Inspector calls

• ‘Girls of that class”


  “That” is a determiner they way mrs Birling says it is in a degrading tone she creates a divide between her (upper class) and Eva(lower class) she does this to dehumanise eva because she is a girl of the working class, she writes her as less deserving and this was her justification to why she did not help Eva initially. Mrs birling is the opposite of an agent of change she has a static mindset.
• “if you don’t come down hard on these people they will be asking for the world“


  Hyperbole highlights how he views the lower class as greedy rather than what they are, desperate to work. He generalises the working class in a degrading tone and he has a dismissive attitude to the workers rights showing his lack of empathy, this links to the key theme of social injustice which is created by upper class capitalists like the bilrlings who exploit the lower class as cheap labour and abuse their human rights.
• “we are members of one body we are responsible for each other“


  metaphor of “one body” suggests people like limbs or a body cannot survive without one another and this links to Priestley's key message of the diadact play that we are have an obligation to look after each other, he uses dramatic irony and foreshadowing here to predict a clash between individuals and collective interests in the west.
• “public men, mr birling have responsibilities as well as privileges“


  Priestley is using the inspector as his mouth piece for his ideologies, in which he believes upper class capitalists believe they are above the law and are inferior in comparison to the lower class, he warns due to their large social status they in-fact have a larger social responsibility.
• “if men do not learn their lesson they will be taught it in fire, blood and anguish“


  triplet of nouns is used to install fear in the birlings and force them to accept the consequences of their actions as well as being a metaphor for the two world wars highlighting the endless cycle if no change is made in society. It conveys the fundamentalist message of the didactic play, Priestley uses a biblical reference of hell to make the birling aware that not even God can save them now, as well as a reference to the social unrest at the time.
• “I’m sorry. but I think she only had herself to blame”


  The broken up language, mrs birling is trying to humanise and justify her cruel accusations and opinions, which reflect her lack of sympathy for someone of her own gender, is prove the upper class just cannot exonerate themselves for the suffering of the poor. Mrs birling represents the direct opposite and antithesis of priestleys key message that eva was a victim of society.
• “we often make an impression on the younger ones, they’re more impressionable”


  key themes of progress vs stasis and older vs younger generation, priestley uses this to build and create a tension between the two political sides of socialist and capitalist, he reveals the real truth of capitalism and also reveals the benefits and good within socialism, the younger ones are agents of change.
• “you two are being childish, trying not to face facts”


  direct address from Sheila towards her parents, we begin to see a change in Sheila to the point where she begins to interrupt and stand up to her parents highlighting what Priestley wants society to do towards capitalism. Sheila is no longer naive and ignorant she recognises her parents roles in Eva’s death and is actively trying to make them accept responsibility for their actions, she even belittles her own parents, it was very unusual for a younger upper class women like Sheila to argue with her own parents.
• “Simply absurd for a woman in her position”


  Again Mrs birling creates the divide of them and her between her and Eva as she degrades Eva based on her social class, her cruel and callous nature are not typical features expected of a mother, she lacks any maternal instincts or even sympathy.
• “as if we are all mixed together like bees in a hive, community and all that nonsense”


  simile of bees in a hive is mr birling attempting to trivialise the concept of socialism, Priestley uses irony here to portray mr birling as foolish because bee hives are in-fact a complex and insanely detailed structure, it is the most complex habitat in the animal kingdom, so unknowingly mr birling is in-fact comparing socialism to a complexly structured habitat making him look foolish.
• “a man has to mind his own business and look after himself“


  speaks in 3rd person as he attempts to create a philosophical element to his speech, he is the embodiment of capitalist ideologues, ironic as the business in which he values so highly and cares os much about he pays cheaply young women to sustain his business, he has never manually worked.
• “There’s every excuse for what both me and your mother did”


