An Inspector Calls

• "Exactly the same port your father gets"

  "Arthur, you're not meant to say such things-"

  "Arthur I don't think you ought to talk business on an occasion like this"


  Birling unaware of proper social manners, Act 1
• "you can ignore all this silly pessimistic talk"

  "we're in for a time of steadily increasing prosperity"

  "nobody wants war"

  "hard-headed, practical man of business...isn't a chance of war"

  "unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable"

  "we hardheaded practical business men"

  "a man has to make his own way - has to look after himself"

  "the way some of these cranks talk... you'd think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive"

  "look after himself and his own - and-" DOORBELL RINGS

  Birlings speeches, Act 1
• (creates at once an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness)

  (cutting through, massively)

  "Sir George Croft- you know, Crofts Limited" - Birling

  "Still, I can't accept any responsibility" - Birling

  "I refused, of course... I don't like that tone" - Birling

  "It's my duty to ask questions

  "well, its my duty to keep labour costs down"

  "He could have kept her on" - Eric

  "if you don't come down sharply on some of these people, they'd soon be asking for the earth"

  "it's better to ask for the earth than to take it"

  Conflict between Birling and Inspector, Act 1
• "and I've been so happy tonight - oh I wish you hadn't told me"

  "Pretty?"


  Sheila's immaturity after she learns about Eva Smith
• "But these girls aren't cheap labour, they're people."

  "(recognises it with a little cry, gives a half-stifled sob)"

  "upsetting the child like that" - Birling

  "after all, we're respectable citizens and not criminals" - Gerald

  "sometimes there isn't as much difference as you think" - Inspector

  "It's my own fault" - Sheila

  "(she almost breaks down but just controls herself)"


  Sheila's involvement, Act 1
• "I think miss Birling ought to be excused" - Gerald

  "She's had a long, exciting, tiring day"

  "she's obviously had about as much as she can handle"

  "Then I'm staying." - Sheila

  "Its bound to be unpleasant and disturbing" - Gerald

  "And you think young women ought to be protected against unpleasant and disturbing things?"- Inspector

  "you've been through it, now you want to see somebody else put through it"

  "(cutting in) ... I must obviously be a selfish, vindicative creature"


  Gerald and Sheila's argument, Act 2
• "I'm afraid that you'll say something or do something that you'll be sorry for afterwards"

  "we all started like that- so confident, so pleased with ourselves"

  "girls of that class-" Mrs Birling

  "Mother, don't - please, don't... You mustn't try to build a wall between us and that girl."


  Sheila tries to warn Mrs Birling, to no avail, Act 2
• "why on Earth don't you leave us to it?" - Gerald

  "especially-(indicating Sheila)" - Birling

  "she looked young and fresh and charming... half-drunk and goggle-eyed... obscene fat carcass"

  "gave me a glance that was nothing less than a cry for help"

  "got him out of the way"

  "she'd better let me take her out of there"

  Gerald presents himself as Eva Smith's saviour, Act 2
• "I think she only had herself to blame"

  "Go and look for the father of the child. It's his responsibility"

  "It was her business to make him responsible... he ought to be compelled to-"

  "a girl in her position"

  "Her position is now that she lies with a burnt-out inside on a slab"

  "silly and wild and drinking too much"

  "As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money!"

  "I accept no blame for it at all"

  "First, the girl herself... some drunken young idler... if the girl's death is due to anybody, then it's due to him"

  "he's the chief culprit"


  Mrs Birling condemns Eric unknowingly, Act 3
• "she told me she didn't want me to go in"

  "I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty"

  "I was in a hell of a state about it"

  "You're not the kind of father a chap could go to when he's in trouble"


  Eric's involvement with Eva Smith, Act 3
• "Then- you killed her."

  "you turned her away- yes, you killed her... my child - your own grandchild"

  "you killed them both - damn you, damn you"

  "(very distressed now) I didn't know - I didn't understand"

  (taking charge masterfully) Stop!"


  Eric and Mrs Birlings argument, Act 3
• "each of you helped to kill her. Remember that. Never forget it"

  "as if she was an animal, a thing, not a person"

  "You made her pay a heavy price for that. And now she'll make you pay a heavier price still."

  "There are 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 in our lives"

  "We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other"

  "If men will not learn that lesson, they will soon be taught it in fire and blood and anguish"


  Inspector's final speech, Act 3
• "Most of this is bound to come out, there'll be a public scandal"

  "Well I don't care now"

  "there'll be a public scandal - unless we're lucky"

  "I don't care about that" - Sheila

  "What does it matter now whether they give you a knighthood or not?"

  Reputation - Act 3
• "You don't seem to have learnt anything" - Sheila

  "don't you see"

  it makes all the difference" - Birling

  "I suppose we're all nice people now" - Sheila

  "You're beginning to pretend that nothing's really happened at all... This girl's still dead, isn't she? Nobody's brought her to life, have they?" - Eric

  "I did what I did, mother did what she did. And the rest of you did what you did to her."

  "You're beginning to pretend all over again" - Sheila

  "(shouting) And I say the girl's dead and we all helped to kill her" - Eric


  Realisation that inspector was a hoax, end of Act 3