Inspector calls

Question 1

Act 1 ( stage direction)-Mr Birling

Arthur Birling is a heavy-looking, rather portentous man in his middle fifties with fairly easy manners but rather provincial in this speech.

Answer 1

Reveals that he is good with his speech and well mannered but is rather rich and what Priestley wants to oppose in society.

Question 2

Act 1-Mr Birling

And unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable.

Answer 2

Reveals how he is not who the audience wants to listen to and should not through dramatic irony as they are in 1912. Associate the stupid with the rich.

Question 3

Act 1-Mr Birling

I can’t accept any responsibility

Answer 3

Reveals how even after he has proof of him being partly to blame does not, and as we already know he is wrong, we do not like his attitude

Question 4

Act 2-Mr Birling

The press might easily take it up

Answer 4

Reveals how he is not worried about the dead girl, but his family and their reputation-like his wife who got angry over the use of their name

Question 5

Act 3-Mr Birling

There’ll be a public scandal

Answer 5

Reveals how he is not worried about the girl or his families issues but their reputation, he repeats this as well in act 3

Question 6

Act 1 (stage direction)-Mrs Birling

His wife is about fifty, a rather cold woman and her husband’s social superior.

Answer 6

This shows how he has the same feelings about her that he has for her husband, but she has grown up in riches so has no idea about the poor.

Question 7

Act 2-Mrs Birling

He’s only a boy

Answer 7

Talking about Eric-she doesn’t know him as he is fully grown, just like her not knowing he is an alcoholic.

Question 8

Act 2-Mrs Birling

But I think she had only herself to blame.

Answer 8

Shows about how she is not taking any responsibility like Birling. Could be an attack on the generations and how they think differently.

Question 9

Act 2-Mrs Birling

I blame the young man who was the father

Answer 9

Still has doubts if the girl was telling the truth, but after finding out she was pregnant she blamed it on the father - Eric, digging the family a hole.

Question 10

Act 3-Mrs Birling

I’d have asked him a few questions

Answer 10

She is now saying that she realised even though before she was worried, shows her arrogance and associates her with Mr Birling and how he lies.

Question 11

Act 1 (stage direction)-Sheila

Sheila is a pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited

Answer 11

This shows how she is innocent but has never dealt with the poor so is ignorant and doesn’t represent what Priestley wants.

Question 12

Act 1-Sheila

But these girls aren’t cheap labour - they’re people

Answer 12

She is taking socialist perspectives, siding with the inspector, also putting her on the other side to Gerald, foreshadowing things to come. This also shows how she relates with her as they are the same age.

Question 13

Act 1-Sheila

I’ll never, never do it again to anybody

Answer 13

Fully regrets it, as there is repetition you can tell she is being genuine.

Question 14

Act 2-Sheila

‘He’s giving us the rope - so that we’ll hang ourselves’

Answer 14

Metaphor, saying the inspector makes everyone realise they are responsible and the rope is the truth and he already knows the truth.

Question 15

Act 2-Sheila

You mustn’t try to build up a kind of wall between us and that girl.

Answer 15

Shows how the upper middle class do not want to be associated with the lower class like Mrs Birling and Eva Smith. Also shows Sheila’s development as a character

Question 16

Act 3 Sheila

Don’t let’s start dodging and pretending now

Answer 16

Accusing the parents of not taking responsibility, she repeats the word pretending, showing the lack of trust she has in her parents and the relationship they have not being good

Question 17

Act 1-Eric

Eric is in his early twenties, not quite at ease, half shy, half assertive

Answer 17

It reveals that he is unsure about something which could foreshadow something to hide.

Question 18

Act 3-Eric

I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty

Answer 18

It reveals how he was drunk and then must have raped her. He is distancing himself from the situation by calling himself a chap and blaming it on the alcohol saying he couldn’t control himself.

Question 19

Act 3-Eric

But don’t forget I’m ashamed of you as well

Answer 19

It reveals how he sides with his sister and the socialist views. He also turned his dads words back against him which would be seen as utterly disrespectful at the time of writing. Shame and blame is the centre of the issue at the time of this quote.

Question 20

Act 1(stage direction)-Gerald Croft

Gerald Croft is an attractive chap about thirty, rather too manly to be a dandy but very much the well-bred young man-about-town.

Answer 20

This represents the rich and how they are ignorant. Could also foreshadow problems with him and his fiance. Priestley uses him to show how ignorant the rich are.

Question 21

Act 1-Gerald Croft

You couldn’t have done anything else.

Answer 21

This reveals how he is siding with Mr Birling and how he agrees with him. Priestley wants the audience to not be on his side from this point on.

Question 22

Act 1-Gerald Croft

After all, y’know we’re respectable citizens and not criminals.

Answer 22

This reveals how he thinks that as they are rich they can get away with things. This is also ironic due to all their actions.

Question 23

Act 2-Gerald Croft

She was young and pretty and warm-hearted - and intensely grateful.

Answer 23

She was grateful for the money and not being a prostitute. He is naive and didn’t realise that. Shows how he is easily changed and can fall in love easily.

Question 24

Act 2-Gerald Croft

It’s hard to say. I didn’t feel about her as she felt about me.

Answer 24

He was using her, but as she was grateful she was more than happy. Shows the true Gerald.

Question 25

# Act 1(stage direction)-Inspector Goole The inspector need not be a big man but he creates at once an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness.

Answer 25

He represents Prietley completely, and is assertive but precise and wants the truth to be revealed. Also very knowledgeable, unlike Birling, which shows the reader who to look at.

Question 26

# Act 1-Inspector Goole A chain of events.

Answer 26

This draws all the characters in from the beginning, which shows and allows the audience to make assumptions and use dramatic irony.

Question 27

# Act 1-Inspector Goole Few friends, lonely, half-starved, she was feeling desperate.

Answer 27

Trying to make the characters feel guilty about her, but still remaining professional and making it sound bad for her. Asyndetic list to show how many bad things were happening to the girl.

Question 28

# Act 1-Inspector Goole A nice little promising life there, I thought, and a nasty mess someones made of it.

Answer 28

Using Birlings words against him, showing how it is his fault by using the words he said. Being blunt about the situation calling it a mess.

Question 29

# Act 2-Inspector Goole She died in misery and agony - hating life

Answer 29

Being blunt about the situation and before he was describing Sheila, so it was used to scare her.

Question 30

# Act 2-Inspector Goole And you slammed the door in her face

Answer 30

Using direct address and emotive language to show how ruthless she was turning her away at the society.

Question 31

# Act 3-Inspector Goole But just remember this. One Eva Smith has gone – but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our 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. And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish. Good night.

Answer 31

Reveals all his thoughts about the situation-the rest is in the book