Social responsibility

Question 1

a man has to look after himself’ (Mr Birling)

Answer 1

C=Mr Birling set up as foil to Inspector to allow Priestley to present his political debate. He represents capitalist individualism

Question 2

‘He was our inspector all right’ (Eric)

Answer 2

L/I=he ‘interrogated’ them & made them confess. He was their MORAL inspector rather than a police inspector. They’ve all committed moral crimes against another innocent induvial

Question 3

‘I don’t come into this suicide business…we can keep it from him’ (Gerald

Answer 3

L=euphemism ‘business’ wants to distance himself emotionally. C=wants to conceal affair from Inspector/public. Reputation more important than honesty.

Question 4

‘fire and blood and anguish’ (Inspector

Answer 4

L=violent tricolon emphasizes his message of need for social change. R=audience in 4946 lived through 2 WW. Realise need for social change to avoid more suffering

Question 5

‘you mustn’t try to build up a kind of wall between us and the girl’ (Sheila

Answer 5

L=metaphor. I=could represent the class divide that Mrs Birling tries to assert; could also represent Mrs Birling’s denial. Mrs Birling need to accept responsibility for others & accept the truth

Question 6

‘these girls aren’t cheap labour…they’re people’ (Sheila

Answer 6

C=Sheila begins to realise that her father’s workers aren’t just a collective workforce, but individual human beings, & deserve to be treated with respect. L=adj ‘cheap’ normally applied to goods; I/D=Marxist interpretation-human beings reduced to means of production in capitalist society

Question 7

‘I did nothing I’m ashamed of’ (Mrs Birling

Answer 7

Mrs Birling refuse to accept responsibility for what happened to Daisy. C=unlike the younger generation, she’s not open to change. Hope for social change lies not with the older generation who involved Britain in 2 WW, but with the younger generation, who can change

Question 8

‘we’ll have to share our guilt…a chain of events’ (Inspector

Answer 8

L=verb ‘share’-we’re all responsible for each other in society; our actions have an impact on others. L=metaphor ‘chain of events’-one action leads to another, & all actions have consequences; no one person is responsible for what happened to Eva