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An Inspector Calls · AQA GCSE

An Inspector Calls Flashcards

AQA anthologyWritten by a 160/160 student
Quick answer: These An Inspector Calls flashcards give you one card per character and per theme, each with a key quote, so you can test your recall fast. Cover the card, say the character's role or the theme's central idea from memory, then check. Active recall like this makes the play stick far better than rereading your notes.

Flashcards work because they force you to retrieve information rather than just reread it, and that effort builds memory. These cards boil An Inspector Calls down to the essentials: one card per main character and one per major theme, each with a key quote. Test yourself against them, do not just read them. Quotes are kept short, as the play is in copyright; learn the full versions from your script.

How to use these flashcards

For each card, cover everything but the name and try to recall the role or idea and the quote from memory, then check. Anything you get wrong goes back into the pile. Five minutes a day beats an hour of highlighting. When the single cards are solid, pull two at random and link them, which builds the comparison the exam rewards.

Character cards

Mr BirlingRole: complacent capitalist, Priestley's target.
Change: none.
Quote: "look after himself and his own".
Mrs BirlingRole: cold, class-prejudiced, denies the pregnant Eva.
Change: none.
Quote: "girls of that class".
SheilaRole: changes most, Priestley's hope.
Change: accepts responsibility.
Quote: "these girls aren't cheap labour, they're people".
EricRole: guilty son, drinks, gets Eva pregnant.
Change: accepts responsibility.
Quote: "we all helped to kill her".
GeraldRole: upper-class fiance, Eva's former lover.
Change: reverts to complacency.
Quote: "we're respectable citizens and not criminals".
Inspector GooleRole: Priestley's mouthpiece and moral force.
Change: fixed, unshakeable.
Quote: "We are members of one body".
Eva SmithRole: the absent victim, symbol of the exploited.
Change: revealed piece by piece.
Quote: "millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths".

Theme cards

ResponsibilityIdea: the central theme; collective versus individual.
Quote: "We are members of one body".
ClassIdea: the wealthy exploit and dismiss the poor.
Quote: "girls of that class".
GenderIdea: women decorative or exploited; a double standard.
Quote: "young and fresh and charming".
✍ Chloe's Grade 9 tip: Learn one quote per card perfectly rather than five badly. A single quote you can place and analyse in your sleep beats a handful you half remember, and it gives you something solid to build a paragraph on.

Turn these cards into full answers with the key quotes page, the themes page and the character pages.

Keep revising

An Inspector Calls Key QuotesEvery key quote, by character and theme, with Grade 9 analysis.An Inspector Calls Context1912 vs 1945, why the gap between setting and writing is the whole point.An Inspector Calls ThemesResponsibility, class, gender and generational change.