Here’s a quick article to help you with the character revision in An Inspector Calls! If you’re revising for a GCSE exam, most of the questions are based on characters and/or themes so make sure you understand those in detail!

For more help with ‘An Inspector Calls’ revision, you can access our full course.

This course includes:

SUMMARY

CHARACTER BREAKDOWN

THEMES

KEY QUOTES

ATTITUDES

CONTEXTS

EXAMPLE HIGH-GRADE ESSAYS

MARK SCHEME BREAKDOWN

AND MORE!

Thanks for reading…. here are the characters:

MR / ARTHUR BIRLING 

  • Heavy looking
  • “Portentous”
  • Fairly easy manners
  • Middle fifties
  • Middle class 
  • “Provincial in speech” – he sounds like he’s from the country, trying to be posh and rich but his accent shows he isn’t from a rich background
  • Work obsessed / selfish 

MRS / SYBIL BIRLING 

  • About fifty 
  • Cold 
  • Her husband’s social superior – upper class 

SHEILA 

  • Early twenties 
  • Pretty 
  • Pleased with life 
  • Rather excited 

GERALD 

  • Gerald – another businessman, much younger than Mr Birling – engaged to Sheila
  • Attractive 
  • About thirty 
  • Easy well-bred young-man-about-town 

ERIC

  • Middle twenties 
  • Not quite at ease 
  • Half shy 
  • Half assertive (confident / pushy / makes decisions / forceful) 
  • Alcoholic

THE INSPECTOR

  • Strong moral compass
  • In his fifties
  • Plain darkish suit
  • Impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness
  • The lighting changes from ‘pink and intimate’ to ‘brighter and harder’ once he arrives

Thank for reading! For more help with ‘An Inspector Calls’ revision, you can access our full course.