Name: n Due date:

An Inspector Calls –Homework

Birling: Thanks. (confidentially.) By the way, there's something I’d like to mention – in strict
confidence – while we're by ourselves. I have an idea that your mother – lady croft – while she
doesn't object to my girl – feels you might have done better for yourself socially –

// Gerald, rather embarrassed, begins to murmur some dissent, but Birling checks him.//

no, Gerald, that's all right. Don't blame her. She comes from an old country family – landed people
and so forth – and so it's only natural. But what I wanted to say is – there's a fair chance that I might
find my way into the next honours list. Just a knighthood, of course.

Gerald: Oh – I say – congratulations!

Birling: Thanks, but it's a bit too early for that. So don't say anything. But I’ve had a hint or two. You
see, I was lord mayor here two years ago when royalty visited us. And I’ve always been regarded as a
sound useful party man. So – well – I gather there's a very good chance of a knighthood – so long as
we behave ourselfs, don't get into the police court or start a scandal – eh? ( laughs complacently.)

Gerald: (laughs) You seem to be a nice well-behaved family –

Birling: We think we are –

1.) Read through the extract from Act 1 of An Inspector Calls. Gerald and Birling are alone in the
room, and they end up discussing Gerald and Sheila’s pending marriage.

Answer the following question on this extract –

How does Priestly present Mr Birling’s character in this scene?

Success criteria:

o At least TWO detailed paragraphs

o Analyse language using correct subject terminology
o Explain the effect of your identified device – what
does it tell you about his character and why is it
effective?
o How does the reader feel because of your chosen
quotes/devices and explain why
o Link to historical context – what does this scene
imply about the society at the time?

Challenge: Analyse the structure of this scene – can you

identify a structural device which informs you about Mr
Birling’s character and explore its effect?
Name: n Due date:
An Inspector Calls – Homework
Inspector: so she'd come to you for assistance because she didn't want to take stolen money?

Mrs Birling: that's the story she finally told, after I'd refused to believe her original story – that she
was a married woman who'd been deserted by her husband. I didn't see any reason to believe that
one story should be any truer than the other. Therefore, you're quite wrong to suppose I shall regret
what I did.

Inspector: but if her story was true, if this boy had been giving her stolen money, then she came to
you for help because she wanted to keep this youngster out of any more trouble – isn't that so?

Mrs Birling: possibly. But it sounded ridiculous to me. So I was perfectly justified in
advising my committee not to allow her claim for assistance.

Inspector: you're not even sorry now, when you know what happened to the girl?

Mrs Birling: I'm sorry she should have come to such a horrible end. But I accept no blame for it at all.

1.) Answer the following question on this extract –

In what ways does Priestley manage to make Mrs Birling such a dislikeable character, in
‘An Inspector Calls’?

Success criteria:

o At least TWO detailed paragraphs

o Analyse language using correct subject terminology
o Explain the effect of your identified device – what
does it tell you about her character and why is it
effective?
o How does the reader feel because of your chosen
quotes/devices and explain why
o Think about Priestley’s intentions – why did he
make her a dislikeable character?

Challenge: Analyse the structure of this scene – can you

identify a structural device which informs you about
Mrs Berling’s character and explore its effect?
Name: n Due date:
An Inspector Calls – Homework
Inspector: ( taking charge, masterfully) Stop!
// They are suddenly quiet, staring at him.//
And be quiet for a moment and listen to me. I don't need to know any more. Neither do you. This girl
killed herself – and died a horrible death. But each of you helped to kill her. Remember that. Never
forget it. (He looks from one to the other of them carefully.) But then I don't think you ever will.
Remember what you did, Mrs Birling. You turned her away when she most needed help. You refused
her even the pitiable little bit of organized charity you had in your power to grant her. Remember
what you did-
Eric: (unhappily) My God – I'm not likely to forget.
Inspector: Just used her for the end of a stupid drunken evening, as if she was an animal, a
thing, not a person. No, you won't forget. (He looks at Sheila.)
Sheila: (bitterly) I know. I had her turned out of a job. I started it.
Inspector: You helped – but you didn't start it.( rather savagely, to Birling.) You started it. She
wanted twenty-five shillings a week instead of twenty-two and sixpence. You made her pay a heavy
price for that. And now she'll make you pay a heavier price still.
Birling: ( unhappily) Look, Inspector – I'd give thousands – yes, thousands-
Inspector: You're offering the money at the wrong time. Mr Birling.

1.) Answer the following question on this extract –

In ‘An Inspector Calls’, how does Priestley present the theme of ‘responsibility?

