Inspector Goole

• Priestley's voice: '"We don't live alone. We are members of one body"'
• Prescient: '"If men will not learn that lesson, they will be taught it in fire, blood and anguish"'
• Forceful: '"I'm not going until I know all that happened (sharply) Come along, Mr Croft. What happened"'
• Blunt: '"She wasn't pretty when I saw her"'
• Blunt: '"If it was left to me, I wouldn't know where to draw the line [Between respectable citizens and criminals]"'
• Emotive: '"She was here alone, friendless, almost penniless desperate […] And you slammed the door in her face"'
• Emotive: '"We have to share something. If there's nothing else, we'll have to share our guilt"'
• Empathetic: '"I've thought that it would do us all a bit of good if sometimes we tried to put ourselves in the place of these young women…"'
• Moral, Influential: '"You seem to have made a great impression on this child, Inspector"'
• Moral, Influential: '"Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges"'
• Enigmatic: '"There's no inspector Goole on the police. That man definitely wasn't a police inspector at all"'
• Not intimidated by class: '"Don't stammer and yammer at me again, man. I'm losing all patience with you people."'
• Not intimidated by class: '"You heard what I said before, Mr Croft"'
• Cunning: '"No hushing up, eh? Make an example of the young man, eh? Public confession of responsibility-um?"'
• Accusatory: '"…. each of you helped to kill her. Remember that."'
• Controlling conversation


  • Cutting in
  • An impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness
  • One person and one line of inquiry at a time
• Socialism: '"It's better to ask for the earth than to take it"'