This is how to revise from my quote videos. This post is based on my An Inspector Calls video of the same name.
Step 1
Go to the description of the video and click on transcript.
Copy and paste it into Word.
Use find and replace to get rid of all the timings - replace them with a space.
Step 2
Tell ChatGPT to punctuate it into accurate sentences. Write this:
“There are 20 quotes in this text. I want you to turn these into flashcards. Present the quotes on one side and four bullet points on the other side of each card.”
Step 3
Download your flashcards!
Flashcard 1: Quote: "A man has to mind his own business, community and all that nonsense. A man has to mind his own business and his own..."
Bullet Points:
Birling's anti-community stance summons the Inspector.
His words contrast with Priestley's themes of community and socialism.
This quote establishes Birling's rejection of community and socialism, setting the stage for Priestley's critique.
Flashcard 2: Quote: "The Germans don't want war."
Bullet Points:
Birling's disbelief in war's inevitability contrasts with historical context.
Priestley's anti-war stance and critique of capitalism are highlighted.
Birling's statement reveals a naive understanding of the capitalist system's reliance on war for economic growth.
Flashcard 3: Quote: "Unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable."
Bullet Points:
Symbolism of the Titanic reflects societal beliefs.
Priestley's message of hope and change amidst societal challenges.
The Titanic symbolises the hubris and false confidence of the ruling class, emphasising Priestley's theme of inevitable societal change.
Flashcard 4: Quote: "These young women counting their pennies."
Bullet Points:
Inspector's call for empathy and community.
Examination of societal inequality and gender roles.
Priestley highlights the plight of working-class women and critiques societal indifference towards their struggles.
Flashcard 5: Quote: "If men will not learn that lesson, they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish."
Bullet Points:
Inspector's warning about societal consequences.
Critique of historical ignorance and repetition.
Priestley emphasises the urgent need for societal change to avoid catastrophic outcomes.
Flashcard 6: Quote: "Now look at them, the famous younger generation who know it all and they can't even take a joke."
Bullet Points:
Parallel drawn between Eva's death and the sacrifice of the younger generation in WWI.
Priestley's indictment of the older generation's failure to learn from past mistakes.
Eric's remark underscores the generational conflict and societal stagnation.
Flashcard 7: Quote: "We are members of one body."
Bullet Points:
Emphasis on community and collective responsibility.
Allusion to Christian teachings of unity and compassion.
Priestley appeals to the audience's moral conscience and sense of collective duty.
Flashcard 8: Quote: "You might be said to have been jealous of her."
Bullet Points:
Insight into Sheila's motivations and societal values.
Exploration of class and gender dynamics.
Sheila's jealousy reflects societal pressures and the toxic influence of materialism.
Flashcard 9: Quote: "She only escaped with a torn blouse."
Bullet Points:
Sybil Birling's dismissal of societal abuse.
Illustration of societal indifference to injustice.
Priestley exposes the callousness of the upper class towards the suffering of the working class.
Flashcard 10: Quote: "It doesn't make any real difference, you know."
Bullet Points:
Sheila's critique of the family's priorities.
Emphasis on personal responsibility versus societal image.
Sheila challenges the superficiality of social status and underscores the importance of moral integrity.
Flashcard 11: Quote: "Why shouldn't they try for higher wages?"
Bullet Points:
Eric's challenge to capitalist exploitation.
Priestley's critique of the capitalist system.
Eric's remark highlights the systemic inequality and injustice faced by the working class.
Flashcard 12: Quote: "It's still the same rotten story."
Bullet Points:
Eric's realisation of societal patterns.
Priestley's call for awareness and action.
Eric's disillusionment with societal injustices underscores the need for change.
Flashcard 13: Quote: "There are millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths."
Bullet Points:
Inspector's indictment of societal exploitation.
Priestley's warning against societal apathy and ignorance.
The quote symbolises the systemic oppression faced by the working class and the need for collective action.
Flashcard 14: Quote: "I intended to pay it back."
Bullet Points:
Eric's self-justification for theft.
Illustration of Eric's moral ambiguity.
Priestley critiques the capitalist mindset of self-preservation over communal responsibility.
