Theme - Responsibility

• Responsibility


  • One of the most prominent themes of the play
  • The Inspector demands that the Birlings hold themselves accountable
• Responsibility key points

  • The Inspector holds each character accountable, no matter how little their involvement with Eva's death
  • Sheila is the first to accept responsibility
  • Shows her empathy and growth
  • The Inspector argues for both personal and social responsibility
  • Only Eric and Sheila truly learn this lesson by the end}
• Responsibility quotes - taking responsibility

  • "I say the girl's dead and we all helped to kill her."
  • Eric
  • "So I'm really responsible?"
  • Sheila
  • "these others"
  • Sheila
  • She distances herself from what her parents and Gerald did
  • She takes responsibility, they don't
  • "if men will not learn their lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish" - The Inspector, Act 3
• Responsibility quotes - refusing responsibility 


  • "There's every excuse for what your mother and I did."
  • Mr Birling, Act 3
  • "you're quite wrong to suppose I shall regret what I did"
  • Mrs Birling, Act 2
• The role of the Inspector is to highlight that all actions have consequences
• "a man has to make his own way - has to look after himself - and his family too, when he has one - and so long as he does that he won't come to much harm"

  • Mr Birling
  • Act One
  • Shows his self-centredness and his narrow-minded view of society
  • Shows his sense of individualism
  • Alludes to the patriarchal values of 1912
• "as if we were all mixed up like bees in a hive - commmunity and all that nonsense" - Mr Birling, Act 1

  • Theme - social responsibility
  • Use of harsh and insensitive language
  • "nonsense"
  • dismissive view of ideas different to his own
  • reflects the more narrow-minded ideas of the 1912 upper class
  • Similie
  • "like bees in a hive"
  • implies social responsibility is primitive and animalistic
  • Dismissive language
  • "as if"
  • he sees other people's views as something to be discarded, barely worth spending time on
• "A man has to make his own way - has to look after himself - and his family too" - Mr Birling, Act 1

  • Theme - social responsibility, gender
  • Birling believes men are born with an obligation to themselves alone
  • Pause
  • "- and his family too"
  • suggests that the thought of his family was an afterthought
  • shows Birling is self-centred, even his family is secondary to himself
• "Obviously it has nothing to do with the wretched girl's suicide" - Mr Birling, Act 1


  • Theme - personal responsibility
  • Birling refuses to see the consequences of his actions because they happened a while before Eva's death
  • shows his simplistic view of the world
  • "wretched girl"
  • shows his lack of compassion for the working class
  • his continued rejection of responsibility seems to be a result of his arrogance and disrespect for others
• "I can't accept any responsibility" - Mr Birling, Act 1 


  • Theme - personal responsibility
  • "can't"
  • modal verb
  • suggests that accepting blame goes against his nature
• "There's every excuse for what your mother and I did - it turned out unfortunately, that's all" - Mr Birling, Act 3


  • Theme - personal responsibiloty
  • "excuse"
  • connotations of pathetic, quickly-thought up ways to remove blame
  • suggests Birling is desparate to take the blame off himself
  • Unsympathetic language
  • "unfortunately", "that's all"
  • trivialising the hardships faced by the lower class
  • sees Eva's death as an inconvenience, nothing worth making him accept responsibility for it
• "simply because I've done nothing wrong, and you know it" - Mrs Birling, Act 2


  • Theme - social responsibility
  • Mrs Birling refuses to take any responsibiity for what she did to Eva
• "You're partly to blame. Just as your father is." - The Inspector, Act 1 


  • Theme - social responsibility, shared responsibility
  • The Inspector holds Sheila responsible without absolving her father of his involvement
• "We are members of one body" - The Inspector, Act 3


  • Theme - social responsibility
  • Part of the fire and blood and anguish final speech
  • Society is the result of everyone's combined actions