Mr Birling thinks that everyone should fend for themselves and not look after other people, “a man has to make his own way - has to look after himself”. He also mentions he thinks community is nonsense, “But the way some of these cranks talk and write now, you’d think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive – community and all that nonsense”.
Mr Birling’s involvement with Eva Smith is he employed her in his works, when she asked for a pay rise he sacked her.
Mr Birling does not feel guilty or responsible at all he says “Still, I can’t accept any responsibility. If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we’d had anything to do with, it would be very awkward, wouldn’t it?”
He has this attitude all the way through the play.
I think that Mr Birling is the second most responsible character in the play for Eva Smith’s death as he started off the chain of events.
Sheila:
Shelia is the daughter of Mr Birling, she is just about to get married to Gerald and they are having their engagement party when the inspector arrives.
Shelia’s was involved with Eva Smith when she got Eva fired from her job at Milwards which is a large department store.
Eva was fired because Shelia complained to the manager of the store after she saw Eva smiling at the assistant, “I went to the manager at Milwards and I told him that if they didn’t get rid of that girl, I’d never go near the place again and I’d persuade mother to close our account with them.”
Shelia regrets these events as she says she feels guilty all of the way through the play, and even after the inspector leaves.
I think that Shelia is the third most responsible for Eva’s death because she got Eva fired from “her last stable job.” as the inspector says, if she didn’t get Eva fired then she wouldn’t have met any of the other characters apart from Mr Birling in bad circumstances.
Gerald:
Gerald is engaged to Sheila which is his connection to the Birling family.
Gerald’s Involvement with Eva Smith is when he met her at the palace music hall in the bar, a man was harassing her and Gerald stopped her, “The girl saw me looking at her then gave me a glance that was nothing less than a cry for help. So I went across and told Joe Meggarty some nonsense – that the manager has a message for him or something like that – got him out of the way – and then told the girl that if she didn’t want anymore of that sort of thing she’d better let me take her out of there. She agreed at once.”
He started to use her as his mistress, but he was kind to her because he helped her out by letting her stay in some rooms he was looking after for a friend, “It happened that a friend of mine, Charlie Brunswick, had gone off to Canada for six months and had let me have the key of a nice little set of rooms he had – in Morgan Terrace – and had asked me to keep and eye on them for him and use them if I wanted to. So I insisted on Daisy moving into one of these rooms and I made her take some money to keep her going there.”
I think that Gerald is the least responsible for Eva Smith’s death because he helped her to survive and gave her something to live for, he says, “I want you to understand that I didn’t install her there so that I could make love to her. I made her go there because I was sorry for her, and didn’t like the idea of her going back to the palace bar. I didn’t ask for anything in return.”
Mrs Birling:
Mrs. Birling is the wife of Mr Birling. Mrs Birling doesn’t’t say much until she is interviewed by the inspector.
Mrs Birling’s Involvement with Eva Smith Is she went to her charity for help.
When the Eva Smith asks for help she says her name is Mrs Birling, and because of this she was rejected help from the charity.
“Yes I think it was simply a piece of gross impertinence – quite deliberate and naturally that was one of the things that prejudiced me against her case.”
When Mrs. Burling was asked if it was due to her influence that Eva was refused help she replied, “Yes it was I didn’t like her manner she impertinently made use of our name, though she pretended afterwards it just happened to be the first name she thought of. She had to admit, after I began questioning her, that she had no claim to the name, that she wasn’t married, and that story she told at first – about s husband who deserted her – was quite false. It didn’t take me long to get the truth – or some of the truth out of her.
Mrs Birling doesn’t’t feel guilty at all about what she has done as she says “I did nothing that I’m ashamed of or that won’t bear investigation.”
I think that Mrs Birling is the most responsible for this is because she didn’t help Eva when she was in need.
Eric:
Eric is the son of Mr Birling He is often getting drunk and doesn’t have much part in the play.
Eric’s involvement with Eva is that He met her at the Palace Music hall in the bar he was drunk and he went with Eva back to Her lodgings She didn’t want him to go in But he threatened to make a row. “I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty – and I threatened to make a row.”
He then met her a fortnight afterwards when he happened to see her again at the Palace bar.
This time they talked a bit about themselves.
The next time they met she told him that she thought she was going to have a baby.
He then stole fifty pounds from his Mr Birling’s office to keep Eva going.
In conclusion I think that Mrs Birling is most responsible for Eva’s death because she refused to help Eva when she most needed it.
Even though I think that Mrs Birling is the most responsible for Eva’s death I also think that everyone else apart from Gerald are still highly responsible for her death. I think that Gerald is not responsible for her death because he was the only person who helped her.