Flashcard 15: Quote: "Well, I'd like to be alone for a while – I'd be glad if you'd let me go."
Bullet Points:
Gerald's attempt to evade accountability.
Symbolic of the older generation's resistance to change.
Reflects societal reluctance to confront uncomfortable truths.
Flashcard 16: Quote: "I used my influence to have it refused."
Bullet Points:
Sybil Birling's abuse of power.
Illustration of class-based discrimination.
Priestley critiques the elitist mindset that prioritises individual interests over communal welfare.
Flashcard 17: Quote: "You'll have to get used to that, just as I had to."
Bullet Points:
Sybil Birling's resignation to societal injustices.
Highlight of gender dynamics and power imbalance.
Priestley critiques the normalization of oppression within upper-class society.
Flashcard 18: Quote: "It's the same rotten story, whether we told it to a real police inspector or somebody else."
Bullet Points:
Eric's recognition of societal patterns.
Critique of societal hypocrisy and complacency.
Reflects Priestley's call for systemic change and accountability.
Flashcard 19: Quote: "If men will not learn that lesson, they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish."
Bullet Points:
Inspector's warning of impending societal consequences.
Emphasis on the cyclical nature of historical lessons.
Priestley underscores the urgency of societal reform to avert catastrophe.
Flashcard 20: Quote: "There are millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths."
Bullet Points:
Inspector's indictment of systemic exploitation.
Symbolises the plight of the working class.
Priestley underscores the need for collective empathy and action.
These flashcards encapsulate all 23 quotes from "An Inspector Calls," providing a comprehensive resource for exam preparation.
The Script of the Video (so you can understand the flashcards).
If you want to read the full script:
We are about to speed through quotations which will guarantee you top grades.
Some students will ask me, 'Are these the only quotations I need to revise, sir?' And the answer is probably, because all exam boards are happy to accept references as well as quotations.
We're going to dive in with Birling, because Birling summons the Inspector. The quotation that proves this is the one where he says, 1. 'A man has to mind his own business, community and all that nonsense. A man has to mind his own business and his own...'
But he never gets to finish because the bell goes, announcing the arrival of the Inspector. His anti-community message has summoned this potentially supernatural being the Inspector, and that being's job is to correct that world view.
He is not just attacking the idea of business and capitalism; this isn't just an anti-capitalist play. It's much more than that. He's attacking this idea of the rejection of community, the rejection of socialism. And that's why this quotation is so important in establishing Priestley's purpose.
The next most important thing that birling says is his disbelief that war is coming. This is why Priestley sets the play in 1912, and this is why he references Germans, because we had the Second World War in 1945.
2. 'The Germans don't want war,' he says. Now that's a much better quotation than the Titanic one for discrediting his view. After all, the Titanic killed a couple of thousand people, I imagine. I haven't checked. What about the Second World War? Call it eight million. The war quotation is much more important and it links more to Priestley's purpose.
Priestley founded the campaign for nuclear disarmament; he is an anti-war writer, but even more importantly, he's making the case that capitalism needs war. That's how the capitalist system works. It needs to build demand, to get people buying.
Well, in Birling's day, how do they do it? War, baby, war. Kill people, destroy stuff, and then make more stuff to replace what's been destroyed. Money, money, money, money. Priestley makes this distinction very clear, but ironically because Birling says there's everything to lose and nothing to gain by war.
Now, Priestley's audience knew that was complete rubbish because it was a national scandal at the time. How many British businessmen had made an absolute fortune out of the First World War? And that was one of the reasons that the socialist government got elected in 1945, because they didn't want a repeat of that greed.
So, Priestley is pointing out Birling's stupidity, almost pointing out that he's lucky to have such a successful business because he doesn't understand how business and capitalism works.
3. 'Unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable.' Our next quotation is, of course, 'Unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable.' But we're not using that just to discredit Birling's views; we're now thinking of it as a symbol. In 1945, what was unsinkable as a metaphor? What was impossible? Getting rid of the greatest wartime leader we'd ever had, Winston Churchill, a national hero. How on earth could Priestley expect a Labour Party to gain victory over such an amazing man leading a party that had saved the country from invasion and conquest and Nazism? My god, how could you do it?
