inspector calls

• ACT 1 ( stage direction) "The general effect is substantial and heavily comfortable, but not cosy and homelike"

  Uses contrast of appearance vs reality; home should be cosy but not the birlings; family wealthy and concerned with appearances but family relationships are not warm.
• ACt 1 (stage direction) "The lighting should be pink and intimate until the Inspector arrives, and then it should be brighter and harder"


  Pink and intimate light suggests that the birlings live in an unselfconscious cocoon, unaware of the world around them; the inspector arrives to shine a metaphorical light on their behaviour and reveal that world does not revolve around them.
• Act 1 (stage direction) "Heavy looking, rather portentous man"


  arrogant; forceful, bullying character; stage directions realised in the actor's perfromnce; first impression of mr B
• Act 1 (stage direction) "A rather cold woman and her husband's social superior"

  Aware of class; criticises actions which diminish status; arrogant; coldness suggests problems in the family relationships; lacks compassion/empathy
• Act 1 (Mr. Birling) "You'll hear some people say that war's inevitable. And to that I say - fiddlesticks!"


  Ironic because war has already happend; shows that MR B is opinionated (emp by exclamation) but unreliable - the audience doesn't trust his view
• Act 1 (Mr. Birling) "I gather there's a very good chance of a knighthood - so long as we behave ourselves...(laughs complacently)"

  Foreshadowing; emp by adverb complacently; Mr B shown how to be smug; we already know that he thinks they will behave makes it inevitable that they won't
• Act 1 (Mr. Birling) "A man has to make his own way - has to look after himself - and his family too, of course, when he has one"


  outlines Mr B's selfish attitude in total contrast to priestley's ideas; Mr B is lecturing again; we have already been led to distrust Mr B so it is clear that this is not the correct idea from the outset.
• Act 1 (stage direction) "He creates at once an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness"


  Intimidation; fear and power through size and strength; contrast to mr B, who is inauthentic; purposefulness.
• Act 1 (Mr. Birling) " It's a free country, I told them Eric - It isn't if you can't go and work somewhere else"

  Contrast of views between older and younger generation - Mr B is wrong, while Eric shows compassion; class divide which Mr B doesn't understand; freedom is reserved for the privileged in an unfair society
• Act 1 (Inspector) "It's better to ask for the earth than to take it"


  Privilaged class takes throufh their power and wealth; lower class dont have the same amount of power, so have to ask
• Act 1 (sheila) "But these girls aren't cheap labour - they're people"


  Sheila shows empathy/humanises Eva; character chnages quickly and she begins to take on priestly's voice
• Act 1 (Gerald) "We're respectable citizens and not criminals Inspector - Sometimes there isn't as much difference as you think"


  Being upper class and 'respectable' doesn't exempt you from taking responsibility; demonstrates a perceived class divide.; ironic as the family is revealed to not be respectable.
• Act 1 (inspector) "So you used the power you had, as a daughter of a good customer and also of a man well-known in the town, to punish the girl just because she made you feel like that. [jealous]"

  Emphasises the crime sheila had committed, and emphasises the pettiness of sheila's actions and the extremity of their consequences; emp the unfairness of class system in ich the wealth have such power over the poor.
• Act 2 (Inspector) "And you think young women ought to be protected against unpleasant and disturbing things?"


  inspector emphisises Gerald's hypocrisy ; class division- pooor women not protected in the same way ass wealthy ones; gender issue priestly does not believe that women should be protected and kept ignorant - sheila is his mouth piece
• Act 2 (Mrs. Birling) "Girls of that class"


  Mrs B judgement views on lower class women - as though they are a different species; Sheila interrupts her - adds drama, shows sheila is Priestly's mouthpiece, shows the tension betweeen old and young and their views on class
• Act 2 (Gerald) "Yes. I suppose it was inevitable. She was young and pretty and warm hearted - and intensely grateful. I became the most important person in her life."


  Inevitable - power difference inevitably lead to control; Gerald ha all the power, all Eva has is her body and her emotions; Listing emphasizes his fondness for Eva short sentences suggests sincerity, guilt and sadness.
• Act 2 (Inspector) "(massively) Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges."


  Public is ironic since the play focuses on what goes on behind closed doors; sums up Priestley's message about responsibility; highlights that the wealthy shouldn't be automatically respected is they don't act in a respectable way.
• Act 2 (Mrs. Birling) "Naturally that was one of the things that prejudiced me against her case."


  Eva uses Mrs B's name is perceived as impertinent and worthy of punishment - shows her obsession with class; Mrs B is the cruel archetype who we are not encouraged to agree with; the use of the word naturally assumes that the Inspector, and the audience, will agree with her (which they don't)and thereby makes her sound pompous; proleptic irony because Eva is carrying the birling child so has some right to the name.
• Act 2 (Mrs. Birling) "He should be made an example of"


  Shifts blame rather than taking responsibility; ironic because condemning her own son; incapable of accepting the consequences of her actions; drama is created as Sheila seeks to interrupt and correct Mrs B, whose arrogance means that she continues to condemn Eric.
• Act 2 (stage direction) "We hear the front door slam"


  Drama created at the end of Act 2 as a cliffhanger; emp climax of the play as we discover the last family members involvement with Eva.
• Act 3 (Mr. Birling) "I've got to cover this up as soon as I can"


  Mr B only concern is the scandal; 'cover up' is cowardly and shows no remorse; does acknowledge that Eric's actions were wrong; but does nothing to face the consequences, other than try to avoid them.
• Act 3 (Inspector) "But just remember this. One Eva Smith has gone - but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smith's and John Smith's still left with us...We do not live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other."


  short sentences emphasis sincerity of what he's saying and the power of it; Repetition of millions and millions and millions emp the shear number of __; he uses Eva smith as a archetype for all poor women; priestly uses Tautology in the line (same meaning different words.) ; summarises all the events of the play; ends speech with threat; ends with powerful threat.
• Act 3 (Inspector) "They will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish"


  Biblical allusion to the old Testament; suggests punishment for moral transgressions; who is the inspector-god? a prophet? moralitiy play? foreshadows the world wars; intended to be threatening/scary; emp by group of three
• Act 3 (sheila) "The point is you don't seem to have learnt anything."


  Sheila and the audience, has learnt that all actions have consequences and that you have to take resposibility for them; this is before she has learnt that the inspector didnt exist but she still learns the lesson; young/old divide as she delivers this line to her parents
• Act 3 (eric) "It's what happened to the girl and what we did to her that matters."


  Socialist views continue to be made clear - responsibility for the consequences of your actions; comes after the inspector is revealed to be non- existent - the younger generation continue to insist on the importance of the lesson; ' what we did to her' emp his insistence on responsibility.
• Act 3 (Mr. Birling) "(point to Eric and Sheila). Now look at the pair of them - the famous younger generation who know it all. And they can't even take a joke - "


  Mr B mocks his children; he's sarcastic, pointing - he's repellent - should be teaching his children to take responsibility, not making fun of them for it ; it's ironic that he's cut off by the truth (the telephone ringing)