Character essay plans AIC

Question 1

The Inspector

Answer 1

1 - socialism
- “no thank you … I’m on duty”
- “you’re offering the money at the wrong time”
- “it’s better to ask for the world than to take it”
2 - WW1 + WW2
- “burnt her inside out, of course”
- “a girl has just died” “a police inspector’s on his way”
- “if men will not learn that lesson then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish”
3 - Class system
- “you used the power you had … to punish the girl”
- “you think young women ought to be protected against unpleasant and disturbing things”
- “we are all members of one body”

Question 2

Mr Birling

Answer 2

1 - capitalist
- “the germans don’t war”
- “unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable”
- “lower costs and higher prices”
2 - class system
- “heavy looking”
- “if you don’t come down sharply on some of these people, they’d soon be asking for the Earth”
- “there’s a very good chance of knighthood”
3 - social responsibility
- “it has nothing to do whatsoever with the wretched girls suicide”
- “there’s every excuse for what both your mother and I did”
- “it turned out unfortunately that’s all”

Question 3

Gerald Croft

Answer 3

1 - treatment of women
- “Is it the one you wanted me to have?”
- “a favourite haunt of women of the town”
- “Miss Birling ought to be excused anymore of this questioning, she’s had a long, tiring and exciting day”
2 - class system
- “Birling’s and Crofts can join together!”
- “we’re respectable citizens and not criminals”
- “by that time Daisy knew it was coming to an end”
3 - socialism + older generation
- “lower costs and higher prices” “hear, hear”
- “everything’s all right now Sheila”

Question 4

Mrs Birling

Answer 4

1 - class divides
- “I don’t suppose for a moment we can understand why that girl committed suicide. girls of that class-“
- “prejudiced me against her case”
- “Arthur you’re not supposed to say such things”
2 - treatment of women
- “go into the drawing room and leave you men”
- “men with important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time and energy on business”
- “well, really! Alderman Meggarty”
3 - socialism and the older gen
- “I’ve done nothing wrong and you know it”
- “I did my duty”
- “go and look for the father of the child. It’s his responsibility”

Question 5

Eric Birling

Answer 5

1 - class system
- “[familiarity with quick, heavy drinking]”
- “hate these fat old, tarts around the town” “ones I see your respectable friends with”
- “she refused to take anymore”
2 - treatment of women
- “she wasn’t the regular type”
- “I insisted - it seems”
- “she told me she was going to have a baby”
3 - socialism and the younger gen
- “why shouldn’t they try for higher wages?”
- “[involuntary] My God”
- “The girl’s dead and we all helped to kill her - that’s what matters”

Question 6

Sheila Birling

Answer 6

1 - treatment of women
- “is it the one you wanted me to have?”
- “you ought to be saying it to me”
- “[she hands him the ring back]
2 - class divides
- “can’t help thinking about this girl - destroying herself so horribly - and I’ve been so happy tonight”
- “I’d persuade mother to close our account with them”
- “You talk as if we were responsible”
3 - socialism and the younger gen
- “but these girls aren’t cheap labour - they’re people”
- “you’re just beginning to pretend all over again”

Question 7

Eva Smith

Answer 7

1 - treatment of women
- “I insisted - it seems”
- “young, fresh and charming”
- “she had only herself to blame”
2 - class divides
- “twenty four” “very pretty” pretty girl in her early twenties”
- “she died hating life” “very pleased with life”
- “by that time Daisy knew it was coming to an end”
- “as if a girl of sort would ever refuse money”
3 - capitalism + worker exploitation
- “lower costs and higher prices”
- “she’d had a lot to say … she had to go”
- “millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths”