AIC Keywords

• AUTONOMY

  Meaning: The right of a person to self-govern,

  or to make their own choices.

  Example sentence:

  When Eric forced himself on Eva, he stripped

  her of her autonomy, mirroring the way the

  autonomy of the lower classes was often

  minimised by the upper classes.
• BIGOTRY

  Meaning: An intolerance of any belief or

  opinion that differs from one's own.

  Example sentence:

  Mr Birling's bigotry prevents him from seeing

  Eva as a human being with the ability to suffer

  as he can, leading to his mistreatment of her.
• BOURGEOISIE

  Meaning: The middle classes. This term is

  typically used to refer to the materialistic and

  self-serving interests of the middle classes.

  Example sentence:

  The Birling family are representative of the way

  the bourgeoisie exploited the proletariat.
• CAPITALIST

  Meaning: Someone who believes in the

  economic and social concept of capitalism,

  which prioritises privately-owned, for-profit

  businesses. Capitalists tend to be against the

  idea of government intervention to help the

  poor.

  Example sentence:

  Mr Birling represents capitalist ideals,

  including the overarching belief that profit is a priority.
• COMPLACENCY

  Meaning: A smug satisfaction in one's own

  achievements, often paired with a blatant

  unawareness of external danger imposed on

  them or others.

  Example sentence:

  Mr Birling's complacency is evident in his

  contentment with the status quo and the value

  he places on the way society is set up.
• CONSCIENCE

  Meaning: A moral sense of right and wrong.

  Example sentence:

  Inspector Goole's questioning develops

  Sheila's conscience, and the guilt she feels

  serves as evidence that her conscience would

  prevent something like this from happening

  again in the circumstances.
• CONSERVATIVE

  Meaning: Someone who favours private

  ownership and traditional social concepts. There

  is a lot of overlap between Conservatives and

  capitalists.

  Example sentence:

  It is abundantly clear that Mr Birling is a

  conservative; his prioritisation of money and

  profit serve as evidence of his support for

  private ownership.
• CONSERVATIVE PARTY

  . Meaning: A centre-right wing British political

  party known for favouring private ownership

  and traditional social concepts.

  Example sentence:

  Mr Birling clearly agrees with the ideology of

  the Conservative Party, and we can see this in

  the way he prioritises profit over the conditions

  of his workers.
• CYCLICAL STRUCTURE

  . Meaning: When a text begins and ends in the

  same place with the same idea or theme.

  Example sentence:

  The plot is cyclical; an inspector calls at the

  beginning of the text, and after Inspector

  Goole has questioned the family and left

  again, a real inspector calls to interrogate the

  family.
• DEGRADE

  . Meaning: To treat someone with disrespect or

  to belittle them.

  Example sentence:

  Mrs Birling's treatment of Eva Smith is based

  on degradation; she turned her away from the

  support of her charity because she believed

  Eva's pregnancy out of wedlock was evidence

  of loose morals.
• DEHUMANISE

  Meaning: To regard someone as less than

  human and to deprive them of their status as a

  person.

  Example sentence:

  Mrs Birling repeatedly dehumanises the

  working classes by referring to it as "that

  class", creating distance between the lower

  classes and their status as people.
• DICHOTOMY

  · Meaning: A division into two opposite groups

  to emphasise their differences.

  Example sentence:

  Priestley juxtaposes the characters of Mr

  Birling and Inspector Goole to create a

  dichotomy of viewpoints on the structure of

  society.
• DIDACTIC

  Meaning: Intending to teach the reader a

  lesson, often a moral one.

  Example sentence:

  'An Inspector Calls' is a didactic text filled with

  moral messages. It teaches the reader to more

  carefully consider the impact their treatment of

  others can have.
• DISILLUSIONMENT

  Meaning: The disappointment felt when

  something turns not as good as it was

  expected/believed to be.

  Example sentence:

  Eva Smith became disillusioned with the upper

  classes, particularly once Mr Birling fired her

  for demanding a fair wage, and Mrs Birling

  turned her away from her charity.
• DISENFRANCHISED

  Meaning: To deprive a person (or group of

  people) of a privilege.

  Example sentence:

  Critics have argued that the Birling family

  disenfranchised themselves from common

  decency and social responsibility.
• EMBLEMATIC

  Meaning: Representative of a particular

  concept or quality. Emblematic is another word

  for symbolic.

  Example sentence:

  Eva Smith is emblematic of the lower and

  working classes in the early twentieth

  century, used to emphasise their constant

  oppression.
• EMPOWERMENT

  Meaning: Becoming more confident and

  powerful. The word is typically used in relation

  to a person gaining control over their life.

  Example sentence:

  The Inspector's questioning empowers Sheila.

  It helps her grow into herself and stand up for

  herself, especially when speaking to Gerald.
• EXPLOITATION

  Meaning: The action of treating a person

  unfairly in order to benefit from their

  mistreatment.

  Example sentence:

  Mr Birling fired Eva Smith when she refused

  to be subjected to his low pay and

  exploitation.
• FAÇADE

  Meaning: A deceptive outward appearance

  used to conceal a person's true personality or

  feelings.

  Example sentence:

  Priestley presents upper class respectability

  as a facade invented by the upper classes to

  feed into their own delusions of grandeur.
• GENERATIONAL DIVIDE

  . Meaning: The difference in opinion between

  people of different generations. This tends to

  manifest in social and political ideology.

  Example sentence:

  Generational divide can clearly be seen in the

  way the younger generation are more

  impressionable and accepting of their guilt,

  while the older generation are hardheaded and

  resistant to the Inspector's lessons.
• HYPOCRISY

  . Meaning: Claiming to have a higher degree of

  virtue or goodness than is actually true.

