The Inspector Flashcards
“Perhaps I ought to warn you that he’s an old friend of mine”
When Mr Birling first meets Inspector Goole he attempts to intimidate him.
He tries to assert himself as Goole’s social superior.
In this quote, Mr Birling tells the Inspector that he is good friends with the Inspector’s Chief Constable.
Girls of that class”
This is spoken by Mrs Birling when she is attempting to justify why she failed to offer Eva/ Daisy the aid she needed.
She simply writes Eva/Daisy off as of a lower, less deserving class, incapable of true feelings and honesty.
If you don’t come down hard on these people they’ll be asking for the world
This quote is from Birling, explaining why he fired Daisy (as she was called then).
Birling says that he fired her simply because she asked for a pay rise.
Both the Inspector and Birling’s daughter Sheila have to remind him that the workers in his factory are not simply “cheap labour”.
In analysing class in An Inspector Calls you can reference one of Inspector Goole’s most famous lines from the play
This key quote is: “We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other.”
Here the Inspector is clear that we have a duty to each other in society and cannot act alone and selfishly.
I became the most important person in her life”
This is quote is spoken by Gerald.
Here is he explaining how Daisy (she’s changed her name by this point) reacted to him taking her in as his mistress.
When Gerald does this he sets her up in a friend’s empty house.
Daisy is desperate and he takes advantage of her because he is a man with money and she is not.
“He is a man in his fifties, dressed in a plain darkish suit of the period.
He speaks carefully, weightily and has a disconcerting habit of looking
hard at the person he addresses before actually speaking”
The inspector is described as a weird looking man throughout the play
“A chain of events” (may have driven her to suicide)
Chain imagery – Goole emphasizes how we are all responsible
for each other and Eva’s death was the result of a chain of
events etc.
“Need not be a big man but he creates at once an impression of
massiveness, solidity and purposefulness.”
The Inspector assumes control, which is a disturbing shift for
Birling and he immediately tries to regain it. The Inspector
interrupts Birling ‘cutting through, massively’. The Inspector’s
interruptions and his indifference to the nicer points of polite
behaviour make him stand apart from the others.
“Two hours ago a young woman died in the Infirmary. She’d been
taken there this afternoon because she’d swallowed a lot of strong
disinfectant. Burnt her inside out, of course”
He speaks in a controlled way, often building on comments
made by other characters. He repeats words they have used and
manipulates them for his own end. Examples include his
repetition and manipulation of the word ‘impression’ and his
manipulation of the word ‘position’, the meaning of which he
changes from a metaphorical to a more literal one, in order to
shock Mrs Birling
“A girl died tonight. A pretty, lively sort of girl, who never did anybody
any harm. But she died in misery and agony- hating life-”
When he begins to reveal who is responsible for the death of
Eva Smith, his words are quite emphatic and he makes great use
of two short sentences in the imperative ‘Remember that.
Never forget.’
