'An Inspector Calls' in Three Acts (3) – The Inspector's Final Speech in Act 3

 I have been exploring a key quotation from each Act of the GCSE Literature text An Inspector Calls recently.  As an English tutor, this is one of many strategies I use to help students grow in confidence.

In Act 3 there is probably the most important speech in the play: the Inspector’s last speech -

“…there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives … We are members of one body.  We are responsible for each other … if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish”

Good responses to literature respond to details in the text and to the effects of different literary and dramatic devices.   So a really good response to this speech could begin like this:

‘In the Inspector’s final speech, he uses the metaphor of “one body” to show how society should be inter-connected and unified.  His message to the family is that their attempts to build a ‘wall’ between themselves and the working class is self-destructive.’

You can read my previous post about the metaphor of the ‘wall” here.

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