In your opinion, who is the most responsible of the death of Eva Smith? Compare and contrast the actions of the five main characters.

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Moynul Alom – 11R – English Coursework – Mr Smith

                

In your opinion, who is the most responsible of the death of Eva Smith? Compare and contrast the actions of the five main characters.

In this essay I will be writing about ‘who is the most responsible for the tragic death of Eva Smith’? Each character is guilty of doing something that led up to the death of Eva Smith. I will compare and contrast the actions of the five main characters.

The play ‘An Inspector Calls’ is set in the fictitious North Midlands, industrial city of Brumley in 1912.

All three acts take place in the dining room of the Birling’s house. Arthur Birling and his wife, Sybil, are holding a dinner party to celebrate the engagement of their daughter, Sheila, to Gerald Croft. Their son, Eric Birling, is also at the table. The family are wealthy and considered to be upper class. They get interrupted by a man claiming he is a police inspector investigating the suicidal death of a young working class woman. One by one they get questioned and in turn some are shown a photograph.

Mr Birling is first to be questioned. After denying that he has never seen her in his life, he is shown a photograph from the inspector and then Mr Birling admits he has previously sacked her from his factory, as she was one of his employees. He met her in the end of September 1910. He discharged her because she asked for a pay rise and made the other workers go on strike. He views her as a hard working person. I know this because he says “she was a lively good-looking girl – country bred, I fancy – and she’d been working in one of our machine shops for over a year. A good worker too.” He also says “she’d had a lot to say - far too much - so she had to go.” This tells me that he doesn’t like problems much and wants it to be solved in the quickest and simplest way possible. He does not ask for forgiveness, as he does not play a part in Eva Smith’s death. But after all the characters get interviewed he tries to bribe the inspector because he wants to keep up his reputation. He says, “Look inspector - I’d give thousands - yes thousands.” He wants to cover it up so the press will not find out which will mean he can keep up his reputation, as his business is in competition. He says, “The press might easily take it up.” He does not play a part in Eva Smith’s death because, after she is sacked she happily gets another job.

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At this point the inspector stops asking Arthur Birling questions and turns to Sheila Birling.

Sheila remembers Eva Smith as a shop assistant, at a shop called Millwards, about whom she made a complaint demanding that she should be sacked, as Sheila caught Eva smiling at another employee while she was trying on a dress. She says “Millwards! We go there - in fact, I was there this afternoon.”  She also says, “I went the manager at millwards and I told him that if they don’t get rid of that girl, I’d never go near that place again ...

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