Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
When the ladies leave the men to their port, Mr Birling has a ‘man to man’ chat with Gerald and Eric, advising them that a man needs to look after himself and his own family and not worry about the wider community. As he is telling them this, the door bell rings. Inspector Goole enters, an impressive, serious man whom none of them has heard of. Mrs Birling: you're looking tired, dear. I think you ought to go to bed – and forget about this absurd business. You'll feel better in the morning. Inspector: it was because she was going to have a child that she went for assistance to your mother's committee.
Birling: (raising his glass) So here's wishing the pair of you – the very best that life can bring. Gerald and Sheila . Birling : (noticing that his wife has not taken any) Now then, Sybil, you must a take a little tonight . Special occasion, y'know, eh? Birling lights his cigar and Gerald, who had lit a cigarette, helps himself to port, then pushes the decanter to Birling .// The Individual and Society: To prepare students to read the play, they reflect on the relationship between the individual and society, and how that relationship is both influenced by and influences our identity: Societal institutions, our experiences within them, and other people’s perceptions of who we are directly impact our identity, while at the same time our experiences and our identity directly impact our behaviour and how we relate to those in the world around us. Gaining such understanding will assist students in reflecting on and learning from the behaviour of the characters.
We can do some creative interpretation if we think of the Inspector not as a police officer, but as a scientist, tracing out the facts of the case. Priestley’s scientist, if that’s what he is, is a new way of thinking for a new era. He isn’t in awe of the English class system, he isn’t swayed by prejudices and politeness. He calmly goes about discovering the true facts, making explanations of the past … and predictions into the future. Even if you don’t accept Dunne’s precognitive dreams, you could say that, in general, science can see into the future. Psychology, for example, might predict when people are going to do bad things, like the characters in the play. 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?
Sheila: I'd gone in to try something on. It was an idea of my own – mother had been against it, and so had the assistant – but I insisted. As soon as I tried it on, I knew they'd been right. It just didn't suit me at all. I looked silly in the thing. Well, this girl had brought the dress up from the workroom, and when the assistant – miss Francis – had asked her something about it, this girl, to show us what she meant, had held the dress up, as if she was wearing it . And it just suited her. She was the right type for it, just as I was the wrong type. She was very pretty too – with big dark eyes – and that didn't make it any better. Well, when I tried the thing on and looked at myself and knew that it was all wrong, I caught sight of this girl smiling at miss Francis – as if to say: 'doesn't she look awful' – and I was absolutely furious. I was very rude to both of them, and then I went to the manager and told him that this girl had been very impertinent – and – and – ( she almost breaks down, but just controls herself. ) 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. Sheila: (slowly, carefully now) you mustn't try to build up a kind of wall between us and that girl. If you do, then the inspector will just break it down. And it'll be all the worse when he does. Gerald: no. I wasn't telling you a complete lie when I said i'd been very busy at the works all that time. We were very busy. But of course I did see a good deal of her.Dunne’s book An Experiment with Time, published in 1927, was a sensation. In it, he described these and other precognitive dreams he had experienced. He encouraged his readers to keep a dream diary, and to train themselves to notice and develop their abilities to see the future.
Great Deal 
New Comment