An Inspector Calls

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  • An Inspector Calls
    • Mr Birling
      • "You ought to like this port, Gerald. Finchley told me it's exactly the same port your father gets him"
        • "I'd give thousands - yes, thousands-"
          • "Most of this is bound to come out. There'll be a public scandal."
            • He is unchanged
            • "Nothing much has happened! There'll be a public scandal - and who here will suffer from that more than I will?"
            • "Why you all had to go letting things come out like that, beats me."
      • "We may look forward to the time when Crofts and Birlings are no longer competing but are working together - for lower costs and higher prices"
      • "I speak as a hard-headed businessman... you can ignore all this silly pessimistic talk"
      • "You'll hear some people say that war's inevitable. And to that I say - fiddlesticks!"
      • "Every luxury - and unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable"
      • "Your mother ... feels you might have done better for yourself socially... there's a fair chance I might  find my way onto the next Honours list. Just a knighthood, of course."
      • "A man has to look after himself"
      • "If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we'd had anything to do with, it would be very awkward, wouldn't it?"
        • (when Eric steals money) "I've got to cover this up as soon as I can"
      • "She'd had a lot to say - far too much - so she had to go"
      • "If you don't come down sharply on some of these people, they'd soon be asking for the Earth."
    • Staging
      • "The lighting should be pink and intimate until the inspector arrives, and then it should be brighter and harder"
        • Harsh light of reality
      • "The inspector... creates at once an impression of purposefulness"
    • Sheila
      • "(with mock aggressiveness) go on, Gerald - just you object!"
      • "Look - Mummy - isn't it a beauty?"
      • "What was she like? Quite young? Pretty?"
      • "These girls aren't cheap labour - they're people"
      • "So I'm really responsible?"
      • "If I could help her now, I would"
      • "Of course he knows. And I hate to think how much he knows that we don't know yet"
      • "If you'd really loved me, you couldn't have said that"
        • About being questioned (Gerald thought she was wanting him to suffer)
        • "If it didn't end tragically, then that's lucky for us. But it might have done."
      • "We all started like that - so confident, so pleased with ourselves until he began asking questions"
        • "You mustn't try to build up a wall between us and that girl. If you do, the Inspector will just break it down."
          • "Between us we killed her"
            • (bitterly)"I suppose we're all nice people now"
        • (after Gerald's confession) "I rather respect you more than I've ever done before"
          • "You and I aren't the same people who sat down to dinner here"
      • "I'm not a child, don't forget."
    • Sybil
      • "When you're married you'll realise that men with important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time and energy on their business. You'll have to get used to that, just as I had."
        • "I'll tell you what I told her. Go and look for the father of the child. It's his responsibility."
          • "It wasn't I who turned her out of employment - which probably began it all"
            • "She was claiming elaborate fine feelings that were simply absurd in a girl in her position"
              • "As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money!"
                • "I accept no blame for it at all"
                  • She is the highest class at the celebration and proudest
                  • "He ought to be dealt with very severely"
      • (to Sheila) "please don't contradict me like that"
      • "this disgusting affair" (Gerald and Daisy)
      • "We've done a great deal of useful work in helping deserving cases"
        • "That was one of the things that prejudiced me against her case"
          • Irony (not charitable)
          • (to Eric) "I didn't know it was YOU - I never dreamt. Besides, you're not the type - you don't get drunk -"
    • Attitudes/context
      • "Clothes [are]... a sort of sign or token of [a woman's] self-respect."
    • Inspector
      • "It's better to ask for the Earth than to take it."
      • "And you think young women ought to be protected against unpleasant and disturbing things?"
        • "Each of you helped to kill her. Remember that"
          • "You can't even say 'I'm sorry, Eva Smith'"
      • "We have to share something. If there's nothing else, we'll have to share our guilt"
      • "... the young ones. They're more impressionable"
      • "Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges"
        • "We don't live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. If men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish"
    • Eric
      • "Why shouldn't they try for higher wages? We try for the highest possible prices"
    • Gerald
      • "I didn't feel about her as she felt about me"
    • Eric
      • "You know, don't you?" (to all)
      • "She told me she didn't want me to go in but that - well, I was in a state when a chap easily turns nasty"
      • "Oh - my God! - how stupid it all is!"
      • "I wasn't in love with her or anything - she was pretty and a good sport"
        • "I intended to pay it back"
        • "my child - your own grandchild - you killed them both"
        • "It's what happened to the girl and what we all did to her that matters"

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