Act 1

• How does the lighting change in 'An Inspector Calls'?

  Begins with "pink and intimate" lighting and "brighter and harder" when the Inspector arrives

  • Initially, the family wear "rose-tinted glasses" - they are self-centred and ignorant to reality, and also enjoy their wealth
  • The light almost seems like an interrogation light after it changes. The Inspector literally and figuratively sheds light on the true nature of the characters and forcibly removes their ignorance
• Stage directions in the beginning

  Birling - "rather provincial in his speech"

  Mrs Birling - "rather cold woman"

  Sheila - "very pleased with life"

  Gerald - "well bred young man about town"

  Eric - "half shy, half assertive"
• Mr Birling's dramatic irony

  "The Germans don't want war" and "unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable"

  Birling's indifferent attitude towards difficulties e.g. war may offend the audience who may have lived through them

  Since Birling is a microcosm of capitalist businessmen, Priestley is trying to make them as a whole look ignorant
• Sheila, about the ring

  "Is it the one you wanted me to have?"
• Mr Birling

  "a man has to make his own way"

  He is interrupted during a long, capitalistic speech by the door bell
• A stage direction describing the Inspector, when he arrives

  "a presence of massiveness, solidity, and purposefulness"
• Mr Birling

  "I can't accept any responsibility"

  "There's nothing mysterious - or scandalous - about this business"
• Mr Birling/The Inspector about firing Eva

  Birling: "She had a lot to say-- far too much-- so she had to go"

  [...]

  Inspector: "It's better to ask for the world than to take it"
• Sheila

  "But these girls aren't cheap labour-- they're people."

  "I felt rotten about it at the time and now I feel a lot worse" - the superlative emphasises her empathy
• What does Sheila call her mother in Act 1?

  Mummy
• Gerald

  "I don't come into this suicide business"

  "D'you mind if I give myself a drink, Sheila?" (after hearing the name "Daisy Renton")
• Sheila

  "If she'd been some miserable plain little creature, I don't suppose I'd have done it"
• Mr Birling, to Gerald

  "There's a very good chance of knighthood - so long as we behave ourselves..."

  Trying to impress Gerald due to the differences of their families in old and new money

  Foreshadows the events of the play
• Mr Birling

  "a lively good-looking girl - country-bred"

  This creates an image of livestock in relation to Eva Smith, stripping her of her personhood.

  The Birlings are willing to use her for personal gains until she becomes a liability or an inconvenience
• Gerald

  "You seem to be a nice, well-behaved family"