gerald

Question 1

‘we’re respectable citizens and not criminals’ [ACT 1]

Answer 1

‘respectable’
↳ shows that gerald’s idea of a respectable person is anyone in the upper class, only those in the upper class deserve respect
↳ ironic as even eva smith (a prostitute) is revealed to be more respectable than the birlings

allegory: ‘we’re’ refers to the rich
↳ the birlings commited crimes that were not punishable in those times, but are moral crimes
↳ the rich are able to get away with everything due to their influence
↳ priestley views capitalists as criminals and breaks down their egotistical views through the inspector and birling

alliteration of c: ‘citizens’, ‘criminals’
↳ creates a link between the words & could hint how the actions done by the birling family and gerald could amount to an act of criminality
↳ could represent the divide between the classes and how capitalists as they mistreat their workers under their honest ‘citizen’ facade

Question 2

‘she was young and pretty and warm-hearted and intensely grateful’ [ACT 2]

Answer 2

adjective: ‘young’
↳ could show how gerald easily took advantage of her and controlled her

adjective: ‘pretty’
↳ shows the superficial ideas in 1912 and how men obiectified women

adjective: ‘grateful’
↳ shows how egotistical gerald is, he thinks he’s saved her life, however he’s just given her a false sense of security and then left her after her has exploited her body
↳ relates to how capitalist employers exploit the lower classes she then act like they should be happy

Question 3

‘she’d lived…on what I’d allowed her’ [ACT 2]

Answer 3

-gerald was controlling
-gerald was egocentric
-women were only seen as sexual objects during early 1900’s especially from the lower class
-they were used and left similar to
how gerald abandoned eva

Question 4

‘everything’s all right now sheila. what about this ring?’ [ACT 3]

Answer 4

-gerald disappoints the audience, he doesn’t care about all the lessons he was meant to learn and immediately goes back to his own ways, expecting sheila to accept him

‘ring’ either represents affluence (and how it’s used like a bandage that can easily cover up pain and crime) or patriarchy (how women had to get used to being used like commodities)

Question 5

gerald’s key traits: