English Lit Flashcards
What the significant of stage direction
The lighting should be pink and intiamte and it exposes them until the inspector arrives than its brighter and harder
What ways do priestly present Mr Birling as being closer to Gerald Croft than his own daughter and how could thus link toy socialsit or capitalist beliefs
Mr birling says “your like the son in law ive never had” but in a way through a capitalist beliefs because whats driving him is the money he can make out of this marrige and is not intrested in shelias happinest.
Why is briling so sycophantic
He is crawling towards gerald and pretending they both like eachother because its convienent for eachother (money)
Sycophantic
behaving or done in an obsequious way in order to gain advantage.
Why are Gerald’s parents not at
the party? How do you think Mr.
Birling feels about this?
Geralds parents are not at the party because they dont want to be seen with someone thats shuch a lower class comper to them. Makes him feel hes a lower class and unworthy but due to his pride he wont show it or say.
Is Mr. Birling really happy for Sheila’s
engagement as a father should be
or is there another reason he is
looking forward to this marriage?
He is far more intrested in the bussines opertunites that the marrige will give rather than her happiness in the marrige
What does Mr. Birling think of his
own opinions? What does the
adverb ‘again’ imply?’
Mr Birling thinks hes always right he thinks the world revolves around him he gives his opion like theyre facts hes arogant he dont belive hes wrong. He says again as he always supposdely right
everything in
Birling’s speech that he gets wrong.
“you’ll be marrying at a very good time.”
“war’s inevitable”
“and unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable.”
What is Priestley hoping
to achieve by making Birling
unlikeable?
By making Birling seem unlikeable, Priestley is encouraging the audience to see the benefits of socialism.
Eric tries to speak to his
father in this speech but Birling
keeps cutting him off. Why do you
think Birling treats Eric in this way?
Mr Birling’s relationship with his son, Eric, lacks a sense of familial connection. And how eric will never live up to the name birling
Why is Birling wrong when he
speaks to Eric and Gerald?
Because there going to have to leave for the war
Birling presents his opinion as
fact. Why does he do this? What does this
tell you about his character
Shows how intransigent he is and how much of a hard-headed bussines man and doesent know better but his own opinion how eric mentions the war and shuts him up which makes the audience sympthaise with him
Use of personal pronouns in mr birling speech
When he uses i he thinks hes important when he says you hes also likes telling people what to do. Directing it to men because he dosent think women are important
Look at the word ‘again’
in the first line. What does it imply
about Birling?
He keeps telling people what to do and what he says go and how self absrobed he is.
Intransigent
unwilling or refusing to change one’s views or to agree about something. (Noun)
Who is Birling referring to
when he says, ‘the way some of
these cranks talk…’?
Referring about lower class and socialists
HG wells a wirter who advocated for equality
Socialism
Commuinsm
Why does Birling emphasise the
fact that Gerald and Eric are ‘young’?
And how even though hes is old and smarter they should respect there olders and listen to them even if there wrong
How does Birling disregard the
socialist ideology in this extract? Try and
use a quotation in your answer.
“Youd think everybody should look after themselves” this showes he thinks socialism is a load of nonsense
Why does the doorbell ring
when it does?
The inspector has had enough of mr birling egotism and self centerdnes
Priestly use of mr birling
Birling is Priestley’s construct
(puppet). Priestley purposefully
makes Birling unlikeable so that
the audience associate
capitalism with him. In this way,
they are more susceptible to
Priestley’s socialist ideology.
Look at the stage directions
used to show how Birling and
Gerald are speaking. Explain the
differences between the
directions before and after the
inspector arrives.
Laughing funny but after the inspector comes he is quite uneased and unsettled. Gerlad is laid back.
How do the Inspector’s stage
directions compare to
Birling’s and Gerald’s?
Cool and composed,confident eye contact
What impression do we
have of Birling since the
arrival of the Inspector?
Every time he confronted Birling about something birling would get mad and take it out on eric or sometimes shelia.
What are our first impressions
of the Inspector? Use a
quotation in your answer.
