An Inspector Calls Quotes and Analysis
Actual Questions and CORRECT Answers
Stage directions: All three acts...are continuous - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔Act 1 Page 1:
Traditional Greek tragedies written in three acts. The action is continuous suggesting there is
no time to think, action happens in real time and with a sense of pace and immediacy and
inevitability
Stage directions: Spring 1912 - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔Act 1 Page 1: The play is set in
the spring of 1912 which sets up much of the dramatic irony: the Titanic is about to sink,
world war 1 starts in 1914 (the play was written in 1945 at the end of world war 2 - creating
dramatic irony for the audience who know about both wars)
Stage directions: The lighting should be pink and intimate until the INSPECTOR arrives and
then it should be brighter and harder - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔Act 1 Page 1: The lighting
presents the changing mood of the play - the pink light suggests that the family see life
through rose tinted glasses, they do not see the reality of the impending war, the suffering of
the working classes, etc. The harsher lighting suggests the light of truth which the inspector
brings with him. The light used in an interrogation. It also reveals the truth about the family;
they begin to see each other in a different light.
Stage directions: Arthur Birling is a heavy-looking, rather portentous man in this middle
fifties with fairly easy manners but rather provincial in this speech. " - CORRECT
ANSWER- ✔✔Act 1 Page 1: Heavy-looking suggests he is over-weight like a fat cat -
someone who gluttonous (wealth, food, money). Notice that he is physically 'big' unlike the
inspector who is described as having a large physical presence although is not necessarily a
physically large man.
Portentous suggests he is pompous, self-important
Notice that both Birling and the Inspector are BOTH in their fifties - Priestly is inviting us to
compare these men and compare what they represent.
Provincial - from the countryside - suggests that he is not sophisticated and narrow minded
in his views of the world and the big political issues of the day eg the impending war.
, Stage directions: His wife is about fifty, a rather cold woman and her husband's social
superior. - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔Act 1 Page 1: Suggests that Mrs Birling is incapable of
empathy and other human emotions that make us better people.
Stage directions: Sheila is a pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather
excited. " - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔Act 1 Page 42401: Notice that BOTH Sheila and Eva
smith are both in their early twenties. Again, priestly is inviting us to compare Sheila's life
with Eva Smith's life. Sheila: 20s, has family, rich, doesn't need to work, has a future, going
to be married. Eva: 20s, orphaned/no family, poor, must work to survive; is dead/has no
future, used sexually/unmarried.
Pleased with life/excited suggests she is carefree
Stage directions: Gerald croft is an attractive chap about thirty, rather too manly to be a dandy
but very much the well-bred young man-about-town. - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔Act 1 Page
2: A lady's man - foreshadows his relationship with Eva Smith
Stage directions: Eric is in his early twenties, not quite at ease, half shy, half assertive. -
CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔Act 1 Page 2: Like his sister he is in his early 20s - he is young
and impressionable, can be changed by the inspector.
Stage directions: They ... are pleased with themselves. - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔Act 1
Page 2: Unaware of their cruelty which is about to be exposed; carefree; lacking social
awareness of their responsibility to those who are vulnerable in society
Sheila: Mummy
Daddy" - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔Act 1 Page 2 to 6: At the beginning refers to her
mother and father in a puerile, manner (mummy/daddy) suggesting her lack maturity
Eric: She's got a nasty temper sometimes - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔Act 1 Page 5:
Foreshadowing the fault in Shiela's character that is exposed over the dress and which she
cannot forgive herself for.
Birling: there's a lot of wild talk about possible labour trouble in the near future
Actual Questions and CORRECT Answers
Stage directions: All three acts...are continuous - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔Act 1 Page 1:
Traditional Greek tragedies written in three acts. The action is continuous suggesting there is
no time to think, action happens in real time and with a sense of pace and immediacy and
inevitability
Stage directions: Spring 1912 - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔Act 1 Page 1: The play is set in
the spring of 1912 which sets up much of the dramatic irony: the Titanic is about to sink,
world war 1 starts in 1914 (the play was written in 1945 at the end of world war 2 - creating
dramatic irony for the audience who know about both wars)
Stage directions: The lighting should be pink and intimate until the INSPECTOR arrives and
then it should be brighter and harder - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔Act 1 Page 1: The lighting
presents the changing mood of the play - the pink light suggests that the family see life
through rose tinted glasses, they do not see the reality of the impending war, the suffering of
the working classes, etc. The harsher lighting suggests the light of truth which the inspector
brings with him. The light used in an interrogation. It also reveals the truth about the family;
they begin to see each other in a different light.
Stage directions: Arthur Birling is a heavy-looking, rather portentous man in this middle
fifties with fairly easy manners but rather provincial in this speech. " - CORRECT
ANSWER- ✔✔Act 1 Page 1: Heavy-looking suggests he is over-weight like a fat cat -
someone who gluttonous (wealth, food, money). Notice that he is physically 'big' unlike the
inspector who is described as having a large physical presence although is not necessarily a
physically large man.
Portentous suggests he is pompous, self-important
Notice that both Birling and the Inspector are BOTH in their fifties - Priestly is inviting us to
compare these men and compare what they represent.
Provincial - from the countryside - suggests that he is not sophisticated and narrow minded
in his views of the world and the big political issues of the day eg the impending war.
, Stage directions: His wife is about fifty, a rather cold woman and her husband's social
superior. - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔Act 1 Page 1: Suggests that Mrs Birling is incapable of
empathy and other human emotions that make us better people.
Stage directions: Sheila is a pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather
excited. " - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔Act 1 Page 42401: Notice that BOTH Sheila and Eva
smith are both in their early twenties. Again, priestly is inviting us to compare Sheila's life
with Eva Smith's life. Sheila: 20s, has family, rich, doesn't need to work, has a future, going
to be married. Eva: 20s, orphaned/no family, poor, must work to survive; is dead/has no
future, used sexually/unmarried.
Pleased with life/excited suggests she is carefree
Stage directions: Gerald croft is an attractive chap about thirty, rather too manly to be a dandy
but very much the well-bred young man-about-town. - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔Act 1 Page
2: A lady's man - foreshadows his relationship with Eva Smith
Stage directions: Eric is in his early twenties, not quite at ease, half shy, half assertive. -
CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔Act 1 Page 2: Like his sister he is in his early 20s - he is young
and impressionable, can be changed by the inspector.
Stage directions: They ... are pleased with themselves. - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔Act 1
Page 2: Unaware of their cruelty which is about to be exposed; carefree; lacking social
awareness of their responsibility to those who are vulnerable in society
Sheila: Mummy
Daddy" - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔Act 1 Page 2 to 6: At the beginning refers to her
mother and father in a puerile, manner (mummy/daddy) suggesting her lack maturity
Eric: She's got a nasty temper sometimes - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔Act 1 Page 5:
Foreshadowing the fault in Shiela's character that is exposed over the dress and which she
cannot forgive herself for.
Birling: there's a lot of wild talk about possible labour trouble in the near future
