Responsibility

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  • Responsibility
    • Gerald Croft
      • Individualist  (helps
      • Used Eva - irresponsible
      • Supports mr Birling
      • Learns very little from inspectors visit.
    • Sheila Birling
      • Socialist
      • Views changed at end.
      • ‘I’m to blame- and I’m desperately sorry- but I can’t believe - I won’t believe- it’s simply my fault that in the end she - committed suicide.’
    • Eric Birling
      • Socialist
      • Shown as irresponsible with drinking problem and theft of money. People are more important than wealth.
      • ‘You killed her. She came to you to protect me- and you turned her away- yes, and you killed her- and the child she’d have had too- my child- your own grandchild- you killed them both- damn you, damn you.’
    • Inspector Goole
      • ‘She’d swallowed a lot of strong disenfectant. Burnt herself inside out, of course’
      • ‘And you think young women ought to be protected against unpleasant and disturbing things?’
      • ‘Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges’
      • ‘This girl killed herself- and died a horrible death. But each of you helped kill her. Remember that. Never forget it.but the. I don’t think you ever will.’
      • Priestly uses the inspector to promote socialism.
    • Eva smith
      • No voice- easier to blame like Mrs Birling did .
      • Victim of induvidulism.
    • Mrs Birling
      • Individualism
      • Chairwoman of women’s charity.
      • Prejudiced towards Eva without meeting her.
      • Their views aren’t changed at the end of the play by the inspector.
      • ‘She only had herself to  blame’
      • ‘I don’t suppose for a moment that we can understand why the girl committed suicide. Girls of that class-‘
    • Every character (apart from Edna) says either responsible or responsibility
    • Mr Birling
      • Individualist
        • Shows no remorse, views are discredited in the play.
          • ‘I can’t accept any responsibility. 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?’
      • Priestley uses mr Birling to show the audience how induvidulism goes wrong.
    • Stage directions and structure.
      • Intense pink light.
        • Interrogation. Forces the Birling family to take responsibility and this is why some resist.
      • Door bell
        • Interrupts mr Birlings individualist monologue to stop his thought process just as you would think before taking responsibility for something , this also tells the audience he is wrong.
      • Cyclical structure- those who do not take responsibility need to be revisited.
      • Entrances and exits. Eric and Gerald both leave and then come back into the dining room. Eric coming back is a sign of him taking responsibility however Gerald is trying to disprove the inspector showing he learns nothing.

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