What's inside the printable
This PDF gathers around 25 carefully chosen quotations from Priestley's An Inspector Calls, organised so you can revise in the way the exam rewards. Quotes are grouped two ways:
- By character — Mr Birling, Mrs Birling, Sheila, Eric, Gerald, Inspector Goole.
- By theme — responsibility, capitalism, the generation gap, gender.
Each quotation sits next to a short AO2 hook: a one-line note on method (imagery, modal verbs, dramatic irony, stage directions, form) that you can extend into a full analytical sentence. A blank column lets you add your own notes, so the printable doubles as a working revision sheet rather than a passive reference.
Three sample quotations
Here is a taste of how each entry is framed.
- "If men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish" — Inspector Goole, Act 3. Hook: the conditional clause pivots on the modal "will," and the tricolon of biblical, quasi-apocalyptic nouns reframes Priestley's 1945 audience as morally on trial after two world wars.
- "We are members of one body" — Inspector Goole, Act 3. Hook: the collective noun "body" fuses individual citizens into a single moral organism, a direct rebuttal of Mr Birling's earlier "a man has to mind his own business."
- "It's better to ask for the earth than to take it" — Sheila Birling, Act 2. Hook: the antithesis between "ask" and "take" tracks Sheila's shift from consumer to ethical agent, modelling the generational change Priestley wants in his audience.
Every quote in the bank gets the same compact treatment so you can scan, drill, and recall under timed conditions.
Who this is for
- GCSE English Literature students sitting AQA, Pearson Edexcel, OCR, or WJEC Eduqas.
- Year 10 and Year 11 learners preparing for closed-book modern texts papers.
- Tutors and teachers who want a single, board-agnostic handout for class.
The selection prioritises quotations that travel across boards and across question types, from character to theme to whole-text essays.
How to use it
The printable is built for spaced repetition and retrieval practice, the two techniques with the strongest evidence base for memorising textual detail.
- Day one: read the quote, cover the AO2 hook, and try to write your own.
- Day three: test yourself on the quote from the character or theme heading alone.
- Day seven: write a 60-second response linking the quote to a thesis about responsibility or social class.