Success criteria:

o At least TWO detailed paragraphs

o Analyse language using correct subject terminology
o Explain the effect of your identified device – what
does it tell you responsibility?
o How does the reader feel because of your chosen
quotes/devices and explain why
o Think about Priestley’s intentions – why did he
choose this particular theme and is it effective?

Challenge: Analyse the structure of this scene (stage

directions etc) – can you identify a structural device
which informs you the theme of responsibility? How is
this device effective?
Name: n Due date:
An Inspector Calls – Homework
[[EARLY IN ACT 1]] Sheila: (excited) Oh – Gerald – you’ve got it – is it the one you wanted me to have?
Gerald: (giving the case to her) Yes – the very one.
Sheila: (taking out the ring) Oh – it's wonderful! Look – mummy – isn't it a beauty? Oh – darling -
(She kisses Gerald hastily.)

[[FURTHER INTO THE SCENE OF ACT 1]] Sheila: (rather distressed) Sorry! It's just that I can't help
thinking about this girl – destroying herself so horribly – and I’ve been so happy tonight. Oh I wish you
hadn't told me. What was she like? Quite young?
Inspector: Yes. Twenty-four.
Sheila: Pretty?
Inspector: She wasn't pretty when I saw her today, but she had been pretty – very pretty.

[[MIDDLE OF ACT 3]] Sheila: But don't you see, if all that's come out tonight is true, then it doesn't
much matter who it was who made us confess. And it was true, wasn't it? You turned the girl out of one
job, and I had her turned out of another. Gerald kept her – at a time when he was supposed to be too
busy to see me. Eric – well, we know what Eric did. And mother hardened her hearth and gave her the
final push that finished her. That's what's important – and not whether a man is a police inspector or not.
1.) Answer the following question on this extract –
How does Priestley use Sheila’s change throughout the play to present his ideas?

Success criteria:

o At least TWO detailed paragraphs

o Analyse language/structure using correct subject
terminology
o Explain the effect of your identified device – what
does it tell you about Priestley’s ideas?
o How does BOTH a WW2 and a Modern audience
feel because of your chosen quotes/devices and
explain why
o Think about Priestley’s message – why did he
choose this particular character to portray his ideas
and is it effective? What did he want?

Challenge: Consider how Sheila, at each stage of her

character change, displays Priestley’s ideas – beginning,
middle and end. Was this done deliberately and why?
Name: n Due date:
An Inspector Calls – Homework
[[ACT 1]] Birling: You'll hear some people say that war's inevitable. And I’m taking as a hard headed, practical
man of business. And I say there isn't a chance of war. […] Why, a friend of mine went over this new liner last
week – the titanic – she sails next week – forty-six thousand eight hundred tons – New York in five days –
and every luxury – and unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable. That's what you've got to keep your eye on, facts
like that […] In twenty or thirty years’ time – let's say, in 1940 – […] There'll be peace and prosperity and
rapid progress everywhere – except of course in Russia, which will always be behindhand naturally. […] But
the way some of these cranks talk and write now, you'd think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if
we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive – community and all that nonsense.

[[ACT 1 - middle]] Sheila: When I was looking at myself in the mirror I caught sight of her smiling at the
assistant, and I was furious with her. I'd been in a bad temper anyhow.
Inspector: And was it the girls fault?
Sheila: No, not really. […] How could I know what would happen afterwards? If she'd been some miserable
plain little creature, I don't suppose I’d have done it. But she was very pretty and looked as if she could take
care of herself. I couldn't be sorry for her.

[[ACT 3]] Eric: Yes, I insisted – it seems. I'm not very clear about it, but afterwards she told me she didn't
want me to go in but that – well, I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty – and I threatened to make
a row.
1.)
Inspector:
AnswerJust
theused her for question
following the end ofona stupid drunken–evening, as if she was an animal, a thing, not a person.
this extract

What is important about the time period in which Priestley set ‘An Inspector Calls’ (set in
1912, first performed in 1945), and what was his purpose for this?

Success criteria:

o At least TWO detailed paragraphs

o Analyse language and structure using correct
subject terminology
o Explain the effect of your identified device – what
does it tell you about this time period?
o How does the WW2 and Modern audience feel
because of your chosen quotes/devices and explain
why
o Think about Priestley’s message – why did he
choose this particular time period and is it
effective? What did he want?

Challenge: If zooming into language, consider the word

connotations of your chosen device. What do these
connotations imply about the time period? Explain.