Mr Birling’s part in her death is a very simple section yet from the very beginning he showed no remorse into her death and in his opinion he could not take any responsibility for this ‘unfortunate incident’. Eva Smith had been working for him for over a year, in fact he was told that she would make a great team leader. But after the factory workers’ summer holiday they asked for pay rise from ‘twenty two and six, to twenty-five shillings a week’ He of course refused and they went on strike but it didn’t last long as ‘it was just after the holidays. They’d all be broke.’ The four of five ring-leaders were personally told by Mr Birling that they were surplus to requirement and no longer wanted.
Mr Birling though was brought up in a society in which the rich are the powerful and the poor are just unimportant, but Mr Birling’s attitude seemed out of date even then as his children hint at several times. But because Mr Birling was raised that way than he would be expected to live by it, Mr Birling believes that the most successful business is the one that makes the most money, and not the one with the highest morale among the employees. ‘Expenses low and profits high, that’s what I say’. His attitudes towards his status in the social pecking order are very important to him; he believes that if word gets out about him than he would not get the knighthood and the respect of the higher eminence. Arthur Birling is himself a pillar of society and will let nothing stand in his way even if it means the demoralization of those that he holds dear. On page 17 he threatens the inspector, ‘I consider this un-called-for and officious. I’ve half a mind to report you.’, after the inspector has placed the blame on Mr Birling, but when he realizes that the inspector feels that the others are to blames as well, he sees it as the perfect opportunity to ease the pressure off of him so that if the media were involved than he could put the blame onto the others. ‘If I’d known that earlier I wouldn’t have called you officious.’ He of course is the typical Victorian snob.
Sheila on the other hand did what she did out of pure malevolence, she walked into a shop and asked the assistant (Eva Smith) to help her to find a new dress, she found one but Eva advised her not to get it as she would not suit it. But Sheila ordered Eva to try it on, which she did and she looked beautiful in it, Sheila tried it on and instantly knew that Eva was right, but she saw Eva giggling and believed that she was laughing at how stupid she looked in it. So she marched up to the manager and said ‘this girl had been very impertinent’ and demanded of her to be sacked, so Miss Smith had now lost two jobs because of the Birling family. One due to a strike and the other because to plain envy. Sheila reacted quite badly after learning of Eva’s fate and blames herself fully. ‘…and if I could help her now, I would…’
Sheila’s attitude is entirely different form her fathers as she is compassionate even though at the beginning she may not have seemed it but she was occupied with other affairs, the death of Eva hit he badly and she felt at first that she was entirely to blame but becomes to realize that everybody has done something wrong and she is just sharing the culpability with the others in her family. She is prepared to take any blame that is necessary in bringing justice to her death. Our generation will side with Sheila as she seems more enlightened towards the working classes and the rest of the world than her parents to, she and Eric worry about poverty and war, which would begin two years after this story was set, while her parents worry about popularity and most importantly, money.
Yet you can understand the views of both of the generations and Gerald seems to be a part of both, but mainly to the older age bracket. All of these characters were a product of their era and that perhaps lets us see some understanding into their beliefs. Life at the time needed people like Sheila and needed people like Mr Birling to create a new way of life, all of these characters were brought out and understood by an Inspector named Goole. Mr Birling was a part of an era which died on November 11th 1918 along with millions of other men.
