1. You will need to print out either slide 12 for sure
You will need to print out either slide 12 for sure. You may want to print either 13 or 15, but equally students can just copy the format into their books to save on printing.
I have also left the quote space free in some cases for you to insert your own quote to suit your group.
The final slides with the characters’ quotes would be useful for revision.
The slide show at the end is a revision presentation from slide share on Characters and Themes

2. a)How does Priestley use the character of Eric to build tension in the play? (30 marks)
b) “Priestley deliberately contrasts Gerald Croft with other characters in the play” to what extent do you agree with this statement?

3. GCSE English Literature on Monday 18th May
You will have to answer 2 questions:
Section A – An Inspector Calls
Section B - Of Mice and Men
It would be advisable if you bought your own copy of the play so that you can write notes in your book.

4. Assessment Objectives (AOs) All specifications in English Literature must require candidates to demonstrate their ability to:
AO1 • respond to texts critically and imaginatively; select and evaluate relevant textual detail to illustrate and support interpretations
AO2 • explain how language, structure and form contribute to writers’ presentation of ideas, themes and settings
AO4 * relate texts to their social, cultural and historical contexts; explain how texts have been influential and significant to self and other readers in different contexts and at different times
Themes
Audience’s response/purpose of play

5. To get a Grade C you must:
Sustained response to text
Effective use of details to support interpretation
Explanation of effects of writer’s uses of language and/or form and/or structure and effects on readers/audience
Understanding of ideas/themes/feelings/attitudes

6. What is a theme?
A theme is the central idea or ideas of a play or a novel. These are the issues that the author wants you, the reader, to think about. An Inspector Calls and Of Mice and Men have several themes? Do you know what they are?

7. STARTER: jot down what you know about the following:
Context:
Key themes:
Priestley’s purpose for writing the play?

8. STARTER: jot down what you know about the following:
Context: set in 1912 Edwardian society but written post WWII in 1945 Capitalists vs Socialists; no social security; working class very under privileged; huge class and social discrimination;
Key themes:
Social responsibility * Social class
Personal responsibility * Generation gap
Priestley’s purpose for writing the play?
To show the audience the effects and impact of a society without social or personal responsibility; to urge society to change and become more compassionate and caring; without it Priestley believed mankind would destroy himself.
‘ if men will not learn that lesson, they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish’

9. Themes Social responsibility Social class Personal responsibility
Generation gap
1An Inspector Calls - In Context (Part 1 of 2) - YouTube

10. Can I explore how Priestley uses Birling to
present the themes of social responsibility?
Key words
Social status
Class
Social responsibility
Marginalisation
Capitalist
Starter: p75-76
Look carefully, at the description of of the Birlings and their house. What does it reveal about his:
* background
* personality
interests
class
Can you identify any Capitalist values?
B grade - I can explain how Priestley uses language – description & dialogue – to present ……..through Mr Birling
C grade - I can identify how Priestley has used language to present Mr Birling as a symbol of …….

11. I can’t accept any responsibility.
LO: Can I explore how Priestley uses Mr Birling to present the theme of social responsibility?
I can’t accept any responsibility.
Appearance
Personality
Things he says
Priestley carefully chooses the words his characters say?
WHY?
Things he does
Personal and political values
Other themes he represents in the novel

12. - and unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable
Priestley presents Mr Birling as a foolish man, with no real understanding of the world around him and how it is changing. He is blind to the realities of the world and thinks he knows best. ‘The Germans don’t want war’. Priestley portrays him as a pompous, arrogant man whose main concern is with the profits of his company and his social standing. Priestley is trying to show the audience that Mr Birling has no social understanding or awareness. The audience begins to respond to Mr Birling negatively as they begin to see how ignorant he really is and how shallow his values are.

13. Now look at the pair of them – the famous younger generation who know it all. And they can’t even take a joke.
Point
Priestley is showing us that Mr Birling has not learnt anything from the evening’s events. He has not understood that his sacking of Eva Smith was a key cause of her eventual death. He doesn’t see that he has behaved in a selfish and arrogant manner. He shows no remorse and fails to understand that his own grandchild has died.
Evidence
Explanation

14. What is the point Priestley is making about Mr Birling’s personality and values from these quotes?
Explanation
‘there’s a fair chance I might
find my way into the next
Honour’s List’ 8
‘ when Crofts and Birlings
are no longer competing’ 4
‘I was an alderman for years
and Lord Mayor for two years’
‘There’ll be peace and prosperity
and rapid progress everywhere’ 7
‘lower cost and higher prices, 4
‘community and all that nonsense’ 10
‘ a man has to mind his own
business and look after himself and
his own’ 10
Still, I can’t accept any responsibility, ‘I was quite justified’ 17
‘when this comes out at the inquest, it isn’t going to do us much good.’

