila: ‘Don’t be childish Sheila.’
generation gap
Sheila: ‘I know I’m to blame.’
responsibility.
Sheila: ‘These girls aren’t cheap labour-they’re people.’
class/ social attitudes.
Sheila: ‘(she hands him the ring.)’
change.
Inspector: ‘All intertwined with our lives.’
responsibility.
Inspector: ‘And what happened to her afterwards may have driven her to suicide. A chain of events.’
cause and effect.
Inspector: ‘Public men have responsibilities as well as privileges.’
class and responsibility.
Inspector: ‘Millions and millions of Eva Smiths.’
social responsibility.
Inspector: ‘We are members of one body.’
responsibility/ socialism
Inspector: ‘If men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish. Good night.’
class/ responsibility/ socialism
Mr Birling: ‘…we’ve been had…it makes all the difference.’
lack of social and personal responsibility.
Mr Birling: ‘I refused, of course.’
community/ Capitalism.
Mr Birling: ‘I discharged her’
blunt description of sacking Eva Smith.
SD Mrs Birling: (Mrs Birling enters, briskly and self-confidently, quite out of key with the little scene)
not intimidated by the inspector and is trying to put on a good front for the family.
Mrs Birling: ‘Unlike the other three, I did nothing I’m ashamed of (…) you have no power to make me change my mind.’
not only deflects responsibility but she also puts the responsibility onto her family. theme of responsibility.
Mr Birling: ‘As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money!’
shows his negative stereotypical view of the lower class - especially girls.
Shelia: ‘Look - mummy - isn’t it a beauty?’
‘Mummy’= before the change. Seems shallow and immature.
Sheila: ‘By these girls aren’t cheap labour - they’re people’
challenges her Fathers socialist views and underpayment of the workers.
Gerald: ‘(Distressed) My God!… I’ve suddenly realized (…) - that she’s dead-‘
shows shock. It implies he really did care for Eva.
Inspector: ‘We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other’
his final speech. Socialist ideas metaphor for every part working together for one cause.
Sheila: (Miserably) ‘So I’m really responsible?’
realises that her actions have consequences.
Eric: ‘I left ‘em talking about clothes again (…) Women are potty about ‘em’
gender inequality/ clothes.
Mr Birling: ‘there’ll be a public scandal - unless we’re lucky - and who
here will suffer from that more than I will?’
theme of reputation and social class.
Sheila: ‘You began to learn something. And now you’ve stopped. You’re ready to go on in the same old way’
theme of the generation gap and unchanging older Birlings.
