An Inspector Calls : Themes

Question 1

What points could you make about responsibility

Answer 1

1. The message of the play is that we should take responsibility for our actions.
2. We are all responsible for each other (Inspector’s speech).
   3) We should have a social conscience.
   4) It is the socialist view that we should care about each other.

Question 2

Key quotes about responsibility

Answer 2

“Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges.” P195
“ One Eva Smith has gone - but there are millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, and what we think and say and do.” P207

Question 3

What points could you make about gender

Answer 3

1. The women in the play don’t have jobs or are low class workers, they aren’t influential in society.
2. Eva Smith is used by Gerald and Eric.
3. The Birlings expect different things from Sheila and Eric.
4. Men could do what they wanted (Mr Birling forgives Gerald and wants to cover up for Eric.)
5. Marriage was seen as a business deal.

Question 4

Key quotes about gender

Answer 4

“When you’re married, you’ll realise that men with important work to do sometimes have to spend all their time and energy on their business. You’ll have to get used to that, just as I had.”
Gerald: “Why should you? It’s bound to be unpleasant and disturbing”
Inspector: “And you think young women ought to be protected against unpleasant and disturbing things?” P183
Gerald: “She was young and pretty and warm-hearted - and intensely grateful. I became at once the most important person in her life” P191

Question 5

What points could you make about the generation gap

Answer 5

1. The older generation had not changed by the end of the play.
2. Sheila and Eric begin to stand on their own two feet and are not as impacted by their parent’s influence.
3. The younger generation drive social change.

Question 6

Key quotes about the generation gap

Answer 6

“Well, my dear, they’re so damned exasperating. They just won’t try to understand our position or to see the difference between a lot of stuff like this coming out in a private and a downright public scandal” (Birling)
Eric : (shouting) “And I say the girl’s dead and we all helped to kill her - and that’s what matters.”
Sheila: “You began to learn something. And now you’ve stopped. You’re ready to go on in the same old way?”
Birling: “And you’re not eh?”
Sheila: “ No, because I remember what he said, how he looked and what he made me feel. Fire and blood and anguish. And it frightens me the way you talk, and I can’t listen to any more of it” P220

Question 7

What points could you make about social class

Answer 7

1. Mrs Birling considers the lower classes incapable of the same morals and feelings as the higher classes.
2. Higher classes have all the power.
3. Social class is very important to the older generation and the higher classes.
4. Sheila used her influence to get Eva fired.
5. Eva defies stereotype.

Question 8

Key quotations for social class

Answer 8

” I have an idea that your mother - Lady Croft… Feels you might have done better for yourself socially.”
“There are a lot of young women living that sort of existence in every city and big town in this country, miss Birling. If there weren’t, the factories and warehouses wouldn’t know where to look for cheap labour. Ask your father.” P117
“ As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money!” P199

Question 9

What are the 4 key themes in AIC

Answer 9

Responsibility
Gender
The generation gap
Social class