  Example sentence:

  Mr Birling's hypocrisy becomes clear in the

  way he talks about responsibility; despite how

  often he brings up responsibility during the

  Inspector's questioning, he fails to act

  responsibly towards his workers.
• IDEOLOGY

  Meaning: A body of beliefs and ideals that

  dictates how a person thinks and acts. It can

  also be used in relation to political and religious

  beliefs.

  Example sentence:

  Mr Birling's capitalist ideology is responsible

  for his actions towards Eva Smith and his

  other workers; it prevents him from seeing

  them as anything other than generators of

  profit.
• INDICTMENT

  . Meaning: To heavily criticise a system/ idea/

  group of people.

  Example sentence:

  Priestley creates An Inspector Calls as an

  indictment of the ignorance of the upper

  classes. He creates the Birlings' to personify

  this utter lack of a social conscience.
• INDIVIDUALIST

  Meaning: Someone who believes we are

  solely responsible for ourselves.

  Example sentence:

  Mr Birling is an individualist who believes

  we should look out for our own best

  interests, rather than those of others.
• INDOCTRINATION

  . Meaning: To teach someone to accept a new

  set of beliefs without questioning them.

  Example sentence:

  Mrs Birling is a woman who has been subject

  to the indoctrination of her husband (and of

  the patriarchy) to believe that her gender

  should submit to their male counterparts.
• INFIDELITY

  Meaning: Being involved in a sexual or

  romantic relationship with someone other than

  one's partner; cheating.

  Example sentence:

  Gerald's infidelity is brought into the open

  when the Inspector reveals that Eva changed

  her name to Daisy Renton - the name of the

  woman Gerald had an affair with.
• LABOUR PARTY

  Meaning: A centre-left wing British political party

  known for opposing conservatism, and supporting

  public ownership and state intervention.

  Example sentence:

  Priestley was a member of the Common

  Wealth Party, which later merged with the

  Labour party and formed the Welfare state. If

  the Labour party's welfare state had been in

  place during the play, Eva wouldn't have had

  to rely on the support of a charity, and thus

  wouldn't have been turned away, and likely

  wouldn't have died.
• MATERIALISTIC

  Meaning: Someone who values material

  possessions and physical comfort as the highest

  priority.

  Example sentence:

  Mrs Birling is materialistic, valuing

  appearances over good moral standing. Her

  materialism is made explicitly clear in the way

  she looks down her nose at Eva Smith, who has

  no material possessions.
• MICROCOSM

  Meaning: A community or situation intended

  to represent the characteristics of something

  much larger.

  Example sentence:

  The Birling family's mistreatment of Eva Smith

  acts as a microcosm for the upper class's

  mistreatment of the lower classes.
• MISOGYNIST

  Meaning: Someone who dislikes or is strongly

  prejudiced against women.

  Example sentence:

  Mr Birling is a misogynist whose prejudice

  against women can be found in his treatment of

  women throughout the play, from his

  exploitation of Eva Smith, to his condescension

  towards his own daughter.
• MORALITY

  Meaning: Principles regarding the

  differentiation between right and wrong.

  Example sentence:

  Inspector Goole represents ideal morality and

  compassion for the masses.
• MOUTHPIECE

  . Meaning: A person or character who speaks

  on behalf of another.

  Example sentence:

  Inspector Goole is Priestley's mouthpiece; he

  conveys Priestley's personal beliefs through his

  questioning, thus teaching the characters and

  the reader about Priestley's ideology.
• NEGLIGENCE

  Meaning: Failure to take care of something,

  or a failure to meet a duty of care.

  Example sentence:

  The Birling family are all socially negligent in

  the way they treat Eva Smith. They reject social

  responsibility to prioritise their own personal

  gain.
• OBJECTIFY

  . Meaning: To degrade a person to the status of

  an object, with complete disregard for their

  individual status as a person with emotions.

  Example sentence:

  The Inspector identifies Gerald's

  objectification of Eva when he asks her if he

  intended to keep her as his mistress, with the

  word "keep" being used to imply ownership.
• OMNISCIENT

  Meaning: All-knowing.

  Example sentence:

  It is implied that Inspector Goole is omniscient;

  he knows what each of the Birling family did to

  Eva in explicit detail, despite the fact that their

  actions were insignificant to them.
• OPPRESSION

  Meaning: On-going unjust treatment by an

  authority figure.

  .

  Example sentence:

  Eva Smith is representative of the continuous

  oppression of the working classes by their

  upper class employers.
• PATRIARCHY

  Meaning: A social system in which men hold

  the power and women face oppression from

  these men in power.

  Example sentence:

  Mr Birling is representative of the patriarchy,

  emulating traditional male dominance in the

  way he treats the women around him.
• POLITICAL DIATRIBE

  . Meaning: The way a text is written to criticise

  a political system or belief.

  Example sentence:

  Priestley uses 'An Inspector Calls' as a social

  and political diatribe to criticise the rigid class

  divides which are responsible for the

  exploitation of the lower classes
• PRIVILEGE

  Meaning: The rights or advantages of an

  individual, available to them because of their

  race, class, gender, or sexuality.

  Example sentence:

  Preistley creates a dichotomy between poverty

  and privilege by contrasting the vastly

  different lifestyles of Eva Smith and the Birling

  family
• PROLETARIAT

  Meaning: The working classes.

  Example sentence:

  Eva Smith is representative of the way the

  proletariat were exploited by the bourgeoisie.