Responsibility

Question 1

‘A man has to make his own way - has to look after himself - and his family too

Answer 1

• Shows how selfish and disinterested in everyone else’s struggles Mr Birling is
• ‘and his family too’ sounds like an after thought, even family comes second to him
• how little care he has for the lower classes, only worried about himself

Question 2

‘Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges’

Answer 2

• Mr and Mrs Birling take their high place in society as exempting them from the things everyone else has to answer for
• The Inspector introducing idea that they have an even greater responsibility to look after others because of their comfortable situation

Question 3

‘I can’t accept any responsibility. If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we’d had anything to do with it would be very awkward wouldn’t it?’

Answer 3

• Strength of ‘can’t’ and short + simple first statement - doesn’t feel the need to explain, completely rejecting blame
• Intensifier ‘any’ - completely exonerating himself
• Rhetorical question ‘wouldn’t it?’ - expects the Inspector to agree with him, thinks it’s right
  ‘awkward’ - trivializes the awful things that Eva went through

Question 4

‘It’s the only time I’ve ever done anything like that and I’ll never, never do it again to anybody’

Answer 4

• Sheila’s long, rapid sentence illustrates her remorse and how upset she is
• Repetition of never - almost childlike quality, tone of sincerity that emphasises her understanding of what she’s done
• One of the only characters to properly take the blame

Question 5

‘I’m sorry she should have come to such a horrible end. But I accept no blame for it at all’

Answer 5

• Conjunction ‘but’ - immediately contradicts herself, invalidates any sentiments of remorse she had before
• ‘No’ and ‘at all’ - emphasises how dismissive she is of the part she played in Eva’s tragedy

Question 6

‘And I say the girl’s dead and we all helped to kill her - and that’s what matters’

Answer 6

• ‘We all helped to kill her’ - understands the weight of what the whole family has done, what consequences their actions have had
• The separation of ‘and that’s what matters’ emphasises this, shows the audience he understands

Question 7

‘I did nothing I’m ashamed of or that won’t bear investigation’

Answer 7

• She doesn’t believe that her treatment of Eva was wrong because of her class, won’t accept that her actions had an impact
• ‘Won’t bear investigation’ - she is more concerned about what people think of her and the legality of what she’s done the the moral implications

Question 8

‘I suppose we’re all nice people now ‘

Answer 8

• Sheila’s sarcasm here shows how far she’s come in understanding both her own guilt and her families, although not all of them have
• She understands her families hypocrisy and unwillingness to change, and doesn’t like it

Question 9

‘I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty’

Answer 9

• Not accepting his actions fully as his own, blaming it on him being drunk
• A chap - generalizes it, acts like anybody would have done the same as him and he shouldn’t be punished for it