I/GCSE English: An Inspector Calls - Key quotes (Part 2)

Shiela Birling

In IGCSE English, Act One

• "Except for all last summer, when you never came near me" foreshadowing and dramatic irony. Shiela half expects that there was another woman.
• "Oh I wish you hadn't told me" she doesn't want to know about the dead girl, because it spoils her happy mood. Naive, ignorant.
• "You talk as if we were responsible" foreshadowing- they are!
• "It was a mean thing to do" she hypocritically criticizes Mr Birling without realising it- she thinks herself innocent.
• "But these girls aren't cheap labour- they're people" young generation's view very different.
• "So I'm really responsible?" she is kind hearted.
• "I expect you've done things you're ashamed of too" to Gerald- yes he has! Foreshadowing.
• "It didn't seem to be anything very terrible at the time" shows her gap in social status, doesn't understand the value of a job.
• "Why- you fool- he knows" very important line- Shiela is aware that the Inspector has information
• Act Two
• "He means that I'm getting hysterical now" surly and bitter toward Gerald.
• "I know I'm to blame" only character to accept blame so far.
• "I feel you're beginning all wrong. I'm afraid you'll say something or do something that you'll be sorry for afterwards" foreshadowing.
• "You mustn't try to build up a wall" trying to articulate her feelings/suspicions.
• "He hasn't started on you yet" foreshadowing.
• "It was my fault that she was so desperate when you met her" makes a connection between their actions.
• "Mother-stop!" realises that her mother is walking into a trap. Here is the only point where she tries to keep information from the Inspector.

Act Three

• "You don't seem to have learnt anything" Shiela has become the conscience of the family.
• "It doesn't make any real difference" she has learnt a lesson.
• "It's you two who are childish- trying not to face the facts" she is accusing to her parents, defying the hierarchy.
• "I suppose we're all nice people now" still feels guilt and understands the consequences of her actions.
• "You're just beginning to pretend all over again" she has seen that they are at fault.

Eric Birling

In IGCSE English, Act One

• "Here, what do you mean?" Gerald and Mr Birling are merely sharing a joke, but Eric is uneasy because of recent events.
• "My God!" like Shiela and Gerald, Eric is genuinely upset by the death, even when he thinks he doesn't know the woman.
• "It isn't if you can't go and work somewhere else" Eric has sympathy with the workers.
• "I think I'd better turn in" he panics as he suspects who the girl may be.

Act Two

Eric has no lines in Act Two

Act Three

• "You told her! Why, you little sneak" sounds a little like his father here- thinks nobody should have let on that he was guilty.
• "Oh my God! How stupid it all is" it distresses him greatly. He is kind at heart.
• "You killed her [...] and your own grandchild" he blames his mother for turning her away. Very angry, shows he cares.
• "What does it matter now whether you get a knighthood or not?" he thinks his father has the wrong priorities.
• "He was our police inspector all right" Eric feels that the Inspector was their inspector morally.
• "You're beginning to pretend now that nothing's really happened at all" he takes Sheila's view that they are still guilty people.
• "It's all the same whether it's been told to a police inspector or somebody else" he sees that they have all done bad things.

Inspector Goole

In IGCSE English, Act One

• "One person and one line of enquiry at a time" otherwise (possibly) the whole plot would fall apart.
• "What happened to her then maybe have determined what happened to her afterwards" shows that many people could be to blame, and many things contributed to her suicide.
• "After all, it is better to ask for the earth than to take it" possible reference to the Birling/Croft monopoly that could be formed. They do a lot of 'taking'.
• "I don't see much of him" mysterious that he should see little of the chief constable.
• "Few friends, lonely, half-starved" he is very specific, the reader wonders where he got this information from.
• "It would do us all a bit of good it we [...] put ourselves in the place of these young women" quite preachy, shows the idea of community, interdependence.
• "Sometimes there isn't as much difference as you think" preachy, also foreshadowing, as the Inspector believes they are all guilty.

Act Two

• "And you think young women ought to be protected against unpleasant and disturbing things?" he seems to believe in equality, and that Shiela should hear the truth.
• "We'll have to share our guilt" the Inspector wants all of them to feel guilty. He doesn't want Shiela to take all of the blame as it might stop the others from doing so.
• "They're more impressionable" some patronising towards the younger generation here.
• "Public men [...] have responsibilities as well as privileges" preachy, shows that he thinks Mr Birling should take responsibility for others.
• "We know what to do, don't we? Mrs Birling has just told us" reveals that Eric is to blame, and that he will share this information with the public.

Act Three

• "You''ll be able to divide the responsibility between you when I've gone" believes they are all to blame.
• "Each of you helped to kill her" they are all responsible.
• "there are millions and millions of Eva Smiths" even though they will soon discover that they have not killed one particular girl, they may affect others in their daily actions.
• "they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish" messianic and prophetic in tone and atmosphere- seems like reference to hell or the war.

I hope it helps~

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