Later on in the play when inspector Goole begins on Mrs. Birling’s case and shows her the photo of Eva Smith, she lies to him and claims that she does not recognize the photograph. She then tries to intimidate him and force him to leave. When she finally admits that she had been talking to Eva she refuses to believe that she did anything wrong and doesn’t accept responsibility for her part in Eva’s death. This shows that Mrs Birling is a liar and is very cold hearted as she was not shaken at all after being told that she was partly to blame for Eva’s suicide
Mrs Birling is also very dismissive of Eva, saying “Girls of that class” and that she “had only herself to blame.” Mr Birling as well speaks of Eva being “country-bred” and of a “working class.” This indicates that the upper class people in general believe that the lower classes are unworthy and disreputable.
Poor people like Eva often depended on charity whilst wealthy people such as Mrs. Birling usually controlled the charity. Mrs. Birling exploits her position to make her feel self-important, while denying help to those who really needed it. Mrs Birling claims that she’s “done a great deal of useful work in helping deserving cases” but a deserving case in her opinion is one where the applicant pleases her. I believe that Mrs. Birling has only the desire to be seen as being charitable.
Sheila is able to have Eva sacked from Milwards’ shop by threatening the manager that her family will close its account there unless Eva goes. This shows the class system of the time by showing the enormous influence that a few wealthy people could use. Here Sheila is seen to be very spoilt and very much like her mother but as the evening passes Sheila begins to change.
Sheila shows her compassion when she hears that her father had sacked Eva: “But these girls aren’t cheap labour – they’re people”. Then she is horrified by her own part in Eva’s story. She feels full of guilt for her jealous actions and blames herself as “really responsible”, unlike her mother. In Act 3 she is angry with her parents for trying to “pretend that nothing much happened.” Sheila says “It frightens me the way you talk”. She cannot understand how they couldn’t have learnt from the evening in the same way that she had. The inspector’s statement about the impression he made on Sheila was ‘We usually do on the young ones’. This implies that some one like Mrs Birling would not be able to change as easily as Sheila did.
Later on we see that Eric Birling used Eva for leisure. This reinforces the idea that women of Eva’s class could be used as playthings by the wealthy and then be discarded.
Priestly presents the 3 different attitudes of women in the play. He presents Mrs Birling as being a very selfish and arrogant upper class woman who believed that lower class women like Eva were unworthy and disreputable. He shows that the upper class women of the time believed that their families were perfect as Mrs Birling denies things like: Eric’s drinking and Gerlad’s affair with Eva. He also shows how an older upper class woman’s attitude would be very hard to change whilst to a younger woman it was much easier. This is portrayed when the inspector says “We often do on the young ones” and the fact that Mrs Birling was not shaken at all after been told that she was partly responsible for Eva’s Death.
He presents Sheila as being very jealous, spoilt and cantankerous at thje beginning of the play but by the end Sheila becomes much wiser and could then judge her parents and Gerlad from a different perspective, but the greatest change was in herself. A young woman of an upper class family could easily change and become aware of her responsibilities.
Priestly then presents the attitude of Eva (a lower class woman.) He shows how even though lower class women had better attitudes than the upper class women they still weren’t treated equally by the rich and were used and discarded when it suited them.
At the end of the play Sheila is much wiser and could then judge her parents and Gerald from a new perspective, but the greatest change was in herself as she was then aware of her responsibilities.
All three characters have different attitudes Sheila at the start of the play is bad tempered and selfish then further on her attitude changes she becomes compassionate and considerate as she then realised that she was involved in Eva committing suicide. Mrs Birling was a very selfish woman and she is also a liar. Sheila and Mrs Birling have more or less the same attitude as they are both upper class people and they only think about people that are upper class and have no respect for people that are less fortunate than them. Eva is completely different she is a young sensible girl. I think woman of that time are mostly selfish and self-centred, they only think about themselves.
