Grades 9 and 10 - Literature - High School - An Inspector Calls - Passage 1 — Flashcards

Read the extract below carefully from An Inspector Calls before answering the questions.

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.
INSPECTOR: Who is to blame then?
MRS BIRLING: First, the girl herself.
SHEILA [bitterly]: For letting Father and me have her chucked out of her jobs!
MRS BIRLING: Secondly, I blame the young man who was the father of the child she was going to have. If, as she said, he didn’t belong to her class, and was some drunken young idler, then that’s all the more reason he shouldn’t escape. He should be made an example of. If the girl’s death is due to anybody, then it’s due to him.
INSPECTOR: And if her story is true — that he was stealing money —
MRS BIRLING [rather agitated now]: There’s no point in assuming that —
INSPECTOR: But suppose we do, what then?
MRS BIRLING: Then he’d be entirely responsible — because the girl wouldn’t have come to us, and have been refused assistance, if it hadn’t been for him —
INSPECTOR: So he’s the chief culprit anyhow.
MRS BIRLING: Certainly. And he ought to be dealt with very severely —
SHEILA [with sudden alarm]: Mother — stop — stop!
BIRLING: Be quiet, Sheila!
SHEILA: But don’t you see —–
MRS BIRLING [severely]: You’re behaving like an hysterical child tonight. [SHEILA begins crying quietly. MRS BIRLING turns to INSPECTOR.] And if you’d take steps to find this young man and then make sure that he’s compelled to confess in public his responsibility — instead of staying here asking quite unnecessary questions — then you really would be doing your duty.
INSPECTOR [grimly]: Don’t worry, Mrs Birling. I shall do my duty. [He looks at his watch.]

- J. B. Priestley, An Inspector Calls and Other Plays