Inspector calls Flashcards
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.
Reveals that he is good with his speech and well mannered but is rather rich and what Priestley wants to oppose in society.
Act 1-Mr Birling
And unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable.
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.
Act 1-Mr Birling
I can’t accept any responsibility
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
Act 2-Mr Birling
The press might easily take it up
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
Act 3-Mr Birling
There’ll be a public scandal
Reveals how he is not worried about the girl or his families issues but their reputation, he repeats this as well in act 3
Act 1 (stage direction)-Mrs Birling
His wife is about fifty, a rather cold woman and her husband’s social superior.
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.
Act 2-Mrs Birling
He’s only a boy
Talking about Eric-she doesn’t know him as he is fully grown, just like her not knowing he is an alcoholic.
Act 2-Mrs Birling
But I think she had only herself to blame.
Shows about how she is not taking any responsibility like Birling. Could be an attack on the generations and how they think differently.
Act 2-Mrs Birling
I blame the young man who was the father
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.
Act 3-Mrs Birling
I’d have asked him a few questions
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.
Act 1 (stage direction)-Sheila
Sheila is a pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited
This shows how she is innocent but has never dealt with the poor so is ignorant and doesn’t represent what Priestley wants.
Act 1-Sheila
But these girls aren’t cheap labour - they’re people
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.
Act 1-Sheila
I’ll never, never do it again to anybody
Fully regrets it, as there is repetition you can tell she is being genuine.
Act 2-Sheila
‘He’s giving us the rope - so that we’ll hang ourselves’
Metaphor, saying the inspector makes everyone realise they are responsible and the rope is the truth and he already knows the truth.
Act 2-Sheila
You mustn’t try to build up a kind of wall between us and that girl.
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
Act 3 Sheila
Don’t let’s start dodging and pretending now
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
Act 1-Eric
Eric is in his early twenties, not quite at ease, half shy, half assertive
It reveals that he is unsure about something which could foreshadow something to hide.
Act 3-Eric
I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty
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.
Act 3-Eric
But don’t forget I’m ashamed of you as well
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.
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.
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.
Act 1-Gerald Croft
You couldn’t have done anything else.
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.
Act 1-Gerald Croft
After all, y’know we’re respectable citizens and not criminals.
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.
Act 2-Gerald Croft
She was young and pretty and warm-hearted - and intensely grateful.
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.
Act 2-Gerald Croft
It’s hard to say. I didn’t feel about her as she felt about me.
He was using her, but as she was grateful she was more than happy. Shows the true Gerald.
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.
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.
Act 1-Inspector Goole
A chain of events.
This draws all the characters in from the beginning, which shows and allows the audience to make assumptions and use dramatic irony.
Act 1-Inspector Goole
Few friends, lonely, half-starved, she was feeling desperate.
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.
Act 1-Inspector Goole
A nice little promising life there, I thought, and a nasty mess someones made of it.
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.
Act 2-Inspector Goole
She died in misery and agony - hating life
Being blunt about the situation and before he was describing Sheila, so it was used to scare her.
Act 2-Inspector Goole
And you slammed the door in her face
Using direct address and emotive language to show how ruthless she was turning her away at the society.
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.
Reveals all his thoughts about the situation-the rest is in the book