Well, part of the socialist message is that things are not inevitable; change for the better is possible. The Titanic that appeared unsinkable was then completely sunk. In the same way, the political powers that existed before the war, that appear so powerful they can't be changed or altered, they too can be sunk. And of course, in the 1945 elections just after this play was first performed, they were.
One of the massive questions Priestley and his audience are asking is, look, the First World War was actually called ‘the war to end all wars’. People believed that there would never be another world war like it because the price was so high, the catastrophe was so great.
And yet, twenty later in 1939, the whole world is suddenly at war again. And so, Priestley is saying, how could we go from belief A to fact B, from certainty we could never have such a catastrophic war to another even more catastrophic war? How is this possible?
And his play tries to explain that. He's not saying it's the fault of politicians; he's not saying it's the fault of Hitler; he's not saying it's the fault of fascism and international relations. He's saying this: it is the fault of arrogant businessmen like Birling.
It's the fault of the ruling classes who sacrificed their sons' lives in the First World War and then did not learn the lesson of that sacrifice. They ignored that sacrifice and allowed the conditions of war to permeate through the two decades after 1918. So, those in authority did not learn the lesson of the First World War, which is why Birling doesn't learn the lesson of Eva's death.
And that's why he says, 4. ‘Now look at them, the famous younger generation who know it all and they can't even take a joke.’ Priestley is making a parallel between the death of this one person, Eva, and all those deaths suffered in the First World War. The one represents the whole.
And that's why the second phone call at the end of the play is going to represent the Second World War. That second death happens because the Birlings refuse to learn the Inspector's lesson, just as that generation in 1912 didn't learn the lesson of the catastrophe of 1914 to 1918. So history was able to repeat itself.
So, Birling exists as a warning about what has gone wrong in society. The Inspector enters, and he is Priestley's proxy, he represents Priestley's political and social views.
We've already established that Priestly gives him great power because he is summoned almost supernaturally by Birling's words dismissing community.
One of the most important things the Inspector says is that 5. ‘we should put ourselves in the place of these young women counting their pennies in their dingy little back bedrooms’.
Firstly, this is telling us that he believes in community; we need to put ourselves into other people's shoes, that's what community is. However, he has picked on women.
Why is Priestley so obsessed with women? Sheila is the person who's going to carry the Inspector's views and therefore Priestley's views. The victim is Eva; the last person to cause Eva's tragedy is Sybil Birling. This is a play obsessed with the role of women. Why?
Because Priestley's saying the biggest injustice in society is the way women are treated, but also the people with the greatest power to change society are women. Because in 1912 no woman had the vote, but in 1945 every single woman has the vote. And all those women can remember what happened to their mothers and grandmothers in the First World War.
In particular, they'll remember the million women who became employed during the First World War and then were immediately sacked when the men returned from war.
In the Second World War, it was going to be different. The women were not going to be sacked. The women had a vote, and the women's vote was able to change the course of history.
6. 'Millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths.' In the Inspector's final words before he disappears, he's very clear that Eva is a symbolic figure. He talks about millions and millions of John Smiths and Eva Smiths. In other words, she represents the whole of the working class.
Now, the reason that's important is the audience, of course, would have been filled with middle-class educated people, the very people who need to change their attitude to the working classes or the poor.
7. 'We are members of one body.' But he also uses this to emphasise community. He says, 'We are not alone, we are members of one body.' Now this language is crucial to Priestley. Eighty percent or more of his audience is Christian, going to church every Sunday.
'We are members of one body' is language that comes directly from the Holy Communion when you eat the body of Christ and drink Christ's blood. Not literally unless you believe in transubstantiation and you're Catholic, blah, blah, blah.
However, symbolically, this is effectively asking, 'What would Jesus do? What would a Christian do?' A Christian would have to believe in community, a Christian would have to believe in doing good to your fellow man. And therefore, Priestley's point is, therefore, a Christian would have to vote for a socialist society.
They couldn't in all conscience vote for a capitalist society because that does not care for people collectively, it only cares about individuals. That's a very persuasive argument to an audience that is very likely to be made up of conservative voters.
