Gerald

• "insisted on a parting gift"
• Act 1: idiomatic phrase "easy well-bred young man-about-town" (suggests he is a fashionable socialite. Characterisation also foreshadows his unfaithful nature at the Palace Bar)
• Sheila says "Is it the one you wanted me to have?" in Act 1. The fact that Gerald chose it portrays him as caring and steady.
• Act 1- "I don't pretend to know much about (port)" shows him as humble. His humbleness directly juxtaposes Mr B's arrogant and pompous nature. Verb "pretend" is ironic and foreshadows he fake trusting relationship with Sheila.
• "I hate those hard-eyed dough-faced women". His vivid description of the prostitutes reveals more of his salacious, deceiving nature - this sort of opinion can only come from experience.
• Gerald noticed Eva seemed "out of place" among the other prostitutes. Made her intriguing and fascinating to him - he took advantage of her vulnerability to satisfy his base desires. "told the girl that if she didn't want any more of that sort of thing, she'd better let me take her out of there"
• "She was pretty - soft brown hair and big dark eyes - [breaks off] My God!". Syntax evidences how he only cared for Eva because of his own lust. Aposiopesis (abrupt break in speech) comes directly after his description of her beauty - reveals he was only physically attracted to her as he only feels grief when remembering her physical beauty.
• Gerald is in an aware, but conformist state. He is conscious of the cruelty of the upper-classes, yet shows no desire to change society and ultimately relinquish his status and power. He is at a moral crossroads: he can either fight against the class system or use it to his advantage. He is presented as possessing a conscience and moral conscious (but fails to follow them).
• He condemns the actions of "alderman Meggarty" who is a "notorious womaniser", and perceives himself as "the wonderful fairy prince" who saves Eva. His desire to save her is clear, but he has his own priorities at heart.
• Public perception is very important to Gerald. He will go out of his way to help Eva to satisfy his needs, but maintains the image of an honest and respectable man in the public sphere of influence. Gerlad has an inherent duty to uphold and maintain society as it currently is due to his business and familial expectations. He must maintain the systematic immorality of the class system even if he disagrees with it.
• Gerald is somewhere in between the old and young generations in terms of mentality and perception. He won't accept responsibility, but does recognise and accept his own flaws. This liminality (at a position between two boundaries) extends to his attitudes and ideologies. He intentionally chooses to only react to the injustice that is obvious to him, rather than the institutionalised prejudiced that is caused by the class system. He couldn't ignore that "Old Joe Meggarty [...] had wedged her into a corner"
• "(carefully, to the inspector) I want you to understand that I didn't install her there so I could make love to her"

  stage direction (adverb) - watching what he says, knowing he could be in trouble with EVERYONE there. verb "install" - materialism (links to semantic field of business and finance rhetoric "Install her", "In return", "business" - Gerald sees relationships in life as business transactions, which was common in many marriages (think downton abbey)
• (In response to IG asking if she had become his mistress) "yes. I suppose it was inevitable. She was young and pretty and warm hearted - and intensely grateful. I became at once the most important man in her life - you understand?"

  Methods: syntax - taking advantage of her youthful innocence to access her beauty and satisfy his desires. Question - gender, as IG is a man he must understand Gerald's cruelty?
• G's guilt for his abuse of ES is short-lived - an almost insignificant amount of guilt. The unsympathetic response is exactly what IG condemns. The change in G's attitudes must become permanent to effect change in society. He feels guilt and has a conscience but tries to manipulate his conscience to alleviate his responsibility (not necessarily downright deny it).
• Portrayed by Priestley as following a moral stance, only when it suits his own needs. He was "awfully busy at the works all that time" during the summer he had the affair with Eva. This lie makes it clear that Gerald is unrepentant until Sheila finds out.
• Gerald drops Eva like a possession as she "knew it could not last" due to her class. It wasn't the end of the financial aid that hurt Eva, it was the loss of a caring relationship - "I didn't feel about her as she did about me".
• Condescending to women:

  Rescue imagery with regards to Eva, portraying her as a victim of capitalist society. Geralds rescue of Eva is a facade - he is really taking her captive. Her situation remains the same, but she is still held captive by members of the upper-classes.
• Power imbalance between men and women - Eva is powerless against the emotional abuse and manipulation she faces with Gerald. Women were valued for beauty and sex appeal.
• Gerald attempts to exclude Sheila as she recognises that "he means that I'm getting hysterical". Hysteria was a fabricated disorder to oppress women and exclude women from politics - Sheila is too emotional to think logically.
• He perpetuates a demeaning cult of victimhood as "young women should be protected from unpleasant and disturbing things" because they are too fragile to witness the harsh reality of the world. The conviction he holds is ironic as he failed to protect Eva from the sexual desires that he holds himself.
• The men oppress women's voices to maintain their own power.