Factors involved it the death of Eva Smith
An Inspector Calls
There are many different factors involved in the death of Eva Smith. Each one pushed Eva Smith a little closer to suicide but no one person was solely responsible for her death. Whether one person deserves to take more of the blame than another does it is difficult to say. It was not only people that contributed to Eva Smith's death but her position in the world and the way in which her life worked out.
Mr Birling is the first person who we are led to believe began the chain of events which ultimately led to the death of Eva Smith. Arthur Birling is a self-made man who has built Birling And Company into a successful local business. As the play opens he is celebrating the engagement of his daughter to Gerald Croft, the son of his main business rival in Bromley, Sir George Croft. The marriage suits him and should greatly aid him financially as he believes a merger of the two companies might not be too far off. This is emphasised when he says, it's one of the happiest nights of my life perhaps we may look forward to a time when Crofts and Birling are no longer competing but are working together for low costs and higher prices."
He is shown by J B Priestley to be a pompous, selfish, complacent man, ex-Lord Mayor, potential Knighthood and "sound useful party man" who plays golf with the chief of police. Certainly an influential figure within the community, a man that conveys respect.
Some might say that Mr Birling did nothing wrong to Eva Smith, after all the only thing he did was sack her from his factory after she started to cause trouble demanding higher wages. Any man in his position would have done the same. She was making trouble as Mr Birling said, 'She had a lot to say - far too much so she had to go'.
Although some would argue Mr. Birling did not really do anything wrong to Eva Smith, he does not come off well throughout the play as he shows himself up a number of times because of his personality. The major flaw in his personality is that he seems to show no remorse for Eva even though she is now dead. He seems to be a very hard man, and shows no regret for dismissing Eva, despite knowing that if he had not then she may still have been alive. He merely states that, 'If you don't come down sharply on some of these people they will soon be asking for the earth'.
Mr Birling always seems to want his own way and when he does not get it he resorts to threatening behaviour which makes him unpopular with the audience. When Mr Birling felt that the Inspector was asking too many questions, Mr Birling says about the chief constable, 'Perhaps I ought to warn you that he is an old friend of mine'. Even before the Inspector had arrived we see Mr Birling in an unfavourable light. For example in an attempt to be intellectual he says things that we now know to be completely untrue such as describing the ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
Mr Birling always seems to want his own way and when he does not get it he resorts to threatening behaviour which makes him unpopular with the audience. When Mr Birling felt that the Inspector was asking too many questions, Mr Birling says about the chief constable, 'Perhaps I ought to warn you that he is an old friend of mine'. Even before the Inspector had arrived we see Mr Birling in an unfavourable light. For example in an attempt to be intellectual he says things that we now know to be completely untrue such as describing the Titanic as 'Completely unsinkable' and saying 'the Germans don't want war'.
We see none of Mr Birling's good traits instead we see him as a dishonest, cold know it all of a man. It could be that Mr Birling's character is portrayed in this way, because then it does not matter that his part in Eva's death was so small and understandable, we dislike him just as much or perhaps even more than the other characters.
Sheila was the second person that the Inspector turned on and her part in the run up to Eva's death shows her in an unfavourable light as she turned on Eva because she was jealous of her. Sheila wrongfully used her position as an important customer to turn Eva out of a job. She even admits, 'it was my own fault', and that she 'was in a furious temper'. She was jealous of Gerald describing her as a 'very pretty girl too - with big dark eyes'.
Although her actions show her to be a bad tempered, jealous and malicious person you get the impression as she begins to talk that that is quite a harsh view of her and that although she does have bad characteristics she is not really as bad as you first think her to be. She shows herself to be honest, admitting straight away all that she had done.
Sheila does show empathy for Eva which is more than her father, Mr Birling does. It is obvious that she does regret all that she had done with regard to Eva claiming that, 'If I could help her now I would'. Sheila comes across as very remorseful as she says 'I felt rotten about it at the time and now I feel a lot worse'. She bitterly resents what she did as well promising that 'I'll never, never do it again'. This makes you feel less anger for Sheila who now feels terrible guilty for Eva and has now been punished severely simply by knowing the implications her temper and jealousy had.
Gerald was the third person to come under the spotlight. He must feel differently towards Eva than either Mr Birling or Sheila did as he knew her personally, not as Eva Smith but as Daisy Renton; who in short was his mistress, for a while until it was no longer convenient for him. It could be argued that Gerald came as almost a "saviour" to Eva and that that is how he sees himself. When he first saw her he said that she 'gave me a glance that was nothing more than a cry for help'. Perhaps he did genuinely care for Eva but he didn't love her as he admitted that: 'I didn't feel about her as she felt about me'.
