An Inspector Calls - Quotes Flashcards
(45 cards)
Mr Birling: HHB
Hard headed businessman
* alliteration - firmness and toughness - rigid + dogmatic
* connotes cold logic, lack of emotion and pragmatism - he prioritises profits over people
* self deception - he is boasting - arrogance - repeated use implies he sees it as a badge of honour, which priestley critisies
int:
* priestley -critique capitalism - shows his moral blindness and lack of social responsibility
* shows his emotional detachment - belief that success comes from being unsympathetic
* Priestley exposing arrogance
Mrs B: GOTC
Girls of that class
* Evas suicide
* dehumanising - Reduces Eva and others to a category, not individuals
* “that” - disgust + judgment - implies moral inferiorirty of the working class
* provokes anger in audience + Priestley message - upper class are often morally blind to struggles of the poor
* crisitcism of classism and hypocrisy - wants society to change into more socialist where class system is abolished
alt:
* could reflect fear - she projects blame onto others to protect her own repuation
Sheila: BTGACLTP
But these girls arent cheap labour, they’re people
* to Mr B about lower class
* “girls” - highilghts their youth and vulnerability intensifying sympathy
* “labour” - reflects how capitalsts reduce ppl to economic function
* “cheap” - exploitation and lack of dignity
* moral awakening through rejection of Mr B idealogy
* “people” - powerful in its plain humanity no class no gender just shared human value
priestley
* uses Sheila to show change is possible
audience:
* respoect shaila and distrust father
* causes reflection are we guilty of reducing pppl to their function or class
alt:
* they’re - could suggest how she distances herself away
* expresising guilt - more about self-forgiveness as moral realisation
* “people” - naive idealism - audience might question whether this idea can survive in a capitalist society
Gerald: WRCANC
We’re respectable citizens and not criminals
* assumes that status = morality
* implies moral superiority, decency and social worth but priestley challenges this - audience knows their actions towards eva are opposite
* their respectability conceals their exploitation and cruelty
* links to how society and the government could also be willfully oblivious to the flaws of the upper class
purpose
* criticises the upper class obsession with image over actual morality
* show how the elite redefine “respectability” to protect themselevs
* socialist message reinforced: true morality requries action
audience:
* see gerald as hypocritical - creates dramatic irony
alt int:
* reflect fear - he senses their power is being challenged so he clings on to labels like “Respectable”
1945 audience:
* see this as hypocritical and outdated - having come through a war that required collective effort, they would likely reject class-based excuses and feel frustration at Gerald’s moral blindness
Mr B: TSBAFTE Inspector: IBTAFTETTTI
Mr B: They’d soon be asking for the Earth Inspector: Its better to ask for the earth than to take it
Eric: WSTTFHW
Why shouldnt they try for higher wages
* act 1 - challenges mr b
* younger geneation beginning to question injustice
* “try” - implies that Eva wasnt being aggressive, wanted fairness - sympathy
why:
* eric represents the younger gens potential for change, growth - hope for the future
audience;
* 1945 - admire Eric - wwii
*
Mr B: ISTIACOW
I say there isnt any chance of war
Mrs B: calls Sheila a HC and Mr B called Eric a DF
Hysterical child, damned fool
* hysterical - used to undermine and silence women by framing emotional responses as irrational
* reflects deep patriarchal and classist assumptions from older women enforcing societal norms
* suggests Mr B values composure and control over moral sensitivity
* “child” - infantilises her - dismiss her maturaity - ironically sheila is the most mature
* shows how older gen wants their unjust idealogy to be carried down by generations so that they always remain in power and exploit
Eric: TFRTIDWID
The fact remains that I did what I did
*
Sheila: MISAB End: MSP
Mummy isnt she a beauty, Mother stop please
Mr B: HYTIYWTSH
Hold your tongue if you want to stay here
Gerald: IHTHEDFW
I hate those hard-eyed dough faced women
* suggests cold, unfeeling, lack of warmth - however gerald ignores the fact that they have become like this due to patriarchy and capitalist men like him
* dehumanising wome - women gain status by appearance then marriage
* instead of sympathysing them, he insults them
reader
* social prejudice against working class women
* modern - misogyny through objectification
intent:
* hypocrisy of upper class
* his hatred is more about jealousy of the resilience - could imply strength
Mr B: TMELP, TOTSR
To make em look prettier, token of their self-respect
Mr B: SHALTS - FTM - SSHTG
She had a lot to say - far too much - so she had to go
Gerald: YTYWOTBPAUADT
You think young women ought to be protected against unpleasant and disturbing things
Gerald: SWYAFAC
She was young and fresh and charming
* tricolo - innocence, youth, vulnerability
* 1945 - typical man’s view of a lower class woman - objectified
* modenr - patronisign tone - infantilisng
intent
* sees her more as a beautiful possession and commodity rather than a person with her own struggles
Eric: SWAGS
She was a good sport
Mrs B: BQSTYFCDWWOTD
Be quiet so that your father can decide what we ought to do
Mrs B: YHTGUTT,JAID
You’ll have to get used to that, just as I did
Mr B: MUTLBIAH - CAATN
Mixed up together like bees in a hive - community and all that nonsense
Goole: WAMOOB. WARFEO
We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other
* metaphor - society cant function without everyone - everyone is affected
* “members” - everyone has a role to play that they cant neglect or else everyone will suffer
* priestley uses inspector as a mouthpiece for socialist message
*
Mr B: AMHTMHOW - HTLAH - AHFT
A man has to make his own way - has to look after himself - and his family too
* certainity - patriarchal
* family is a second thought
* vlues indivudalism over community
* family is 2nd
*
Mr B: UAU
Unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable
Mrs B: ICIDMD IDNW
I consider I did my duty I’ve done nothing wrong
