All Quotes!!!!!

• Act 1- "the lighting should be pink and intimate until the Inspector arrives, and then it should be brighter and harder"

  • "pink"- unnatural, façade, tinted world
  • "brighter"- reveals secrets, shining light on family's actions
• Act 1 (Sheila)- "very pleased with life and rather excited"

  • contrasts to later in the play where life is not as good as it seems
• Act 1 (Eric)- "half shy, half assertive"
• Act 1 (Sheila)- "drink our health"

  • asking for praise, attention seeking
• Act 1 (Sheila)- "except for all last summer, when you never came near me"

  • foreshadowing Gerald's interrogation
• Act 1 (Birling)- "your engagement to Sheila means a tremendous lot to me"
• Act 1 (Birling)- "lower costs and higher prices"
• Act 1 (Sheila)- "Look- Mummy- isn't it a beauty"

  • materialistic
• Act 1 (Birling)- "you'll hear some people say war's inevitable- And to that I say- fiddlesticks"
• Act 1 (Birling)- "hard-headed"

  • repeated
• Act 1 (Birling)- "unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable"
• Act 1 (Birling)- "silly little war scares"
• Act 1 (Birling)- "a man has to make his own way... and his family too, of course"

  • gender expectations, woman are only for support
  • family after business, wrong priorities
• Act 1 (Birling)- "mixed up together like bees in a hive- community and all that nonsense"

  • "nonsense" shows he doesn't want to
  • Birling is outspoken, dismissive and patronising (looking down on others)
• Act 1 (Inspector)- "an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness"

  • intimidating by his knowledge
  • contrasts to Mr Birling
• Act 1 (Inspector)- "one person and one line of inquiry at a time"

  • foreshadows the whole family is involved in the death of Eva
• Act 1 (Birling)- "I can't except any responsibility"

  • capitalist views
• Act 1 (Birling)- "it's my duty to keep labour costs down"
• Act 1 (Inspector)- "it's better to ask for the earth than to take it"
• Act 1 (Sheila)- "these girls aren't cheap labour- they're people"

  • challenging capitalist views
• Act 1 (Sheila)- "I felt rotten about it at the time and now I feel a lot worse"
• Act 1 (Sheila)- "If she'd been some miserable plain little creature, I don't suppose I'd have done it"
• Act 1 (Sheila)- "(laughs rather hysterically) Why- you fool- he knows"

  • no longer containing her anger
  • direct
• Act 1 (Gerald)- "we're respectable citizens and not criminals"
• Act 1 (Mrs Birling)- "Really the things you girls pick up these days!"
• Act 1 (Mrs Birling)- "Now, Arthur, I don't think you ought to talk business on an occasion like this"
• Act 2 (Gerald)- “I think Miss Birling ought to be excused“
• Act 2 (Gerald)- “it’s bound to be unpleasant and disturbing“
• Act 2 (Sheila)- “I must obviously be a selfish, vindictive creature“
• Act 2 (Sheila)- “I know i’m to blame- and i’m desperately sorry”
• Act 2 (Mrs Birling)- “Girls of that class”
• Act 2 (Mrs Birling)- “you know of course that my husband was a Lord Mayor”
• Act 2 (Inspector)- “(cutting in, with authority)”
• Act 2 (Gerald)- “a favourite haunt of women of the town”
• Act 2 (Gerald)- “I hate those hard-eyed dough-faced women”
• Act 2 (Sheila)- “You wait mother”
• Act 2 (Gerald)- “young and pretty and warm-hearted and intensely grateful”
• Act 2 (Inspector)- “Your daughter isn’t living on the moon. She’s here in Brumley too.”
• Act 2 (Sheila)- “You were the wonderful Fairy Prince”
• Act 2 (Mrs Birling)- “I think we’ve just about come to an end of this wretched business”