"
's Giving Us The Rope- So That We'Ll Hang Ourselves." To What Extent Do You Agree With This Description Of The Role Of The Inspector?
"
he's giving us the rope- so that we'll hang ourselves."
To what extent do you agree with this description of the role of the Inspector?
The quotation, "
he's giving us the rope to hang ourselves." I think means that the Inspector will allow the family to condemn themselves by criticizing each other, instead of staying together and supporting each other. In this way, the Inspector would be able to clinch information that otherwise he would not be able to get from normal methods of interrogation. It suggests that the Inspector sets the family members against each other by partially revealing some or just parts of information. The Inspector has two main techniques of questioning; he either sparks an argument in the family, and then just sits back and learns what he can, or he will pressure the suspect into confession by bombarding them with short, sharp questions. I think that Sheila, when she realises the questioning methods of the Inspector, tries to keep her family from falling apart due to misinformation or misconceptions of what is being said. She knows that the Inspector will use one member of the family to reveal some information, and then he would tell that to another member, who in turn would start an argument with the said someone. For example, at the beginning when the Inspector first arrives and starts to question Mr. Birling, the Inspector manage to portray Mr. Birling as cruel, as Sheila later calls it "
I think it was cruel and vile." (page 45).
From this quote I think that Sheila is aptly summarising the Inspector's method of questioning. By inserting samples' of information every so often, in order to encourage the subject to reveal more information than is necessary to answer the question, the Inspector conveys an aurora of intelligence, and perhaps omniscience. He is able to act almost like a phantom or maybe a God-like figure. The Inspector's name is Goole. It has the same pronunciation...
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