He can't change their mind with a play, but he can say, 'Look, you already have this Christian belief which ought to change your mind for you.'
'They will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.' Then we have the Inspector's final warning. 8. 'If men will not learn that lesson, they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.'
Now, many readers just see this as a reference to industrial unrest, but really, fire and blood, I don't think so. This is a reference to the First World War coming in 1914 and the Second World War coming in 1939.
He's making a direct link between capitalism and self-interest and exploitation of the workers and the impulse to go to war. And effectively, he's saying to the audience, 'Look, you didn't learn the lesson properly in 1918 when the First World War ended. You damn well ought to learn it now in 1945 after the Second World War. Because, by the way, the next one is going to be nuclear and you're all dead now.
Crucially, he leaves the stage at this point. Why? Because it's a test. The Inspector is testing to see whether the Birlings will learn their lesson in the same way that Priestley is testing the audience to see whether they will learn their lesson.
Linking that to the religious context, it's like the test God set up for Adam and Eve. Don't eat the fruit of the tree.' Of course, we won't eat the fruit of the tree. Slithery snake comes along, says, 'Eat the fruit of the tree.' They eat the fruit of the tree. Calamity, they're expelled from Eden forever. They don't learn their lesson, and so that's the kind of challenge that Priestley is offering his audience. 'Are you going to create the new Edenic state, the socialist welfare state, where everybody looks after everyone else? Or are you going to head into Third World War?
Now we move on to Sheila, because Sheila is the Inspector's proxy, and the Inspector is Priestley's proxy, and therefore what Sheila says is what Priestley believes.
'You might be said to have been jealous of her.' So, the Inspector says about Sheila, 9. 'In fact, in a strange way, you might have been said to be jealous of her.'
What's he talking about? The moment when Sheila decided to get Eva sacked because she looked better with this dress that Sheila wanted to buy. Priestley is pointing out that it's very odd someone with all Sheila's social and financial advantages should find it within herself to be jealous of a mere shopkeeper who's socially at the bottom of the scale, and obviously financially at the bottom of the scale.
Well, Sheila can only be jealous of someone with such low life prospects if society values appearance so highly, and society has damaged women not only by limiting their choices and forcing them to marry to gain any kind of independence, although that itself is not that great an independence.
He's also saying that society educates women to value the wrong stuff. They're being forced to value appearances because that's part of their marketable commodity in attracting a suitable male.
So, what Priestley is pointing out here is not just that women are oppressed in terms of opportunity, they're also so oppressed that their ways of thinking have been damaged.
This is a subtle way to address the women in the audience and say, 'Look, you are just being given male values here. And when you talk about fashion, when you talk about makeup, when you talk about beauty and appearance, all you're really doing is conforming to what men want from you. Is that the future you want?'
And he takes Sheila and tries to take that away from her so that she can see herself in a totally different light.
Sheila also brings home to us the difference between her perspective and her mother's. There is no reason in terms of the action of the plot to create Alderman Meggarty, but he's there because he is abusive to women.
10. 'She only escaped with a torn blouse.' Sheila remarks that a friend of hers went to see him, and she only escaped with a torn blouse.
Well, two things here. First, that word 'only' suggests that she was lucky just to escape with a torn blouse, and actually, the abuse could have been much greater.
But secondly, this is common knowledge. Everybody knows that this is the way Alderman Meggarty behaves, and society has done absolutely nothing. In fact, Sybil Birling wants to shut it up.
She says, 11. 'Don't talk like that.' She would rather hide the truth than change it. So, Sheila now becomes a symbol for the younger generation in the audience.
In 1945, Priestley's asking them to identify with her, and when we see the struggles between Sheila and Eric and their parents, that is a symbol for the struggles of the younger generation in the audience with their own parents' generation who have controlled the levers of power, led the country to war, and ensured that society is not equal.
12. 'It doesn't make any real difference, you know.' Now, once Gerald has exposed the Inspector as a fake, the rest of the family are hugely relieved.
He comes up with this theory that it might not have been one single girl, the Inspector might have used several different photographs, and Sheila points out, 'All right, but it doesn't make any real difference, you know.'
