KEY QUOTES

• "an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness"

  - semantic/lexical field of size showing the inspectors sheer importance and power, shift in power from Mr Birling

  
  

  - important structure, words appear long visually and verbally heightening the idea the inspectors power which only words bring down the family

  
  

  - three solid adjectives convey impenetrable objects will metaphorically sink the family, used to describe the Inspectors presence, demonstrates the disruption of the natural hierarchy of the house

  
  

  - each adjective elevates the inspector above Mr Birling
• "dressed in a plain, darkish suit of the period"

  - adj 'darkish' shows imagery of something ominous and sinister, perhaps foreshadowing how he will inaugurate gloom and misery into the family + post-war audience in reality of some 'darker' aspects of Edwardian society -> growing division or proletarians and bourgeois, and the deep-rooted patriarchal society where rich avarice men use and abuse women due to authority and status

  
  

  - Priestley's motive was to dress the Inspector plainly to divert any outward appearance and have to audience to focus on the intended basis of the Inspector, his dialect and the messages of social responsibility

  
  

  - audience are unable to identify him as an affluent or a working class individual
• "one person and one line of inquiry at a time"

  - commanding language conveys authority, keeps changing the dynamics causing tension

  
  

  - uses Freytag's dramatic arc to evaluate 'one person' at any time and through this allows the person to solely reflect on their actions alone.

  
  

  - idea of Freytag's dramatic arc ties in with the idea that each character questioned represents a characteristic of the seven deadly sins

  
  

  - Inspector is attempting to rid each character of their deadly sin, and take responsibility
• "a chain of events"

  - metaphor for Priestley's insistence that we are all bound up together and responsible communally for everyone's survival
• "they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish"


  - his sermon, final words signifying a resounding impact

  
  

  - This can be read in two ways - a foreshadowing of the world wars in which men were taught in fire, blood and anguish and a pessimistic prediction of world war 3 OR a religious metaphor that men will be condemned to a hell on earth if they cannot live together.

  
  

  - short sentences could represent his intent to deliver his opinions as facts making the character and audience inspect their one consciences OR symbolises the limit of society, which could still be developed by everyone accepting one another

  
  

  - Priestley uses the Inspector as a mouthpiece voicing his views on the social hierarchy of England
• "good night"


  - end of his speech is bathetic laying emphasis on words prior to this

  
  

  - sounds final as if the Inspector has finished his intended purpose
• "it's better to ask for the earth than to take it"

  - symbolises capitalism, class, equality with juxtaposing verbs 'ask' & 'take', showing how the upper classes can take but the poor are left to ask and hope

  
  

  - socialistic views
• "apologise for what - doing my duty?"

  - rightfully-defensive nature gives him a presence
• cutting in massively' '(massively taking charge)'

  - he is not intimated

  
  

  - shift in power
• "we don't live alone. we are members of one body. we are responsible for each other"

  - doesn't believe in class division, reinforced by pronoun 'we'

  - anaphora

  - attacks capitalism, relates this to christianity as "we are members of one body" is in the bible and he is saying that if you are christian which a lot of his audience were then you should be apart of socialism as they have the same outlook on life
• we'll have to share our guilt'

  socialism, didactic
• "millions and million and millions of Eva Smiths"

  hyperbolic and emphatic - socialistic views

  Repetition of "millions"> suggests that Eva is a microcosm of the whole of the working classes and her death reflects the population - this implies the imperative of change and to help/ care for one another.
• their lives, their hopes, their fears'

  TRIADIC STRUCTURE

  
  

  juxtaposes opposites, 'hopes' and 'fears'

  
  

  up to middle/upper class to determine how they will treat the working class...determined their future
• Priestley's intentions?


  1. exposes faults of middle/upper classes

  2. demonstrates power's positive potential

  3. Priestley's mouthpiece for his political views
• What are Inspector Goole's various roles in the play?

  1. dramatic catalyst for guilt/confession, speeds up events through his 'one line of inquiry at a time'

  2. moral subconscious

  3. interrogator

  4. moral teacher

  5. voice of JBP

  6. Goole, ghoul, real?

  7. omniscient
• pink and intimate' to 'brighter and harder'

  - juxtaposition, 'pink and intimate' metaphorically shows Birlings are in their own bubble but the adjectives 'brighter and harder' suggests the Inspector will shine a line on the actions of the family or alternatively, the adjective 'harder' connotes solidity, firmness and rigidness clearly exemplifying how the Inspector will not be manipulated by the social position of the Birlings and they will adjust their moral and political beliefs
• time/catalyst key point 'I haven't much time' (ref to looking at his watch)

  1. preventing the death of Eva through the phone call at the end of the play

  2. changing of society, the conservative government to a labour government