When you’re married you’ll realize that men with important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time and energy on their business. You’ll have to get used to that, just as I had.
-- Mrs. Birling  (Act One)

Importance: This quote is taken from a point early in the narrative. The speaker's daughter Sheila has just complained about her fiance having been absent from their life together because of work. Here, Mrs. Birling responds by saying that the demands of business often take men away from their wives, a comment that on one level manifests the gender-defined role of business in a couple's life at that time in history. This connects to the second level of meaning to the quote, as it serves as a manifestation of the book's thematic use of the characters to represent aspects of capitalism. This comment represents the belief, associated with capitalism, that everything comes...