Eric Flashcards
“Eric suddenly guffaws. His parents look at him. “ - Act 1
- Eric seems to be out of sync with the rest of the family.
- The reaction from his parents show how isolated he is from the rest of his family
- The contrast between Eric and his family highlights his aloofness and detachment.
- Makes the audience suspicious of him
“(still uneasy) Well, I don’t think it’s very funny.”
Eric’s uneasiness at Gerald and Arthur’s suggestion that he has gotten into trouble foretells guilt that will be confirmed later on in the play
Why shouldn’t they try for higher wages?” - Act 1, class + responsibility
- Reasonable and ethical concerns displays his growing allegiance with the laborers’ side of the conflict, in defending their right to higher wages
- The investigation is beginning to introduce conflict into the family
- Priestley demonstrates that even the most flawed characters are corrigible and suggests that Eric is still goof despite his transgressive act
- Enlightened to the corruptness of the capitalist system
- “they” separates himself from the worker, so he is subconsciously reinforcing class distinction
“You told her. Why, you little sneak!” - Act 3, social responsibility
- Eric is an immature and childish character
- His language emphasizes this; he results to insulting, highlighting his helplessness and true powerlessness. He is completely weak and insecure
- “You”: he finds others to blame because he can’t deal with disrespect
- He has the arrogance of a child; needs to find solace in blaming others to reduce the blame on himself
“I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty – and I threatened to make a row.” - Act 3, social responsibility + gender
- Use of the colloquial noun “chap” makes Eric seem like he is making his actions less serious than they are and implies that it is a normal situation, all men do it
- The violent verb “threatened” demonstrates how manipulative Eric is and the control he has that he inflicted on the girl
- “nasty” implies that he was malicious = Priestley uses this to show how people of power and wealth controlled the weak and vulnerable of society
- The semantic field of violence through dynamic verbs such as ”threatened” and “insisted” (mentioned in Eric’s line before) as well as the verb “turns nasty” has the cumulative effect of presenting Eric as a vile and vulgar man, repulsing the audience from his inhumane behaviours
- We are presented with the fact that “the state” is an archetypal part of being a male bourgeoisie and is also seen earlier on in the play when an Alderman almost ripped Sheila’s friend’s blouse, evoking a sense of disgust from the audience towards the upper class
- Also suggests that this is a regular occurrence
“And that’s when it happened. And I didn’t even remember – that’s the hellish thing. Oh my God!” - Act 3, social responsibility
- Priestley abruptly changes the overly negative impression of Eric, which was created through dialogue earlier on in Act 3, through the exclamation mark, symbolizing an outcry, therefore suggesting that Eric is sorrowful and regretful
- The use of short, simple sentences as well as the embedded clause, creates a jagged pace to his speech, as if he is stuttering uncontrollably, highlighting how emotional he is over what he has done and how he is ready to take responsibility for his actions.
- The use of religious imagery “hellish”, “My god” continues to show his repentance for his misdeeds
“Yes. I wasn’t in love with her or anything – but I liked her – she was pretty and a good sport—” - Act 3, gender + social classes
- “good sport”= derogatory language highlights how she was just exploited for sexual pleasure
- Objectification of women, shows attitudes at the time
- Can only remember physical appearance which show how this was his priority
- Even though he was remorseful a few lines before, he makes sexist comments, which Priestley uses to show how misogyny is deeply embedded in society and how the audience needs to get rid of it
“I hate these fat old tarts around the town” - Act 3, gender + class
Mirrors Gerald’s “hard-eyed dough-faced women” highlighting generally upper class men looked down upon lower-class women but exploited them for sexual pleasure anyway
“she treated me – as if I were a kid.” - Act 3, classes
- Lower class forced to live a harsher life and are therefore more worldly than the upper class
- simile - Daisy saw through Eric’s intentions and lack of maturity
- She had enough dignity to not insist on a false marriage, and also to protect Eric
“Because you’re not the kind of father a chap could go to when he’s in trouble – that’s why.” - Act 3
- illustrates the distant and tense relationship between Eric and his father
- “You’re not the kind of father” implies he does not feel completely comfortable and trusting towards his father
- Reveals lack of love in family = Priestley suggests the capitalist are deprived from emotional attachments because they are money conscious
“(nearly at a breaking point) you turned her away – yes, and you killed her …. damn you, damn you.” - Act 3, social responsibility
- Repetition of “you” presents an accusing tone
- Fragmented speech indicates his anger and shock. Could be interpreted to hint that He was in love with Eva, although he doesn’t admit it, which explains why he is so emotionally hysterical. The dashes break down the sentence into smaller parts – it could indicate how his relationship with his mother is breaking down
- Dashes could also represent frustration and confusion – can’t comprehend has just happened
- Language is violent as he repeats ‘killed’ three times. The effect on the audience is highly shocking as this language completely contrast with the polite, euphemistic language of earlier in the play. Sees the situation for what it is
- Stage direction suggests that he is filled with guilt and rage, but could be interpreted to metaphorically represent how the pompous actions of his mother, has caused Eric to almost reject capitalism
- own mother, proves his disgust at her
“You don’t understand anything. You never did. You never even tried – you –” - Act 3, social responsibility
- the repetition of ‘you’ gives an attacking feel, reflecting Eric’s bitterness that he may well have bottled up for a lot of years
- the change from present to past tense emphasises that she is not only a disappointment to him now but that she always has been
“(unhappily) My god – I’m not likely to forget.” - Act 3, social responsibility
- The adverb ‘unhappily’ has connotations of being regretful and resentful, suggesting that Eric does actually take responsibility for his actions despite suggesting otherwise earlier in the text
- It is clear that Eric is speaking in a regretful tone and is sad about his actions
- the hyperbolic interjection of ‘My God’ shows how distraught he is and exacerbates the impression he has learnt from the Inspector
- The fact that Eric accepts he has done wrong emphasizes Priestley’s overall purpose for writing the novel which is the lesson of social responsibility
- “not likely” shows that he is aware that he will make the same mistakes again
- The fact that he is admitting this shows that he is admitting he is not fully righteous, contrasting to the attitudes of upper echelons who thought that they were on a moral high ground
“You lot may be letting yourselves out nicely, but I can’t.” - social responsibility + young gen vs old gen
Highlights how he accepts full responsibility for his actions
“He was our police inspector all right.” - Act 3, social responsibility
Eric has understood the moral message that the family needed to ‘inspect’ themselves and it does not matter whether the man that helped them do that was a policeman or not
