an inspector calls context + quotes

• context of the play

  •set in 1912, wrote in 1946

  •edwardian era

  •inspector is the mouthpiece for priestly in order to express his socialist views, and to educate the audience on the inequality in the class systems

  •priestly wrote the play to shock the audience and encourage them to change in society
• inspector goole

  •”she wasn’t pretty when i saw her today” - blunt

  •”each of you helped to kill her. remember that” - accusing

  •”public men, mr birling, have responsibilities, as well as privilages” - moral

  •”alone, friendless, almost penniless, desperate (…) and you slammed the door in her face” - emotive

  •”im not going until i know all that happened” - forceful

  •(sharply) “come along mr croft, what happened?” -persuasive
• eva smith/daisy renton

  •”both her parents were dead, so that she’d no home to go back to” -vunerable

  •”she wouldn’t have taken any more, when she found the money was stolen” -moral

  •”she knew it wouldn’t last- hadn’t expected it to last” -realistic+admitting

  •”i became at once the most important person in her life” -lonely

  •”just used her for the end of a stupid drunken evening, as if she was an animal” -used
• mr birling

  •”theres a fair chance i might find my way into the next honours list” -egotistical, pompous

  •”and a nasty mess you’ve made of it now…” -uncaring

  •”there’ll be a public scandal” “ive got to cover this up as soon as i can” -values reputation

  •”you began to learn something, and now…you’re ready to go on in the same way” -unmoved

  •”the titanic (…) unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable” “war is inevitable- and to that i say- fiddlesticks!” - creates dramatic irony
• mrs birling

  •”as if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money” -superior

  •”girls of that class” -prejudiced

  •”he certainly didn’t make me confess” -proud

  •”she only had herself to blame” - remorseless

  •”i did nothing i’m ashamed of or that won’t bear investigation” -unmoving
• sheila birling

  •”why-you fool-he knows” -intuitive

  •”these girls aren’t cheap labour, they’re people” - socially aware

  •”mummy” and “daddy” -childish

  •”i think it was a mean thing to do” -brave

  •”i felt rotten about it at the time, and now i feel a lot worse” -guilty

  •”you and i aren’t the same people who sat down to dinner here” -matured

  •”were you seeing her last summer (…) were you?” -inpector like

  •”they’re more impressionable the young ones” -hope for the future generations
• eric birling

  •”she treated me as if i was a kid” -patrionised

  •”just you keep out of this” -unwanted

  •”you’re not the kind of father a chap could go to when he’s in trouble” -unsupported

  •”you killed them both” -to his mother about eva and the child (accusatory)

  •”i couldn’t remember her name” -took advantage of eva smith/daisy renton

  •”i insisted on giving her enough money to keep her going” -supportive
• gerald croft

  •”you’re just the kind of son-in-law i’ve always wanted” -favoured/idolised by mr birling

  •”i did keep a girl last summer. i’ve admitted to it.” -unfaithful

  •”…don’t say anything to the inspector (…) we can keep it from him” -underestimating

  •(rather impatiently) “mrs birling, the inspector knows all that” -socially superior
• edna

  •”edna the parlour-maid is just clearing the table”

  •”yes ma’am”

  •”edna‘ll answer it“

  •”please, sir, an inspector’s called”

  •”all right, edna. show him in here. give us some more light”

  •”edna’ll go. i asked her to wait up to make us some tea”