Inspector calls

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Coursework - 'An Inspector Calls'

"This girl killed herself but each of you helped to kill her" - The Inspector

What responsibility do you think 'they' had for the death of Eva Smith?

How did the society that Eva/Daisy lived in make things more difficult for her?

In 'An Inspector Calls, Inspector Goole manipulates each one of the Birlings and Gerald to tell their own secret about how they were involved in Eva Smith's death; whether they thought they were responsible or not. I will explain how they were accountable and how the supposed 'golden age' contributed towards the untimely and unfair death of a young mother-to-be.

The first character the Inspector grills is Mr Birling, a greedy, but well respected and well connected businessman whose sole aim in life is to make money. This is shown when he says 'they wanted their rates raised ... I refused of course'. The Inspector's response is to say 'why?' which prompts Birling to ask 'Did you say why?' This quote shows that Birling thought that his decision to refuse the workers a pay rise was completely fair and just. Mr Birling can be considered partly accountable for the death of Eva as he was the one who started her troubles by sacking her from his factory for a questionable reason. This particular reason was that the workers at Mr Birling's factory went on strike for a small rise and Eva was one of the ringleaders, therefore, Mr Birling showed not tolerance and sacked her.
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Birling defends himself by saying the workers were on the 'normal' wages for that time. However Eric, Birling's son, stands up for the workers and Eva when he says "It isn't if you can't go and work somewhere else". This means that his younger generation see the moral issues regarding this matter unlike Mr Birling who only cares about the financial issues. It shows that the younger generation think that Mr Birling is exploiting his workers. This ignorance from Birling to a young person's views in that day. His ignorance is shown when he says 'they'll soon be ...

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