15. How does Priestley use Mr Birling to present the theme of social responsibility? GRADE B question GRADE C question
Point: what is the point Priestley is making about social responsibility in 1912 Britain through this quote of Mr Birling ?
____________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Evidence: ‘You must give me a list of those accounts. I’ve got to cover this up as soon as I can.’
Explain: How do the words in the quote
help the audience understand Mr Birling’s attitude to social responsibility and thus Priestley’s message?
_______________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Point: what is the point Priestley is making about Mr Birling this quote?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Evidence:
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Explain: How does Priestley present the theme of social responsibility through the character of Mr Birling?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

16. What must I do to achieve my target?
You must support your views with close reference to context and Priestley’s ideas:
A grade- I can explore in detail how Priestley presents Mr Birling, exploring key quotes and the impact Priestley wants him to have on the audience.
B grade – I can explain how Priestley presents Mr Birling, explaining key quotes and the impact Priestley wants him to have on the audience
C Grade: I can comment on the Mr Birling’s character and what the audience think of him. I can find some quotes to support my views.

17. How does Priestley use Mr Birling to present the theme of social responsibility? GRADE C question
Point: what is the point Priestley is making about Mr Birling this quote?
Mr Birling is presented as ________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Evidence: ‘ a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own’
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Explain: How does Priestley present the theme of social responsibility through the character of Mr Birling?
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

18. What is the point Priestley is making about Mrs Birling’s personality and values from these quotes? Link to themes
Quote
Explanation
‘Arthur, you’re not supposed to
say such things’
‘You know of course that my husband
was Lord Mayor only two years ago’
‘Girls of that class.’ ‘she was giving herself
ridiculous airs’
‘I didn’t like her manner. She impertinently
made use of our name’
‘that was one of the things that prejudiced
Me against her case.’
‘I did nothing I’m ashamed of.’ ‘I accept no
blame for it at all.’
‘ You’re not the type – you don’t get drunk’
‘I blame the young man who was the father’
‘They are over-tired. In the morning they’ll
be as amused as we are.’

19. What is the point Priestley is making about Sheilas’ personality and values from these quotes? Link to themes
Quote
Explanation
‘except for all last Summer when
you never came near me.’
‘ these girls aren’t cheap labour-
they’re people’
‘I know I’m to blame and I’m desperately
sorry’ ‘ I felt rotten at the time’
‘I hate to think how much he knows ‘
‘You mustn’t try to build up a kind of wall
Between us and that girl. …the Inspector
will just break it down.’
‘Mother, do stop before it’s too late.’
‘ Well he inspected us all right.’
‘it frightens me the way you talk and
I can’t listen to any more of it.’

20. What is the point Priestley is making about Gerald’s personality and values from these quotes? Link to themes
Quote
Explanation
‘I hope I can make you as happy as
you deserve to be.’
‘ you seem to be a nice well-
behaved family’
‘I didn’t feel about her as she felt
about me’
‘My God!....I’ve suddenly realised –
that she’s dead.
‘all she wanted was to talk – a little
friendliness’
‘ She was young and pretty and warm-
hearted – intensely grateful’
‘Everything’s all right now, Sheila.
What about this ring?.

21. What is the point Priestley is making about Eric’s personality and values from these quotes? Link to themes
Quote
Explanation ‘
‘ I was in that state when a chap
easily turns nasty’
‘You’re not the kind of father a chap
could go to when he’s in trouble.
‘My God!....I’ve suddenly realised –
that she’s dead.
‘You killed her – and the child she’d
have had too – my child’
‘ you’re beginning to pretend as if
nothing’s really happened at all.
‘It’s what happened to the girl and what
all did to her that matters.’
‘And I agree with Sheila.’

23. Arthur Birling says, ‘If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we’d had anything to do with, it would be very awkward, wouldn’t it?’ How does Priestley present ideas about responsibility in An Inspector Calls?
Jan 2012 H

24. AO1
May refer to Birling’s quote and thus his attitude to responsibility – and other characters’ attitudes to responsibility and how they are different
The Inspector’s attitude to responsibility – ‘each of you helped to kill her’ – and his final speech to a wider audience – ‘millions and millions of Eva Smiths...’
Socialist views about responsibility – collective responsibility – everyone in society linked
Ideas about the play as a warning about how we should be responsible for our actions
AO2
The words ‘responsible’ and ‘responsibility’ are used by most characters in the play – comment on some examples
‘fire and blood and anguish’ – significance of the choice of these words
The use of stage directions to reveal the characters’ reactions to what the Inspector has to say about how they treated Eva Smith
How Priestley creates a sense of self-satisfied smugness about the Birling family, where and how they live – thus little sense of their need to move outside the family and think of others [except Sheila / Eric]

25. You should write about: what Arthur and Eric Birling are like
Write about the differences between Arthur Birling and Eric Birling in the play An Inspector Calls.
You should write about:
what Arthur and Eric Birling are like
their different attitudes
the methods Priestley uses to present Arthur and Eric Birling.
Jan 2012 F

26. AO1
differences between children and parents
behaviour of the two characters
attitudes to Eva Smith and Inspector Goole
speed with which they understand the enormity of the situation
social responsibility and morals
AO2
language used by the different generations
the play form as a dramatic device to manipulate the characters and audience
length of speeches given by the characters e.g. Birling taking centre stage in giving advice
the younger character of Eric goes on a journey through the play and learns the key lessons but Birling does not

27. An Inspector Calls - Character and Theme