Theme Essay Plans AIC

Question 1

Class Division

Answer 1

1 - Birling’s
- “You’re mother - Lady Croft - … feels you might have done better for yourself socially”
- “lower costs and higher prices”
- “as if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money”
2 - Eva Smith
- “millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths”
- “very pleased with life” “hating life”
- “by that time Daisy knew it was coming to an end”
3 - Inspector Goole
- “public men have responsibilities as well as privileges”
- “you think young women ought to be protected against unpleasant and disturbing things”
- “we are all members of one body”

Question 2

Responsibility/guilt in AIC

Answer 2

1 - Mr Birling is responsible but doesn’t accept it
- “lower costs and higher prices”
- she’s had a lot to say … she had to go”
- “like bees in a hive - community and all that nonsense”
2 - Gerald is partly responsible and partly accepts it
- “I made her take some money”
- “I’m rather more upset by this business than I probably appear to be”
- “either there’s a dead girl or there isn’t”
3 - Eric is very responsible and transforms
- “I insisted - it seems”
- “each of you helped to kill her” - Inspector
- “the girls dead and we all helped to kill her - and that’s what matters”

Question 3

Gender Inequality

Answer 3

1 - Gerald and Eric’s relationships
- “I insisted - it seems”
- “a favourite haunt of women of the town”
- “miss billing ought to be excused anymore of this questioning … she’s had a long, tiring and exciting day”
2 - Mr + Mrs Birling’s views
- “go into the drawing room and leave you men”
- “she’d had a lot to say … she had to go”
- “men with important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time and energy on business”
3 - Sheila’s transformation
- “is it the one you wanted me to have?”
- “you ought to be saying it to me”
- [she hands him the ring back”

Question 4

Younger vs Older generation

Answer 4

1 - Mr Birling is the older generation
- “lower costs and higher prices”
- “I can’t accept any responsibility”
- “the famous younger generation who know it all”
2 - Sheila is the younger generation
- “I can’t help thinking about this girl - destroying herself so horribly - and I’ve been so happy tonight”
- “but these girls aren’t cheap labour - they’re people”
- “you’re just beginning to pretend all over again”
3 - Gerald is physically young but mentally old
- “ about thirty”
- “hear, hear!” “lower costs and higher prices”
- “I’m rather more - upset - by this business than I probably appear to be”
- “Everything’s all right now, Sheila”

Question 5

Power and status

Answer 5

1 - Mr Birling prizes status and power
- “Birling’s and Crofts can join together”
- “lower costs and higher prices”
- “I’d give thousands”
2 - Eva has no power or status
- “she’d had a lot to say… she had to go”
- “millions and millions of John Smiths and Eva Smiths”
- “I insisted - it seems”
3 - Inspector Goole does not conform to the system
- “you’re offering money at the wrong time”
- “you used the power you had … to punish the girl”
- “we are all members of one body”

Question 6

None of the characters deserve sympathy

Answer 6

1 - Eric may deserve sympathy
- “I insisted - it seems”
- “the girls dead and we all helped to kill her - that’s what matters”
- “you’re not the type of father a chap would go to”
2 - Mrs Birling does not deserve our sympathy
- “go and look for the father of the child. It’s his responsibility”
- “prejudiced me against her case”
- “I did my duty”
3 - Eva Smith definitely deserves our sympathy
- “she’d had a lot to say … she had to go”
- “she refused to take anymore”
- “died, after several hours of agony”