The Ending

• [The telephone rings sharply] Act 3, Cuts through the relived light-hearted atmosphere of the previous scene. Sound of the telephone is meant to jolt the audience in the same way as it jolts the Birling family
• [As they stare guiltily and dumbfounded, the curtain falls] Act 3
• "the famous younger generation who know it all. And they can't even take a joke-" Mr Birling Act 3, relating to generation gap