Gerald was fairly honest admitting his part in Eva's life fairly readily. He had good manners and said the right thing but it is hard to decide whether he does mean what he says or that he is simply trying to come across as well as he possibly can.
Gerald seems to be a rather narrow minded old-fashioned person. He would never marry Eva because she was of the wrong class. In a way you could say that he simply used Eva for his own needs. Although he denies this saying, 'I want you to understand that I didn't install her there to make love to her!' However he did make her happy for a few months and you have to give credit for that. He does show signs of guilt, 'She didn't blame me at all I wish to god she had now. Maybe I would have felt better about it.' Although Gerald did not love Eva, he did have feeling towards her as he stresses to the Inspector, 'I'm rather more upset by this business than I probably appear to be'. I don't believe that it is possible to know whether Eva meeting Gerald was a good thing as we will never know whether the happiness Gerald gave Eva was worth the pain and misery she must have felt when he left her and whether that was responsible for pushing her to the edge.
The next person that the Inspector interrogates is Mrs Birling. Before Mrs Birling the Inspector had been talking to each person in order of when they had met Eva. However Mrs Birling was in fact the last person to have seen Eva and was the one that had given Eva the final shove by refusing her any help from the society that she helped run. The reason for this was because Eva used the name Birling which made Mrs Birling biased against her case.
Mrs Birling was adamant that she did, 'Nothing I am ashamed of'. It was clear that Mrs Birling disliked Eva and even admitted that, 'I didn't like her manner'. Mrs Birling felt no guilt for her part in Eva's death I think she was the only one who didn't feel guilt as I think that even Mr Birling did to a certain extent.
I think that Mrs Birling comes off worse in this play. She resorts to threatening behaviour too, which further lessens her popularity with the audience. "I realise you may have to conduct some kind of enquiry, but I must say you seem to be conducting it in a rather peculiar and offensive manner. You know of course that my husband was Lord Mayor only two years ago." This shows how highly she thinks of herself and that she is ready to abuse her position, like other members of the family. She seems to be hard and cold with no sensitivity at all and shows no remorse for Eva at all. She was keen to direct the blame away from herself claiming that Eva, 'only had herself to blame'. Throughout the play she patronises her children for example saying to Sheila, 'You are behaving like a hysterical child tonight'. From the start Mrs Birling seems to be keen to, 'keep up appearances', in front of the Inspector which makes you think of her as a rather fake as well as callous, cold, hard and somewhat dishonest person.
Mrs Birling does dig herself and her son into a hole as she says, 'Secondly I blame the young man who was the father of the child' unknown to her she was describing her son as he was the father of the child.
Eric was the last person to come under scrutiny from the Inspector. He had spent a night with Eva and she had fallen pregnant with his child. Eric had no stable relationship with Eva as Gerald did. On describing his night with her he said, 'I don't even remember it, that's the hellish thing'. Eric also admits to stealing money from his father's office in order to support Eva. However he was very truthful and admitted straight away that, 'I got it from the office'.
It also comes to light that Eric is also an alcoholic something that he had managed to keep from his parents for a number of months. This shows him as dishonest, weak and immature. I believe that he did feel kindly towards Eva but she felt him to be too immature. Eric even said, 'In a way she treated me like a kid'.
Eric does show remorse and even said: 'I'm not likely to forget'. However he does not take the blame for Eva's death instead he blames Mrs Birling saying to her, 'Then - you killed her'. Eric is the only character that does blame another person in the room. It is hard to know whether he does sincerely blame Mrs Birling or whether he is trying to divert the blame away from himself. Either way it does show that he is not very loyal to his family. Although Eric does come across as weak and immature, you cannot hate him after all he is not a malicious person like his parents are.
Eva was the last person who we know was involved, she committed suicide. I do think that she must take some blame after all she was the one ultimately took her own life. She had some control over her fate as well. If she hadn't caused trouble at the factory, smiled when Sheila tried on the unsuitable hat, become a mistress to Gerald, slept with Eric or used the Birling name she may not have been 'lying on a slab with burnt out insides'.
J B Priestly deliberately makes Eva out to be the helpless victim in order for the others deeds to seem much worse. I do not think that you can fully blame Eva for her death, as she did not know how things would work out.
There is no right or wrong person to blame for Eva's death. Each person had a little to 'help' Eva make up her mind to commit suicide so in my opinion they each should take a little blame. However when each person made Eva's life a little harder they had no idea that their actions would cause this much devastation. I am sure that other people have done much worse things with no consequences so perhaps it was not fair that these people had to take any blame for Eva's death. Therefore it could be said that Eva Smith was simply a victim of her class and time.
Tanzil Aslam 11 O