Her point is, our actions are what matter, whereas the Birlings are not interested in their actions, they're only interested in their reputation. Whereas Sheila is saying, 'No, that's not how we run a successful society. It's our actions. We're responsible for, because we're all of one body.'
The final quotation for Sheila is also the final quotation for the play. So, you have to wait until the end of the video for that one.
We now move on to Eric. Eric is the most complex character in the play because he embodies the Inspector's views. He learns the Inspector's lesson, but Priestley's got a problem.
Society didn't learn the lesson of the First World War, so he can't end the play with Eric having completely learned the lessons because that would imply there would be no Second World War, and therefore, symbolically, there wouldn't be that second telephone call saying there's another body in the infirmary.
So, he has to create a complex character here who learns the right lessons but fails to act on them.
'Why shouldn't they try for higher wages?' We first find that Eric has learned the socialist message when he says, 13. 'Why shouldn't they try for higher wages? We try for higher prices.'
This is Priestley looking at the economics of his day. Eric is saying that the capitalist system is completely unfair because that's also what Priestley believes.
But now we come to the complexity. Eric has got Eva pregnant, but we find out that this has happened in a potentially violent way. He claims not to remember what happened, he claims that he was too drunk to remember. But of course, this might simply be an avoidance of facing up to his own responsibility for his actions. 'I was in that state where a chap easily turns nasty.'
He does say, 14. 'Well, I was in a state where a chap easily turns nasty, I threatened to make a row.' This is a euphemism.
Regardless of what has actually happened, this is clearly against Eva's wishes, it's clearly an abusive relationship, and yet she feels she needs to stay with him because that is her only route to any kind of financial security.
Priestley focuses on Eric in this way to make it absolutely clear that Eva's position is not her own fault, it's the fault of the men around her. It's Gerald who has taken advantage of her, as we shall see, and now it's Eric who has found her at an even lower ebb and taken even more advantage of her and behaved even more cruelly and with more exploitation.
Now, we can add, in Eric's favour, that he offers to marry her, and she turns him down because she says he doesn't love her. But I'm going to dismiss that because Eric has no prospects to marry her, he has no money, as we discover with his stealing from the family business, which brings us to the next point about Eric.
He steals fifty pounds from the family business, but he doesn't confess to stealing it, he only confesses to taking it. 'Not really. I intended to pay it back.' He justifies it by saying, 15. 'No, it's not really stealing, I intended to pay it back.'
Now, this gets to the root of Eric's problem. He is deceiving himself. It implies to us that though learning the lesson now in the moments of the play is genuine, he is in fact still drunk. We know he's an alcoholic who's been drinking all night, and we also know from this that he's prone to self-justification and self-deception.
So, it's going to be a very easy step for him in a week, a month, a few years' time to forget the Inspector's lesson. But he is also a symbol of capitalism. After all, Eric's generation is the generation that will inherit these businesses. After the First World War, exploiting others for money is not seen as theft in the capitalist system.
Priestley doesn't leave Eric like that, he also wants to establish Eric's fundamental good nature, or at least his political ideals.
'It's still the same rotten story.' Eric, therefore, agrees with Sheila. 16. 'It's the same rotten story, whether we told it to a real police inspector or somebody else.' By characterizing it as a story, it's essentially a plot.
Priestley is saying, 'Look, this is a story which is getting repeated endlessly. It's not just happening in the two hours' traffic of our stage, it's not just a theatrical performance. When you get home, when you go to work tomorrow, that story is being repeated again and again across society. The rich are exploiting the poor, businesses are exploiting the workers. You can change this. Vote for a change of government.'
Now, we come to Sybil Birling. Many people assume she is the worst character in the play because she is the final one who has the opportunity to save Eva and doesn't. So, the first quotation about Sybil Birling, I hope, will help you see her slightly differently.
When Sheila is complaining that Gerald spent part of the summer avoiding her, and we, the audience, come to understand that's because he was having an affair, Mrs. Birling does not defend her daughter. Instead, she defends Gerald.
