P2 - An Inspector Calls Flashcards
What is Mr and Mrs Birling’s roles?
Upper class
Older generation
Not accepting responsibility
Capitalist views
What are Sheila and Eric’s roles?
Upper class
Younger generation
Accepting responsibility
Socialist views
What is Gerald Croft’s role?
Upper class
Younger generation
Not accepting responsibility
Capitalist views
What is the Inspector’s role?
Socialist views
Priestley’s surrogate
What is Eva Smith’s role?
Working class Abused by upper class
What is Edna’s role?
Working class
Main quotes for Mr Birling - upper class & social status
‘Hard-headed practical man of business’ - long monologues [only cares about his profits]
‘I gather there’s a very good chance of knighthood’ - exclamatory sentence [boasting]
Main quotes for Mr Birling - older generation & capitalist
‘Unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable’ - dramatic irony [foolish]
‘You’d think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up like bees in a hive - community and all that nonsense’ - inclusive pronoun [egotistical]
Main quotes for Mr Birling - gender
‘A man has to make his own way - has to look after himself - and his family too, of course’ - [men are in charge of the household]
Main quotes for Mrs Birling - upper class & social status
‘Girls of that class’ - euphemism [looking down on her]
‘She was giving herself ridiculous airs…claiming elaborate fine feelings…that were simply absurd in a girl in her position’ - [social snobbery]
Main quotes for Mrs Birling - responsibility
‘I’ve done nothing wrong - and you know it’ - [no remorse]
Main quotes for Sheila - younger generation
‘Yes, go on, mummy’ - seen as young child
Main quotes for Sheila - responsibility & socialist
‘And if I could help her now, I would’ - [passionate]
‘But these girls aren’t cheap labour - they’re people’ - personal pronouns [empathetic]
Main quotes for Eric - socialist
‘Why shouldn’t they try for higher wages? We try for the highest possible prices’ - contradicting Mr Birling
Main quotes for Eric - responsibility
‘And I don’t remember - that’s the hellish thing’ - guilt
‘And I say the girl’s dead and we all helped to kill her - and that’s what matters’ - commanding [active social conscience]
Main quotes for Gerald - upper class & exploitation
‘After all y‘ know, we’re respectable citizens and not criminals’ - echoes Mr Birling
‘Nearly any man would have done’ - rescue mission, normalises the situation
Main quotes for Gerald - gender
‘Why should you stay? It’s bound to be unpleasant and disturbing’ - patronising and sexist, women ought to be protected from these things, can’t handle them
Main quotes for Inspector Goole
‘It’s better to ask for the earth than to take it’ - shouldn’t exploit the lower classes ‘Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges’ - upper class aren’t automatically better than everyone else just because they have high social status ‘We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other.’ - short sentences ‘Millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths’ - extended metaphor, lots of exploited working class people who need help ‘They will be taught in fire, blood and anguish’ - means WW1 + WW2
