Sheila Birling Quotes

An Inspector Calls Sheila Birling quotes

“between us we killed her.”
“he’s giving us the rope - so that we’ll hang ourselves.”
“But these girls aren’t cheap labour - they’re people.”
“I went to the manager and told him that this girl had been very impertinent.”
“It’s you two who are being childish - trying not to face the facts.”
“Is it the one you wanted me to have?”
“He means that I’m getting hysterical now."
“The girl’s still dead, isn’t she? Nobody’s brought her to life, have they?”
“Why - you fool - he knows. Of course he knows. And I hate to think how much he knows that we don’t know yet. You’ll see. You’ll see.”
“Gerald, I think you’d better take this with you. (She hands him the ring.)"
“Don’t interfere, please, Father.”
“you’re beginning all over again to pretend that nothing much has happened-”
“You and I aren’t the same people who sat down to dinner here.”
“The point is, you don’t seem to have learnt everything.”
"you were the wonderful fairy prince"

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“you’re not the kind of father a chap could go to when he’s in trouble”
“Why shouldn’t they try for higher wages?”
“I wasn’t in love with her ... she was pretty and a good sport”
"(nearly at breaking point)...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 -"
“I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty - and I threatened to make a row.”
"(suddenly bursting out): Look here, I've had enough of this."
"I didn't even remember-that's the hellish thing. Oh - my God! - How stupid it all is!"
"He was our police inspector"
“she was pretty and a good sport”
"You're beginning to pretend now that nothing's really happened at all. And I can't see it like that. This girl's still dead isn't she? Nobody's brought her back to life,have they?"
"It's what happened to the girl and what we all did to her that matters."
"We all helped kill her"
"you lot may be letting yourselves out nicely, but I can't."

2 of 6

“Girls of that class-”
“Whenyou’re married you’ll realize 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.” -To Sheila
“Please don’t contradict me like that.”
“We’ve done a great deal of useful work in helping deserving cases.”
“He’s only a boy.”
“the father was only a youngster - silly and wild and drinking too much.”
“As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money!”
“I think she had only herself to blame.”
“I’m sorry she should have come to such a horrible end. But I accept no blame for it all.”
“be quiet, Sheila.”
“I think Sheila and I had better go into the drawing-room and leave you men”
“you have no power to make me change my mind.”
“from the way you children talk, you might be wanting to help him instead of us.”

3 of 6

“That was the police. A girl has just died ... a police inspector is on his way here - to ask some - questions-”
“You’ll have a good laugh over it yet. Look, you’d better ask Gerald for that ring you gave back to him, hadn’t you? Then you’ll feel better.”
"wretched girl’s suicide.”
“I gather there’s a very good chance of a knighthood - so as long as we behave ourselves, don’t get into the police court or start a scandal”
"(angrily to Eric) You’re the one I blame for this.”
“a man has to make his own way - has to look after himself - and his family too,”
“I can’t accept any responsibility.”
“the famous younger generation who know it all. And they can’t even take a joke”
“There’ll be a public scandal.”
“Your engagement to Sheila means a tremendous lot to me.”
“hard-headed business man”
“The Germans don’t want war. Nobody wants war,”
“unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable.”
“I was an alderman for years - and Lord Mayor two years ago"
"We've been had"

4 of 6

“We’re respectable citizens and not criminals.”
“[she] gave me a glance that was nothing less than a cry for help.”
“I didn’t install her there so that I could make love to her.”
“I didn’t feel about her as she felt about me.”
“she was desperately hard up and at that moment was actually hungry.”
“She was young and pretty and warm-hearted - and intensely grateful. I became at once the most important person in her life”
“She told me she’d been happier than she’d ever been before - but that she knew it couldn’t last.”
“I don’t come into this suicide business.”
“I hate those hard-eyed dough-faced women.”
“He swore there wasn’t any Inspector Goole or anybody like him on the force here.”
“I insisted on Daisy moving into those rooms and I made her take some money to keep her going there.”
“I insisted on a parting gift of enough money ... to see her through to the end of the year.”
"Now listen, darling - "
"young fresh and charming"
"Was it a hoax?"
"Everthing's alright now,Sheila.(Holds up the ring). What about this ring?"

5 of 6

“We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other.”
“Just used her for the end of a stupid drunken evening, as if she was an animal,a thing,not a person.”
“A chain of events.”
“You’re not telling me the truth.”
“a prominent member - of the Brumley Women’s Charity Organization”
“I think you did something terribly wrong - and that you’re going to spend the rest of your life regretting it.”
“(cutting through, massively)
“It’s my duty to ask questions.”
“I’m losing all patience with you people.”
“I haven’t much time.”
“she died in misery and agony - hating life”
“You made her pay a heavy price ... now she’ll make you pay a heavier price still.”
“And so you used the power you had ... to punish the girl”
“if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.”
“I knew already.”

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