REVISION INSPECTOR BALLS Flashcards
“half shy, half assertive”
Eric - shy shows his nervousness, his lack of confidence whereas the contrasting adjective assertive shows he is confident and dominant - these contrasting adjectives create a sense of confusion, making us see Eric as a confused man at first, a man we cannot trust, could lead to us not believing in his ideology of capitalism as he has not even found himself.
The repetition of “half” shows Eric is not a fully developed character yet and foreshadows his full development later on in the play.
“in that state when a chap easily turns nasty”
Eric - the word “that” shows his lack of social responsibility for his actions as he assumes everyone reading knows the feeling of being in “that” state while drunk, he is also using alcohol as an excuse for his unjustified rape of Eva Smith.
He also uses the term “chap” to refer to himself in third person, trying to distance himself away from the situation almost saying he isn’t in the wrong, chap is also used to describe a friendly man who would not do anything of those sorts when not under the influence - again blaming the use of alcohol for his actions.
“and that’s when it happened. And I don’t even remember - that’s the hellish thing”
Eric - “and that’s when it happened” implying the raping of Eva Smith, it gives the audience a sense of thinking time to only guess what happened in that situation.
The hyphen used in the sentence creates a sense of distress as he seems to not recall anything and is panicking in the moment, this could also mean he knows what happens and does not want to leak to truth as it is too disgusting to reveal, hence why earlier he said “and that’s when it happened” to help cover it up.
“not the kind of father a chap could go to when he’s in trouble”
Eric - This shows Eric’s further irresponsibleness further repeating the word “chap”, he is trying to victimise himself and put himself in the position of someone who did nothing wrong, he does this rather than accepting responsibility and would rather distance himself from the situation, afraid what will happen to him.
This also shows the negative relationship he has with his father [Mr Birling], his father is not willing to help his son out due to his father only ever focusing on the reputation and wealth of his business.
Not only is Eric irresponsible here, this also shows his lack of maturity since instead of thinking of a long term plan, Eric wanted to get this situation over and done with by marrying Eva Smith and providing stolen money to help fund her for the future.
“We did her in all right”
Eric - Like Sheila, Eric becomes responsible and understands the Inspector’s overall viewpoint and where he is coming from, the final message being social responsibility and how everyone in the Birling family is involved with the suicide of Eva Smith. The plural personal pronoun “We” show’s Priestley’s socialist views have finally hit Eric and is now taking collective responsibility for the welfare of Eva Smith and vulnerable people similar to her.
“It’s what happened to the girl and what we all did to her that matters”
Eric - Eric says this during the fuss about whether Inspector Goole was a real Inspector or not, Eric was more focused on the fact that what each individual has done has lead to the suicide of Eva Smith, this shows him taking responsibility as an individual and recognizing the flaws of the Birling family and their non-responsible sides, not even caring about the death of a working class adult.
“easy well-bred young man-about-town”
Gerald - Gerald is described as this in the stage directions at the beginning of the play. “easy” and “well bred” shows he is a privileged elite class male who lives with all the leisure he needs. Although being ~30 years old, he is also described as “young” - this could be describing his attitude towards life as an immature adult who is irresponsible and thoughtless, just like a young man would.
“I don’t come into this suicide business”
Gerald - An unexpected, cold hearted response from a man with a “young” personality, he treats suicide as a business rather than a personal problem, like it happens naturally every other day. Priestly presents Gerald as a superior when he says “suicide business” as he treats it as if he is not responsible for the death of Eva Smith, but rather others fault. He ignores the responsibilities of Eva Smith’s suicide just like his father Mr Birling.
“She didn’t blame me at all. I wish God she had now”
Gerald - Genuine remorse for the suicide of Eva Smith when he realises she is Daisy Renton, the audience sympathises for Gerald as there is a hope of change and belief Gerald will align himself with The Inspectors views of social responsibility and how everyone that partook in this situation is responsible - this is also exciting as he is a man of power and can make things change, however, in the end, this is a sign of false hope as rather than accepting what happened - later on in the act, the audience changes their feels as he tries his best to questions the Inspector’s authenticity and whether he is real or not - rather than accepting that he is one of many apart of the incident.
“everything is okay now”
Gerald - Gerald has no human decency as right after this situation is blown over and Sheila has been told that Gerald has had an affair with her with Eva Smith, he offers to propose to her again like nothing happened, this further annoys the audience changing its thoughts about the higher aristocracy as the audience see’s them as a non caring money hungry class whom would rather carry on typical family tradition than spread the wealth and help the vunerable.
“Because what happened to her then may have determined what happened to her afterwards, and what happened to her afterwards may have driver her to her suicide. A chain of events.”
The Inspector - this quote is used when the audience realize The Inspector investigations focuses on the links of different events and people, The Inspector connects these events through the use of anadiplosis; by repeating “what happened to her afterwards” in the end of the clause and the start of another, The Inspector empathises how each one of the Birling Family including Gerald is responsible for the death of Eva Smith and how each one of them ended up leading her to her final moments.
Anadiplosis - form of repetition in which the last word of one clause or sentence is repeated as the first word of the following clause or sentence
Mr Birling - “A man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own - and - ‘We hear the sharp ring of a front doorbell’ - what is the meaning of the sudden ringing of the doorbell?
The meaning of the Inspector coming in at this certain time challenges the thoughts of Mr Birling and his capitalistic thoughts, coming in at this sudden moment during his speech tells us that his thoughts are not to be listened to and are wrong - they should not be followed.
“We are members of one body”
The Inspector - Anaphora of the word “we”, a plural pronoun indicates the grouping of society as a whole, informing us no matter how big or small the actions we do are, bad or not, they will all affect the entire of the “human body” - or society in this case.
For a body to function, it needs important organs to always keep maintaining its functions, not stopping. Priestly describes society as the organs to the body and says our actions as a whole will have certain benefits and consequences to the human body - whether those actions be intentional or not. If society as a whole keep messing up, the human body will fall flat and society will end up corrupt.
“One Eva Smith gone - but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John smiths left with us”
The Inspector's socialist speech, Eva Smith is a symbol for all the working class women and men who work constantly in the same conditions, suffering and being neglected in a capitalistic society whom nobody cares for each other. Uses a polysyndetic list to emphasise the amount of working class victims out there suffering the negligence and wrath of the upper class whom only care about labour costs rather than the expense of their workers lives.
“mummy” “daddy”
-> “mother”
Sheila - Sheila referring to her parents as "mummy" & "daddy" show her lack of maturity and how she hasn't fully grown up - she is rather an infant who has been hidden from the real world not understanding the true problems behind it, a close resemblance of a utopia. However, later on in the play - her maturity has seemed to develop as she has evolved from being the infant baby hiding from the real world to a woman who is aware of the social problems during that era, the working class abuse and the unfair labour being done.
