"You have to understand that a lot of young men --"
"If we were all responsible for everything that happened to anyone we had anything to do with, it would be awkward wouldn't it?"
"And to that I say fiddlesticks! The Germans don't want war"
"Well it's my duty to keep labour costs down" "Why shouldn't they try for higher wages?[Eric]"
"The whole story is just a load of moonshine!
"If you don't come down hard on these people, they'll soon be asking for the Earth"
1 of 6
Mrs Birling
"When you're married you'll understand that men with important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all of their time and energy into their business"
"Girls of that class--" "helping deserving cases"
"But I think she had only herself to blame"
"I think it was simply a piece of gross impertinence" (Classist views about Eva using her name)
"I'll tell you what I told her. Go and look for the father of the child. It's his responsibility"
"drunken young idler"
"I blame the young man who was the father of the child she was going to have"
"If the girl's death is down to anybody, it's him"
I don't believe it, I wont believe it"
"No - Eric - please - I didn't know - I didnt understand-"
"You're behaving like an hysterical child tonight"
2 of 6
Sheila Birling
"I think it's perfect. Now I really feel engaged"
"But these girls aren't cheap labour. They're people.
(Miserably) So I'm really responsible?
"I was in a furious temper."
(laughs rather hysterically) Why - you fool - he knows. Of course he knows."
"I know I'm to blame - and I'm desperately sorry."
"There's something I don't understand about you."
"You musn't build up a kind of wall between us and that girl. If you do, the Inspector will just break it down."
"He's giving us the rope - so that we'll hang ourselves."
"The point is, you dont't seem to have learnt anything"
"Between us we drove the girl to suicide"
"Fire and blood and anguish"
3 of 6
Eric Birling
"not quite at ease, half shy, half assertive"
"(Suddenly guffaws) Sorry I just felt I had to laugh"
"Unless Eric's been up to something (Gerald to Eric and Mr Birling)"
"I was in that state where a chap easily turns nasty"
"You're not the kind of father a chap can go to when he's in trouble"
"Why shouldn't they try for higher wages?"
He drinks "pretty hard"
"Oh - my - god! How stupid this all is!"
"I'm ashamed of you[his parents]." "I don't give a damn now."
"We did her in all right."
"Damn you, damn you (To Mrs Birling)."
"You don't understand anything. You never did. You never even tried."
He saw Eva as "a good sport"
He treated her as if she were "an animal, a thing, not a person"
4 of 6
Gerald Croft
"I don't come in to this suicide business."
"I'm rather more - upset - by this business than I probably appear to be."
"Everything's all right now Sheila. (holds up ring) What about this ring?"
"because I was sorry for her"
He later made her his mistress because she was "young and pretty and warm-hearted - and intensely grateful"
"Unless Eric has been up to something"
"But how do we know it's the same girl"
"We've no proof it was the same photograph, and so no proof it was the same girl"
5 of 6
Inspector Goole
His name is a homophone for 'ghoul' which is another word for 'ghost'
"The lighting should be pink and initimate until the Inspector arrives, and then it should be brighter and harder"
"Each of you helped to kill her"
"We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish."
"We are members of one body"
Structure of the play is symbolic of the early 20th century on how life repeated itself - so the Inspector failed at his duty
"I know I'm to blame and I'm desperately sorry." - so the Inspector succeeded
"I'm waiting" "I haven't much time"
"There are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths"
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