Inspector Flashcards
‘Creates at once an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness…dressed in a plain darkish suit’
- ‘creates at once an impression’ —> verb —> ‘creates’ indicates his ability to evoke certain views on his character. This portrays him as influential as he is able to get an instantaneous reaction from others and alters the dynamic of the scene.
- ‘massiveness, solidity and purposefulness’ —> adjectives —> ‘purposefulness’ —> suggests a determined nature while ‘solidity and massiveness’ —> portray him as a prominent and trustworthy figure. These adjectives alongside the use of triad is create an extensive description of him as focused and prominent.
- ‘plain darkish suit’ —> adjective —> ‘plain’ —> implies that he is dressed in a simple and humble manner unlike the Birlings. This perhaps suggests that he is aligned with the poorer working classes and the proletariat.
‘Its the way I like to go go work. One person and one line of enquiry at a time. Otherwise there’s a muddle’
- ‘way I like to work’ —> very direct with his statement and appears to be quote firm in his views not changing his attitude for others. This portrays him as very reliable as he does not succumb to the influence of Birling or his upper class status.
- Holds power as he forces Birling to follow his method of work
- ‘one person and one line of enquiry’ —> repetition of ‘one’ — illustrates his sense of clarity in his own methods of work. This portrays him as resolute in his work but also calculated and measured in his approach since the adjective ‘one’ is a singular term used to show how he aims to focus on each individual specifically.
- ‘otherwise there’s a muddle’ —> portrays him as truthful and having good intentions since he is attempting to avoid any inaccuracies in his work.
‘They might. But after all its better to ask for the earth than to take it’
‘Better to ask’ —> acts as a social mouthpiece —> portrays his socialist views since in the context of the moment, he is arguing with Mr Birling and states that it is better to ‘as’ rather than to ‘take’ the earth. This is representative of his beliefs that people should be allowed to voice their opinions and protest for change. In this, he aims to empower the lower class acting as a mouthpiece for them fo convey their views.
- ‘ask for the earth than to take it’ —> reverse phycology —> reiterates Birling’s words, however, he inverts their sequence to alter its meaning portraying him as intelligent and masterful with his words. However, he is also is quite intentional as he perhaps inverts the terms to ridicule Birling’s narrow-minded views.
‘(Sternly to them both) You see we have to share something. If there’s nothing else, we’ll have to share our guilt’
‘Sternly’ —> adverb —> demonstrates his serious and earnest manner indicating that he is purposeful and has conviction within his beliefs.
‘We have to share something’ and ‘share our guilt’ —> links to the crux of the play —> verb —>
- ‘share’ —> implies a sense of collectiveness implying that their responsibility and guilt must be a collective. This introduces the idea of the socialism and collective responsibility into the narrative. The fact that the Inspector introduces this portrays him as the symbolism of socialism and the catalyst for change within the birling family.
- ‘guilt’ —> abstract noun —> refers to the misdemeanours of the Birling family, however, at this point, he only understands Sheila’s misdoings. This portrays him as omniscient as he already understands and foreshadows the other members misdemeanours with Eva Smith. This can perhaps suggest that he is a supernatural presence and align with the name of ‘Inspector Goole’ where ‘Goole’ is a homophone for ‘ghoul’ implying that he is of supernatural existence.
‘(Massively) Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as priveleges’
- ‘massively’ —> adverb —> portrays him as a very dominant character in his views and implies his sense of confidence. This makes him appear more believable to the characters and authoritarian.
- ‘have responsibilities as well as privileges’ —> verb —> ‘have’ —> implies that ‘responsibilities’ are compulsory and given and cannot be ignored as optional. This reinforces his presentation of belong a socialist and aligning to views of collective responsibility because he believes that Birling too has a social duty.
- ‘responsibilities as well as privileges’ —> sequencing of placing ‘responsibilities’ before ‘privileges’ indicates his belief that responsibilities should have a higher priority and be more prominent in the thoughts of people such as Birling. In this, he places focus on ‘responsibility’ linking back to his beliefs of social responsibility.
- ‘public men’ —> is a direct reference to men in authority such as Birling. In this, he includes them with everyone else hence implying that the upper class is not excused from any responsibility due to their power. This portrays him as a social mouthpiece for Priestley to convey his beliefs on socialism and all people being included in responsibility.