She says, 17. 'You'll have to get used to that, just as I had to.' So, she's pointing out to Sheila that this is the world women live in. It's a world where their husbands have affairs. It's a world where their husbands think nothing of deceiving them. It's a world where women have no power.
So, you could read Sybil Birling as a feminist character pointing out the problems in society. But if that's the case, why doesn't she support Eva? Why does she turn her back on her?
Well, the key to that comes with the phrase she uses, 18. 'Girls of that class.' She's using the phrase the inspector uses to refer to the fact that Eva is a working-class girl. But she doesn't just use the word 'girls,' she uses the phrase 'girls of that class.' This is incredibly important.
Sybil Birling, throughout the play, is defined by her class consciousness. She's not against Eva because she's a girl, she's against Eva because she's a working-class girl. And she's not for her family because they're her family, she's for her family because they're the ruling classes.
19. 'I used my influence to have it refused.' She used her influence to have Eva's request for help refused. Priestley makes it clear that this is the biggest crime of all because it directly results in Eva's death.
But why does she do this? Well, she says, 'I used my influence to have it refused,' but she doesn't say, 'I used my influence to have her request for help refused.' This is Sybil Birling making a statement of her own power. She is saying, 'Look, I have this power over this charity, over this organization. I can decide who gets help and who doesn't. And if I don't like you, if I think you're beneath me, I can refuse you.'
She's not just refusing Eva, she's refusing the principle of community, of socialism, and she's upholding the principle of capitalism and individualism. That's why Priestley has her say this and that's why it's the final quotation before the Inspector's bombshell.
So, this is how Priestley uses Sybil Birling. He's not saying she's evil; he's saying she's wrong because she's been brought up wrong, she's been brought up to think that the individual is more important than the collective. And in her refusal to help Eva, she's essentially saying, 'The needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many.'
Now, let's move on to Gerald. Gerald is the odd man out in the play because he is upper middle-class unlike the Inspector and Priestley, but he's not the Inspector's proxy. He is the devil's advocate, literally because he's having an affair with Eva, metaphorically because he's the one who doesn't learn the lesson of the play.
He thinks he's done the right thing by Eva, but he still abandons her. He tries to protect his reputation, and he still thinks the right thing is for him to marry Sheila.
So, Gerald is in a strange place because he's both the one who agrees with the Inspector's politics and doesn't.
20. ‘Well, I’d like to be alone for a while – I'd be glad if you'd let me go’ he says, when he realises that the Inspector is probably not a real police inspector.
And this is the moment that Gerald represents the older generation's attitude to the younger generation. They simply refuse to accept that anything's changed. He refuses to believe that Sheila won't marry him. He refuses to believe that Eric has learned his lesson. And he refuses to believe that this story will have any lasting impact. And so, what does he do? He tries to cover it up. He says, 21. ‘Everything's all right now, Sheila’ - We won't say anything to anybody, it's between you and me, you don't need to worry about it, it's all over now.
And the family go along with that, except for Eric and Sheila.
'There are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths.' Finally, we come to the quotation that encapsulates the entire message of the play. 22. 'There are millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths.'
The Inspector's final warning is, 23. 'If men will not learn that lesson, they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.' What he's saying here is that the First World War was a wake-up call, and society didn't learn its lesson. The Second World War is a wake-up call, and society didn't learn its lesson. But there's going to be a third wake-up call, and that wake-up call is going to be nuclear.
That's what the Inspector is saying when he says, 'They will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.' He's talking about the next world war. And then he disappears. But what's the message for the audience? The message is, 'Look, you didn't learn it in 1914, you didn't learn it in 1918, but you can still learn it now.'
And that's why Priestley leaves it to Sheila and Eric to make the final decision about what to do about the Inspector's message.
He's saying to his audience, 'Look, you've still got time. You can change your vote. You can change society. You can learn the lessons of the past and not repeat them. Or you can have your society blown apart.' It's up to you."
You can do this without having to download the transcript and do it through Gemini (Google’s ai) by asking it to scrape the transcript directly from a YouTube link. I’ve done it a few times for various gcse YouTubers *not sure if it requires Gemini advanced model but regardless there is a two month free trial