Compare your notes on the Historical

Context

Complete the missing parts.

5 minutes
Stage Directions in AIC
22 May 2018
Mr Birling
Quotation: “Arthur Birling is a heavy-looking, rather portentous man in his
middle fifties with fairly easy manners but rather provincial in his speech”
 Explanation:

Gerald
Quotation: “Gerald Croft is an attractive chap, about thirty, rather too manly
to be a dandy but very much the easy well-bred young man—about town”
 
Explanation:

Portentous: self-important, boastful

Provincial: of country
Dandy: stylish/fashionable
Sheila
Quotation: “Sheila is a pretty girl in her early twenties, very
pleased with life and rather excited”
 
Explanation:

Mrs Birling
Quotation: “His wife is about fifty, a rather cold woman and her
husband’s social superior”
 
Explanation:
Eric
Quotation: “Eric is in his early twenties, not quite at ease, half
shy, half assertive.”
 
Explanation:

Your general impression of the family relationships

The lighting should be pink and intimate until the Inspector
arrives and then it should be brighter and harder.

Explanation:
Dining Room Table
Quotation: “Edna, the parlourmaid, is just clearing the table, which
has no cloth, of dessert plates and champagne glasses”
 
Explanation:

Furniture
Quotation:
“The general effect is substantial and heavily comfortable but not
cosy and homelike”
 
“It has good solid furniture of the period.”
 
Explanation:
 This is not a great PEE for our success
criteria. Why not? How can we improve it?
The Birlings are revealed to be a wealthy family immediately
in the first line of Priestley's stage directions. This is
demonstrated in the line, "good solid furniture." “Good"
and "solid" reveal to us that the furniture is of high quality and
therefore reveals to us that the Birlings must be rich enough
to afford these luxuries. The fact that this mentioning of the
prop is the first line suggests that Priestley is deliberately
emphasising how rich the Birlings are foreshadowing that it
is a key idea that will be explored later on in his essay. Indeed,
at that time, there was a huge gap between the rich and
poor and Priestley immediately establishes that his main
characters are occupants of the upper class.
 Write a paragraph meeting all the
success criteria:
1. Assured personal response to the text
2. High level of engagement with the texts (multiple references
to different parts)
3. Cleverly selected references (quotes or paraphrases) to
the text
4. Perceptive understanding and interpretation of the text
5. Excellent knowledge of context
6. Connection between the text and context and integrated is
made all the time