‘Alone, friendless, almost penniless, desperate. She needed not only money but advice, sympathy, friendliness. You’ve had children. You must have known’
- ‘alone, friendless, almost penniless, desperate’ —> syndetic tetra colon —> creates an extensive description of Eva’ poor and disadvantages situation —> aims to emphasise the Inspector’s sympathy for the plight of the poor and Eva Smith. This portrays him as having a strong moral compass.
- ‘you‘ve had children. You must have known’ —> repetition of personal address of ‘you’ —> places responsibility on Mrs Birling and tries to appeal to her maternal instincts. This is strategic in trying to evoke a change from Mrs Birling’s character but also makes her feel regret for her previous actions.
…’advice, sympathy and friendliness’
‘Her position now is that she lies with a burnt out inside…Don’t stammer and yammer at me again, man. I’m losing all patience with all you people’.
- ‘Position now is that she lies with a burnt out inside’ —> harsh and blunt using dysphemistic language —> accentuates the horror of her death and is a reminder of the horrific outcomes of the Birling’s actions.
- ‘position’ —> manipulates and re-phrases Mrs Birling’s words to give it a new meaning and remind them of the truth. In this, he is very masterful with his words but this also anchors his strong socialist values as he always links back to the plight of the poor and the idea that people should have collective responsibility.
- ‘don’t stammer and yammer at me’ —> verbs —> ‘stammer and yammer’ —> create imagery of complaining from someone who is immature. This portrays Birling as very immature and stubborn, however, the verbs ridicule Birling. This portrays the Inspector’s opposition to him as the symbolism of socialism whilst Birling represents capitalist beliefs. This shows a political divide and uses the character of the Inspector to highlight the strong opposition of these views.
‘All patient with all you people’ —> noun —> ‘people’ —> used to generalise ‘all’ of the bourgeoise. This portrays the entire bourgeoise as having these biases against the lower class. Perhaps, Priestley wrote this to highlight that most of the upper class suffered from this lack of care for the lower classes. This criticises them and how they encourage the class divide.
‘One Eva Smith has gone - but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths’
- ‘one Eva Smith has gone’ —> adjective —> ‘one’ —> This serves as a reminder of Eva’s death to evoke remorse from the Birling’s. However, the adjective ‘one’ generalises her to suggest to the Birling’s that she is representative of all young women in the working class. This portrays her as a symbolism for proletariats and the way in which they are being exploited. This perhaps is used to try and evoke reflection from the Birling’s and cause them to change their attitudes in the future towards the lower class.
- ‘millions and millions and millions’ —> syndetic triadic —> highlights to what extent that there are many of the proletariat and highlights the amount of people suffering. This tries to evoke change by reminding the family of the social struggles of many people.
- ‘Eva smiths and John Smiths’ —> introduces the character of John Smith —> this does not specifically refer to one person but is another generic name used to refer to both the men and the women of the lower class. This is a reminder that all people in the working class are struggling and that the Birling’s should hold no bias in who they help.
‘All intertwined with out lives and what we think and say and do. We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other’.
- ‘all intertwined with out lives’ —> verb —> ‘intertwined’ has connotations to being interlinked or having a connection. This describes the Inspector as having no belief in the social divide since he believes that all social classes are linked to eachother.
- ‘members of one body’ —> adjective —> ‘one’ describes a singular entity within society describing a sense of unity in the inspectors beliefs on society.
- ‘responsible’ —> implies social responsibility portraying his belief in a collective responsibility.
- ‘we are’ —> uses an anaphoric structure to reiterate the inspectors beliefs in a collective responsibility since ‘we’ is a plural term.
‘If men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish’.
- ‘men will not learn that lesson’ —> term —> ‘men’ —> generalises all people and refers to mankind. This illustrates his belief in all people being linked into this issue. ‘Learn that lesson’ —> refers to people understanding social responsibility and opposition to this. This then leads on to the negative outcomes of not learning it.
- ‘fire and blood and anguish’ —> syndetic triadic —> can evoke ideas of hell. This would have appealed to Priestley’s audience which would have been predominantly Christian. This would suggest that socialism was a moral attitude. Perhaps, Priestley tries to convince hos audience with this.
- ‘fire and blood and anguish’ —> can link to ideas of war. This would be dramatic irony since the play is set in 1912 before the world wars however it was written after. This would be very impactful by Priestley since the war would have heavily impacted his audience.
