English Literature: An Inspector Calls - Quotes

'I speak as a hard-headed business man' - Mr Birling - He is hard-hearted, shows his pride in his hard-won success

'Unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable' - Mr Birling - Dramatic irony, the Titanic is a metaphor for their family and its position in society

'We think we are' - Mr Birling - About how they think they are a 'nice well-behaved family', ironic foreshadowing what is to come

'a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own' - Mr Birling - selfish, contradicts the ideology of the Inpector

'I can't accept any responsibility' - Mr Birling - self-indulgent, cannot comprehend his involvement

'a lot of young women living that sort of existence' - Inspector - living in poverty, lead to prostitution for money and a place to stay for the night

'Girls of that class' - Mrs Birling - She believes that she is socially and morally superior, denial of the working class

'We really must stop these silly pretences' - Sheila - She understands the Inspector's messgae and that they need to stop lying, shows a division growing between her and parents, she grows up, become Priestly's mouthpiece as well as the Inspector

'we'll hang ourselves' - Sheila - They will all confess thereby admitting what they did off of their own backs

'probably betwen us we killed her' - Sheila - Understanding what they all did and how it affected one life

'I accept no blame for it at all' - Mrs Birling - Just like her husband, refuses to comprehend any involvement

'adjust your family relationships' - Inspector - Acknowledges that things will never be the same for them again, is happy about it as they will most likely see a change

'You damned fool' - Mr Birling - Thinks Eric is going to Hell for what he did

'each of you helped to kill her' - Inspector - Morally neglectful actions of the upper class have condemned a working class girl to her death, nobody in the family is free from blame

'We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other' - Inspector - Core messgae of the play, contrasts Mr Birling, message applies to both characters and audience

'I suppose we're all nice people now' - Sheila - Bitter about her families reaction, think theyhave done nothing wrong simply because she is not dead, wants them to understand how badly they acted

'We've been had, that's all' - Mr Birling - believes that the Inspector was a hoax

'A girl has just died' - Mr Birling - realising they are not off the hook