  Infantile use of excuse instead of reason suggests his immature way of thinking, this is Priestley mocking capitalistic ideologies, separates the younger and older generation and he shifts the blame onto his own children highlighting his callous nature at core and his inability to accept social responsibility.
• “first I blame the girl. secondly I blame the young man”


  foreshadows the young man to in-fact be Eric, she unknowingly deflects the blame onto her own son as well as Eva, later once the young man is revealed to be Eric we see they real hypocrisy of capitalism through Mrs birlings reaction, she has the arrogant view that working class females chose to be prostitutes instead of it being the only way to make money.
• “[with great dignity] we’ve done a great deal of useful work helping deserving cases‘


  adjective deserving, Mrs birling enjoys having the God like ability of choosing the fate of these young girls lives. It reflects the diabolical power the upper class capitalists hold over everyone else.
• “a rather cold woman”


  SD: the contemporary audience would have percieved this as an oxymoron due to the social norms dictated to women at the time, therefore describing her as cold Priestley tries to coney the conventional way of thinking about women as unatural.
• “you’ve had children, you must of know what she was feeling. And you slammed the door in her face”


  personal pronoun of ”you” singles out Mrs birling forcing her to accept responsibility. The noun children connotes to the idea of innocence and purity which is juxtaposed by the aggressive verb ”slammed” used to empathise Mrs birlings poor maternal nature, he mentions her children to evoke a shred if empathy for another mother but she is unable to empathise due to the class divide.
• “She’d swallowed a lot of strong disinfectant, burnt her inside out of course”


  His tone dismisses any care for social classes. The verb blunt is past tense and highlights the fact her death is irreversible, the strong disinfectant highlights the fact she believed she deserved to die in such a painful way, disinfectant was an attempt to cleanse herself.
• “there are millions of Eva smiths and john smiths still left with us” 


  extended metaphor represents the number of working class men and women who are exploited by the greed of capitalism, this is the powerful didactic message of the play, the generalisation of the common name smith represents how many people are exploited by capitalism.
• “It’s you two who are being childish-trying not to face facts“


  Sheila has begun to recognise her own parents faults, irony is used by Priestley to expose their immaturity. Though Sheila is still unable to control her emotions she still hasn’t shaken the innocent child act, she’s still trying to adjust to maturity. She uses the pronouns “you” to single her parents out and force them to accept social responsibility.
• “But these girls aren’t cheap labour - they're people“


  She doesn’t follow the same capitalistic ideologies as her parents, she is able to see the flaws in capitalism, showing socialist ideas. Priestley chooses to put the word ”people” in italics to stress it, humanises them.
• “don’t interfere please, father. Gerald knows what I mean and you apparently do not” 


  the dash at the end f mr birling speech is because he was interrupted by Sheila. The direct address of “father” is no longer infantile it is mature, she disrupts the social norms in 1912 of the father being the “man of the house”.
• “in that state when a chap turns easily nasty”


  Eric speaks about himself in third person in an attempt to distance himself from his actions, Eric's trivialisation of such a violence of possible rape, through the colloquial use of “chap” in an attempt to soften the harshness of his actions.
• “I insisted-it seems”


  The verb ”insisted” implies the fact Eric may have physically overwhelmed Eva. Priestleys use of the ambiguous verb phrase “it seems” reveals Eric’s attempts to dismiss his immoral and shameful actions. He wants to distance himself from the blame, the dash implies a sense of emotion in his dismembered speech.
• “[suddenly guffaw] I don’t know-really. suddenly I felt I just had to laugh”


  SD are laid directly after Gerald warns Sheila to “be careful” when she mentioned her suspicions of him last summer, indicating potentially Eric was aware Gerald was routinely unfaithful due to the fact they both attend the palace bar with the intention of picking up a woman.
• “sorry-I-well, I’ve suddenly realised taken it in properly- that she’s dead”


  Geralds delayed reaction is diluted with hyphens as this staggered and stammered speech reveals the internal conflict within Gerald, between his natural reflex to suppress ant real emotion and the famine emotion he expresses.
• “she was pretty- soft brown hair and big dark eyes- [break off] my god!!”


  The use of exclamttives comes directly after Gerald describes her beauty, revealing Gerald only cared about surface level beauty he feels greatest grief when remembering her looks. He says all this in front of Sheila describing these features another woman has that Sheila has all the things she is insecure about, he had to find them in another woman because Sheila lacked them.
• “I insisted, I made her tale some money”

  Gerald is disguising prostitution as charity. Priestley uses imperatives to bear connotations of power and force; Gerald was always in control. Shows capitalists believe every problem can be resolved with money.