Social Responsibility - Inspector

Question 1

How does the Inspector link to Social Responsibility?

Answer 1

• Teaches family to split resp. between them.
• Share blame.
• Duty to take resp.

Question 2

‘We don’t live alone. We are responsible for each other. We are members of one body’ (Act 3, Page 56)

Answer 2

• Duty.
• Inspector’s closing speech directly contrasts with Mr Birling’s opening lecture of supporting Capitalist ideals of preservation.
• Repetition of pronoun ‘we’ reinforces idea of collectivity.
• Metaphor of ‘one body’ - if one suffers, we all suffer.
• ‘We are members of one body’ shows everyone is intertwined with one another - society is the result of everyone’s combined actions.
• ‘We don’t live alone’ - presents a moral duty to look after others. Ignoring it is selfish and delusional.

Question 3

‘If men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish’ (Act 3, Page 56)

Answer 3

• Consequences.
• Allusion to world wars that Priestley fought and live through. War is a consequence of neglect.
• Prediction is prophetic and almost Biblical - more weight.
• ‘fire and blood and anguish’ is experienced by everyone who suffers from selfishness.