The Inspector Flashcards
Quotes- morality/responsibility
“Speaks carefully, weightily”
The use of the adjective “weightily” evidences the impact of the Inspector’s moral message. Also, speaking
“carefully” directly contrasts Mr Birling, whose speech is diluted with dashes and hesitations.
“If you’re easy with me, I’m easy with you”
Priestley’s use of parallelism (same grammatical features of a sentence repeated) in this phrase is, perhaps, symbolic for the Inspector’s message. This sense of equality and treating others how you wish to be treated is inherently socialist.
“Yes, but you can’t. It’s too late.
She’s dead.”
Here, Priestley uses short sentences and a terse triplet of expressions to convey an impactful message and express the need for radical change.
“Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges”
The Inspector reminds Mr Birling that he cannot do as he pleases without considering the potential consequences his actions may have.
“Their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness all intertwined with our lives”
Priestley continues to spread the message of socialism and the need for greater social responsibility as everybody’s lives are “intertwined”.
Quote-omniscience
“He knows”
Sheila understands the Inspector’s omniscience and thus reveals all to the Inspector, while encouraging Gerald to do the same, as “he knows” anyway.
” don’t need to know any more.
Neither do you.”
At this point, the Inspector has revealed the culpability of the characters in Eva’s death. As this is not a real Inspector, there is no need to know any more details, other than a sense of guilt and responsibility.
Quote- physical appearance
“Need not be a big man”
The Inspector “need not be a big man” as the strength of his position and ideology outweigh the need for an imposing physical appearance.
Warning of not learning lesson
“Impression of massiveness (solidity and
purposefulness)”
Priestley leaves the Inspector’s physical appearance as vague and, to some extent, unimportant due to his message of social responsibility being more important than his physical appearance.
“A plain darkish suit”
Priestley presents the Inspector as wearing simple and minimal clothes in “a plain darkish suit”, as appearance is irrelevant to him. It is moral and social responsibility which is of greater importance.
Quote-warning fir not learning lesson
Warning of not learning lesson
“Burnt her inside out, of course”
Priestley uses shocking imagery in an attempt to persuade the characters to change as he frequently refers to Eva’s death as “burnt her inside out”.
“If men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish”
Therefore, the threat of “fire blood and anguish” could be the Inspector warning both the characters and the audience of the religious consequences for neglecting their duty of social responsibility. The religious connotation of
“fire” is hell and therefore the punishment for not following the message of both Christianity and socialism to ‘love thy neighbour.
Role of inspector-1
Represents the ordinary person:
• speaking out for the ‘millions’ of Eva Smiths and John
Smiths in the world
• anonymous
• just disappears at the end and we don’t know where
to
The voice of conscience and responsibility: as a ‘ghoul’, does
he represent the ‘ghost’ of Eva Smith come to ‘haunt’ the
Birlings?
Reveals/ attempts to reveal the truth
• symbolized by the lighting change from the ‘ros[y]’
view of the world that the Birling family have at the
start of the play to becoming ‘brighter and harder’ as
he enters
• the truth that there might not be much of a
difference between ‘respectable citizens’ and
criminals’; the truth of the hypocrisy of the
middle/upper classes
• the truth revealed to Mr and Mrs Birling about their
children: that they are actually adults; that they
know more about the world than their parents think
(eg about prostitution; about men like Alderman
Meggarty); Eric’s drinking
• plays the part of an interrogator
Spokesperson for Priestley’s socialist views (same age as
Priestley when writing the play - he was in his fifties in
1945/1946 – born 1894)
• His last speech
• His first appearance interrupts Mr Birling’s speech in
which he expounds his capitalist views and the
selfish/ self-focused view that ‘a man has to mind his
own business and look after himself and his own –‘
suggesting that Priestley wants to ‘interrupt’ the
dominant capitalist narrative that he sees as selfish
• ‘Public men have responsibilities as well as
privileges.’
Role of inspector-2
A catalyst for the maturity and understanding of social
responsibility of the younger generation: his interactions
with the family are seen to change both Eric and Sheila
Plays a ‘priest-like’ role
• Extracts ‘confessions’ from each character in the
family
• Speaks using biblical language in his final speech –
referring to everyone as being ‘members of one
body’ (ref. to Corinthians: 12), and threatening ‘fire
and blood and anguish’ if people do not repent and
take responsibility for others
Stage managing the play – represents Priestley the
playwright as well as Priestley the socialist (controlling the
sequencing of the questioning, managing who sees what and
when, ‘summoning’ characters to enter – eg Eric)