Nonchalent, short and sharp with his words very calm when mr birlings shouting him and stands his ground when mr birlings questionins him for asking unnessary questions and he says “its my duty to ask questions”
What do we
learn about
Eva Smith
from this
extract?
Makings of a leader,shes dead,in distressed
Stands up for all of her collegues
Why has Priestley
given Eva the
surname, ‘Smith’?
How does this
help promote his
message of social
equality?
Because there are so many people from the working class with the surname smith which mean anyone can get exploited could be referring to thousands of people.
What are our
impressions of
Sheila after
the Inspector
has spoken to
her?
Shes become quite childish and and tearing up but also feeling bad for hersslf instead of eva smith
Sheila begins to
take responsibility
for her actions.
What is the
importance of
responsibility?
The importance of responsiablity is how you can take what you have done wrong and realise that what you did shouldnt of ever happend and you wont do it again also to show that your acctually accountability for it
What are our
impressions of
Sheila at the
beginning of
the play?
Shiela in the beggining of the play acts like a child. Shoes doesnt know anything about the oitside world. Shes in the working class so her parents belive that girls like her should not know how people live in the lower classes. She feels bad for eva and then starts to get mad at Mr Birling realising hes the cause of her death.
How has Priestley
used Sheila to
create conflict
within the Birling
family? Why does
he want this to
happen?
I think priestly used shiels to create conflict withing the Birling family because Sheila’s guilt and self-awareness clash with the dismissive attitudes of her parents. As Sheilas character evolves during the play, shes very open and truthfull about the whole situation but can see her parents are trying to defend that they have no part. This is when socialist and capalist colide and cause tention.
What is the effect on the audience?
The effect on the audience is how tough the lower class was treated back i those times and how the higher class compared to the lower
How has Act One enforced Priestley’s views?
Enforced by preistlys majorley due to the inspector referring to being equal hinting at preisltys strong beliefs in communism
In what ways might Sheila’s treatment of Eva Smith
be crueller than Mr Birling’s?
Curler than mr birlings due to her only laughing and mightve not even been about her it made her ruin her life and lowerd her reputation even more
How could we describe
Eric Birling in the play?
Think of a list of FIVE
adjectives.
Squiffy
Unsucessful
Spoilt
Untrustworthy
Desperate for love
Pick THREE of your
adjectives and find a
quotation to back your
ideas up. Write them down.
Could have picked her up and threw her out” stuck up for eva smith
“You dont undersrand antrhing and you never did” unloved
“Some young men drink to much”
Men can have alchol issues
What is Eric’s
relationship like with
his father? Why?
Jelous of eric because hes had everything given to him such as private school a job food a massive house and thinks hes a waste of space.
‘Eric is a weak character
in the play.’ To what
extent do you agree?
Eric is a weak character is to an extent due to him being shut up almost verytime unless hes asked to speak or when he is confessing to the inspector.
Summarise Eric’s
purpose and function in
the play.
The diffence is to show the older genration and the new generation how there is still hope in the new generation and can restore and heartful society
‘An
Inspector Calls’ is about
male lust and sexual
exploitation of the
weak by the powerful.’
To what extent do you
agree
I agree to quite an extent due to the class diffrence by gerald which he thought he could have authroity to take power over her and use her for sex
What is Eric like
What is Eric’s function
at the beginning of
at the end of the play?
the play
Squiffy,depressed,quiet,half shy, half asserted
What is Mrs B like
at the beginning of
the play?
Birling was an ignorant upper class
woman who didn’t care about the lower classes and was ashamed of her
Husband
What is Mr B like
at the beginning of the play
Mr b was very arrogant and selfish, he only cared for his company and knighthood, he wanted sheila and Gerald to get married just for the sake of his company expanding, he wants ti be shown as the bigger man but in reality he has no clue what he’s doing
What is Sheila like
at the beginning of
the play?
Sheilas very rude and stubborn, shes also very childish. All she can care about is her engagement with Gerlad, she has no symphony for anyone else and thinks shes the main the character
Mr birling
Hes intransigent,selfish,optimistic,proud,arrogant,naive,ambitious
“Hard headed practical man of business”
