quotes for ic

• Context points to remember for An Inspector Calls:

  • Priestly was a socialist who criticized the capitalist Edwardian system
  • Women had few rights during this time, regardless of class
  • Edwardian England had deep class divisions
  • The prevailing view of the undeserving poor
  • The play is set just before the start of World War One
• Themes to remember:

  • Class divisions illustrated through characters like Eva and Daisy Smith
  • Age and the divide between the older and younger generation
  • Social responsibility and the duty of the wealthy to help the poor
  • Gender and the mistreatment of women by men
• • Eric Birling: "Half shy and half assertive", "I don't remember...", "You lot"
  • Inspector Goole: "A young woman died... she was in great Agony", "Public men... have responsibilities", "Millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths"
• Key quotations for main characters:

  • Mr. Birling: "The Titanic... Unsinkable", "It's my duty to keep labor costs down", "The famous younger generation who know it all"
  • Sheila Birling: "These Girls Aren't cheap", "I started it", "There's nothing to be sorry for"
  • Gerald Croft: "We're respectable citizens and not criminals", "I became the most important person in her life", "You know what girl..."
  • Mrs. Birling: "Girls of that class", "She'd impertinently made use of our name", "You might be wanting to help him instead of us"
• working together for lower costs and higher prices

  capitalsim in mr birling
• "these girls aren’t cheap" - Sheila Birling
• "we are members of one body" - Inspector Goole
• "i am responsible for her death" - Eric Birling
• "there is no such thing as society, there are individual men and women" - Mr. Birling
• "she had no character at all" - Mrs. Birling
• "it's my duty to keep labour costs down" - Mr. Birling
• "there is something terribly wrong with this country" - Inspector Goole
• "she had been brought up with every privilege except love" - Inspector Goole
• "these things happen every day" - Inspector Goole
• "I don't want any trouble from the police" - Mr. Birling
• "I don't want to be told what to do by anybody" - Eric Birling
• "it was the girl who killed herself that made it so bad" - Mr. Birling
• "you have helped to kill her too" - Inspector Goole
• "a woman who has been ruined by a man like that deserves to be killed" - Mr. Birling
• "we have made the world and what's left of it we have got to live in with each other's sufferings" - Inspector Goole
• artuhur , your not supposesd to say such things
• but i think she had only herself to blame

  mrs birling
• yes go on, mummy.


  naive act1 shelia
• you and i arent the same people who sat down to dinner here.


  maturing shelia
• she was pretty and a good sport


  eric descrbing eva
• your not the kind of father a chap could go to

  eric talking to arthtur
• he was our police inspector all right


  eric at the end