quotes inspector calls

• "but these girls arent cheap labour - they're people" - capitalism vs socialism , capitalism dehumanised people . Mr birling , gerald and eric use her as objects in different ways. Mr birling treats sheila as cheap labour to get gerald as a business deal for status.
• “I’m talking as a hard-headed practical man of business” - Priestley uses Birling as a symbol of the callous and heartlessness of capitalism. Through his character he is criticizing the complacency of capitalist prosperity.
• ‘you’ll hear some people say war is Inevitable … fiddlesticks!’ - dramatic irony His language is also very dismissive when he says ‘Fiddlesticks!’ and ‘silly’ - he belittles other’s ideas
• 'unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable.’ - Exclamatory sentence – he’s passionate and convinced about what he’s saying. Titanic symbolizes his own family – believes they are untouchable until the Inspector arrives giving them a rude awakening.
• “I gather there’s a very good chance of a knighthood”
• “Probably a Socialist or some sort of crank”
• “A man has to make his own way – has to look after himself – and his family too, of course”
• "About fifty, a rather cold woman and her husband’s social superior”
• “girls of that class”
• I’m very sorry. But I think she only had herself to blame’
• “As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money!”
• “Go and look for the father of the child. It’s his responsibility.”
• “Yes, go on, Mummy”
• “And if I could help her now, I would-”
• “I’ll never, never do it again to anybody…I feel now I can never go there again”
• “Why- you fool- he knows. Of course he knows. And I hate to think how much he knows that we don’t know yet. You’ll see. You’ll see.”
• “It frightens me the way you talk”
• "Why shouldn’t they try for higher wages? We try for the highest possible prices”
• “Well I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty- and I threatened to make a row
• “And that’s when it happened. And I don’t even remember- that’s the hellish thing.”
• “I wasn’t in love with her or anything- but I liked her- she was pretty and a good sport-”
• “she didn’t want me to marry her. Said I didn’t love her- and all that. In a way, she treated me- as if I were a kid. Though I was nearly as old as she was.”
• “Then- you killed her. She came to you to protect me- and you turned her away-yes, and you killed her-and the child she’d have had too- my child- your own grandchild- you killed them both- damn you, damn you-”
• "And I say the girl’s dead and we all helped to kill her- and that’s what matters-”
• “An attractive chap about thirty, rather too manly to be a dandy but very much the easy well-bred young man-about-town”
• “I insisted on Daisy moving into these rooms and I made her take some money to keep her going there…I want you to understand that I didn’t install her there so I could make love to her…I was sorry for her…I didn’t ask for anything in return"
• “She told me she’d been happier than she’d ever been before”
• “But how do you know it’s the same girl? ... We’ve no proof it was the same photograph and therefore no proof it was the same girl”
• “Everything’s all right now Sheila. What about this ring?”
• “Two hours ago a young woman died in the Infirmary. She’d been taken there this afternoon because she’d swallowed a lot of strong disinfectant. Burnt her inside out, of course”
• “A chain of events”
• “it’s better to ask for the Earth than to take it”
• “A girl died tonight. A pretty, lively sort of girl, who never did anybody any harm. But she died in misery and agony- hating life-”
• “Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges”
• “But remember this. One Eva Smith has gone- but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, and what we think and say and do. We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish. Good night.”
• “…and died, after several hours of agony…”
• “She was a very pretty girl…that didn’t make it any better.”
• "As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money!”