Term
| "....is substantial and heavily comfortable, but not cosy and homelike." - Stage Directions |
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Definition
| The apperance and quality of the Birling's dining room suggests that they are a family of wealth and class. |
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Term
| "....unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable." - Arthur Birling |
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Definition
| Mr Birling gives a speech about his predictions for the future so as to make himself sound overly confident. Priestly's love of dramatic irony is quite evident here to make Birling look confident. Symbolically just as the Titanic is destined to sink, so too is Birling's political ideaology under the Inspector's interrogation. |
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Term
| "-so long as we behave ourselves" - Arthur Birling |
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Definition
| He's confident about the future for his family and buisness. |
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Term
| "....as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive - community and all that nonsense." - Arthur Birling |
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Definition
| Mr Birling is taking an individualist, capitalist view about personal responsibility and therefore the theme of responsibility is introduced by Priestly. |
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Term
| "Burnt her inside out, of course" - Inspector Goole |
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Definition
| The Inspector gives a blunt account of Eva Smith's death. priestly uses harsh language to contrast to the happy mood earlier on in the act. |
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Term
| "Rubbish! If you don't come down sharply on some of these people, they'd soon be asking for the earth." - Arthur Birling |
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Definition
| He views Eva and the other workers as cheap labour. Birling is the opposite of social responsibility. |
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Term
| "Why - you fool - he knows...And I hate to think how much he knows that we don't know yet." - Sheila |
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Definition
Sheila, shortly before the end of Act One, crucially understands the importance of the Inspector and the fact that he has more information than he is revealing. She is the first person in the play to really begin to understand the Inspector which, in turn, leads her to see her relationship with Gerald in a more realistic, more cynical way. |
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