Inequality Flashcards
Umbrella
Inequality is prevalent in the play and is demonstrated through class, gender and generations.
Ts1:inequality is represented throughout the play through attitudes towards women and S challenges this reflecting suffragette movement.
‘Men with important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time and energy on business’
‘A thing’ (I on Eric’s treatment of the girl.)
‘Women of the town’
‘I don’t believe I will’ ‘you and I aren’t the same people’
‘I was in that state where a chap easily turns nasty’
Ts2: Priestley shows inequality between social classes as UC exploit and stereotype WC and E and S challenge this.
(Eva) ‘had a lot to say… she had to go’
(Mr B says the WC) ‘get into trouble, go on the streets’
‘These girls aren’t cheap labour, they’re people’ (S)
‘Why shouldn’t they try for higher wages? We try for the highest possible prices’
‘Elaborate fine feelings and scruples… absurd in a girl in her position’
‘You mustn’t try to build up a kind of wall between us and the girl’
‘You refused her… even the pitiable little bit of organised charity you had in your power to grant her’
‘Gross impertinence… prejudiced me against her case’
‘Girls of that class’
‘Like bees in a hive’ ‘a man has to look after himself’
‘They’d be all broke- if I know them’
Ts3: there is inequality between generations as the Birling children are treated like infants with no voice within the family
(Mr B) ‘the famous younger generation who know it all’
(Mrs B) ‘ what an expression Sheila!’
Topic sentences
Ts1: inequality presented through attitudes towards women
Ts2: inequality between social classes as UC exploit and stereotype WC.
Ts3: inequality as B children treated as infants with no voice in the family
‘Men with important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time and energy on business’
Men= financial providers Women= stay in domestic sphere. Wife occupies inferior position to business despite being of a higher social class. C= reflects Suffragettes campaign for political and economic equality in law.
‘A thing’
L= noun thing reduces her to an object. D/I= her body is a commodity exchanged for money. Priestley is critical of a capitalist system that dehumanises people.(Marxist interpretation) R= Audience feel sympathy for Eva and resentment towards G
‘Women of the town’
L= euphemism for prostitutes as he is too embarrassed to say it in front of polite company. C= these women have no other choice as no national benefits system in Edwardian society. Priestley= advocated for Fabian society which looked for gradual social reform like Welfare state and minimum wage.
Eva ‘had a lot to say… she had to go’
Mr B believes the WC should not be opinionated and they should not have a voice to even challenge for their rights.
C= reflects the start of workers strikes and unions happening in the Edwardian society.
WC ‘get into trouble,go on the streets’
L= euphemism for prostitution.
Stereotyping WC as immoral trouble makers.
Ironic as Mr B is the most immoral as he has no responsibility for others, even Eva and his own workers as he exploits them.
‘These girls aren’t cheap labour…they’re people’
Shiela begins to believes her fathers workers arnt just a collective workforce, they are individuals who deserve respect. L= adj ‘cheap’ usually applied to goodsI= Marxist interpretation….
D= beginning of S’s enlightenment.
‘The famous younger generation who know it all’
Mr B is mocking his children’s opinions
Priestley’s hope for social reform post WW2 lies with younger generation.
C= Beveridge report proposed post WW2 social reform including NHS
‘What an expression Sheila!’
Treating S like a young child when she is an adult.
Mrs B feels appearances and social propriety are important as it signifies ones social class.
Ts4: inequality is due to failure to accept responsibility and doomed to repeat mistakes according to I’s fire and blood speech
Easy quotes
Ts5: inequality conveyed by Eva
‘She treated me- as if I were a kid’
‘Elaborate fine feelings and scruples… absurd in a girl in her position’
‘You refused her… even the pitiable little bit of organised charity you had in your power to grant her’
