Mr Birling

Question 1

Mr Birling - Capitalism

Answer 1

“For lower costs and higher prices”

Question 2

Birling - dramatic irony

Answer 2

“I’m talking as a hard-headed, practical man of business. And I say there isn’t chance of war. “

Question 3

Birling - lucrative marriage

Answer 3

“Sheila’s a lucky girl - and I think you’re a pretty fortunate young man too, Gerald”

Question 4

Mr Birling - Inspector interruption

Answer 4

“A man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own - and-“

Question 5

Birling - Familial distance

Answer 5

“You dammed fool - why didn’t you comme to me when you found yourself in this mess?”

Question 6

Sybil Birling - gender

Answer 6

“Spend nearly all their time and energy on their business. You’ll have to get used to that, just as I had”

Question 7

Sybil Birling

Answer 7

“Girls of that class”

Question 8

Sybil Birling

Answer 8

“No, of course not. He’s only a boy.”

Question 9

Sybil Birling

Answer 9

(Shocked) Eric! You stole money?

Question 10

Sybil

Answer 10

“And I must say Gerald, you’ve argued this very cleverly, and I’m most grateful.”

Question 11

Sybil - end of play

Answer 11

“In the morning they’ll be as amused as we are.”

Question 12

Sheila- Gerald fidelity

Answer 12

“(Half serious, half playful)Yes - except for all last summer when you never came near me, and I wondered what happened to you.”

Question 13

Sheila - Lack of agency

Answer 13

“(Excite) Oh Gerald you’ve got it - is ot the one you wanted me to have?”

Question 14

Sheila - materialism

Answer 14

“ look mummy- isn’t it a beauty?”

Question 15

Mr Birling - capitalism

Answer 15

“Mixed up together like bees in a hive - community and all that nonsense”

Question 16

Sheila - slight shift

Answer 16

“But these girls aren’t cheap labour - they’re people”

Question 17

Sheila - stage directions

Answer 17

“(Gives a half-stifled sob, and then runs out.’”

Question 18

Inspector - Sheila inquiry

Answer 18

“You’re partly to blame. Just as your father is.”

Question 19

Sheila- adopting inspected

Answer 19

“You not only knee her but you knew her very well…Were you seeing her last spring and summer, during the time you hardly came near me and said you were busy? Were you?”

Question 20

Inspector - cliff hanger…

Answer 20

“ well?”

Question 21

Sheila - gender

Answer 21

“He means that I’m getting hysterical now.”

Question 22

Sheila - taking accountability

Answer 22

“We killed her”

Question 23

Sheila - post inspectors identification

Answer 23

“(Bitterly) I suppose we’re all nice people now”
“It frightens me the way you talk”

Question 24

Eric - diminishing responsibility

Answer 24

“I was in the state where a chap easily turns nasty”

Question 25

Eva - morality

Answer 25

“She wouldn’t take any more amd didn’t want to see me again.”

Question 26

Eric - questioning father

Answer 26

“Why shouldn’t they try for higher wages? We try for highest possible prices”

Question 27

Eric - inspectors says how Eric treated her

Answer 27

“As if she were an animal,a thing, not a person”

Question 28

Gender roles - old Meggarty

Answer 28

“She only escaped with a torn blouse-“

Question 29

Gerald- reputation

Answer 29

“ nothing less than a cry for help “

Question 30

Gerald

Answer 30

“ well-bred man-about-town”

Question 31

Sheila - agency

Answer 31

“I think you’d better take this with you. (She hands him the ring)”

Question 32

Gerald - avoiding accountability

Answer 32

“But how do you know it’s the same girl?…the same photograph and therefore no proof it was the same girl”

Question 33

Gerald - Sheila engagement

Answer 33

“Everything’s alright now Sheila. What about this ring?”

Question 34

Inspector impression

Answer 34

“An impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefullness”

Question 35

Inspector - imagery

Answer 35

“Burnt her inside out of course.”

Question 36

Inspector - collective responsibility

Answer 36

“A chain of events”

Question 37

Inspector- Eva smith

Answer 37

“ a girl dies tonight. A pretty, lively sort of girl, who never did anybody any harm. But she died in misery and agony- hating life-“

Question 38

Inspector - socialism

Answer 38

“Millions amd millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths”

Question 39

Inspector- promoting socialism

Answer 39

“We are all members of one body”

Question 40

Mr Birling - power reeastablishment

Answer 40

“Any more of that and you leave this room.”

Question 41

Mrs Birling - Generationdal divide

Answer 41

“From the way you children talk, you might be wanting to help him instead of us.”

Question 42

Mrs Birling- segregating class

Answer 42

“As if a girl I’d that sort would ever refuse money”

Question 43

Opening of play stage directions and settings

Answer 43

“Pink and intimate” lighting “ solid…but not cosy and homelike” claustrophobic and intense Birling live in a closed, protected world, sheltered from reality

Question 44

Inspector entrance

Answer 44

Change of lighting from “pink and intimate” to “brighter and harder” Inspector goole suggests something unpleasant - ghoul means ghost Doorbell - “sharp” ring - interrupts mr Birling speech - right after “a man must look after himself and his own”

Question 45

Structure

Answer 45

Didactic purpose Like a parable - carries a moral message Follows rules of Greek drama - place,action and time kept to a realistic manner Inspector acts like a Greek narrator (chorus) - sums up what has happened, explains to actors and audience lesson to lean