Act One

• fairly large suburban house (stage directions)
• a rather cold woman (Mrs Birling)
• half shy, half assertive (Eric)
• very pleased with life (Sheila)
• Birling: working together - for lower costs and higher prices
• Birling: I speak as a hard-headed business man
• Birling: the titanic... unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable
• Birling: these silly little war scares
• Birling: a man has to make his own way
• Birling: as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive - community and all that nonsense
• massiveness, solidity and purposefulness (Inspector stage directions)
• Birling: Horrid business.
• Inspector: A chain of events.
• Sheila: I felt rotten
• Sheila: this girl