Mr Birling new her first because she used to work at his factory and she was on of his best worker: she was fired because she went on strike for which was asking for more money. Then, when she was just about to give up all hope she found a job at Millwards department store, she was happy there, were she worked as an assistant in the clothes department and changed her name to Daisy Renton. She then got sacked because Sheila thought that Eva was insulting her, because Sheila was one of their best customers, she told the manager that Eva had to go and if Eva didn’t Sheila would tell her mother that she would close their account and would never shop their again. Then After that Eva had no choice but was forced to work at a brothel and that is where she meets Gerald, he saved her from a man called Alderman Jo’megagarty, he was taking advantage of her and Gerald pulled her away form him. He kept her as his mistress in his friends department. At the end of summer, Gerald gave her some money and ended the relationship. Eva got a job at a bar and that’s when she met Eric. He gives her money but then refuses to take any more. She has his baby and she leaves Eric and then goes to Mrs Birling to get money for the woman’s charity, but turned her down and so she gave up hope.
What every one thinks of her will give us a clue as to who is responsible for Eva’s death.
We now have some of the information on how the Birling family knew who Eva smith was. We hear Mr Birlings side of the story of how he knew Eva and what he thought of her.
Mr Birling owns Birling & Co. Eva Smith was one of his best workers and was going to promote her, but this was stopped because, she went on strike to get higher remuneration. Unfortunately she was one of the ringleaders and was fired because of it. He treated Eva as a pheasant because she was poor. Mr Birling didn’t want to raise any of their pay because this would reduce profits, the prices would be higher and working class people wouldn’t able to afford the merchandise.
‘If I’d agreed to this demand for a miracle then we’d have added about 12 percent to all labour costs.”
“…Rubbish! If you don’t come down harshly on some of these people, they’d soon be asking for the earth.”
This give us an indication of what Mr Birling thinks of her, in this case Mr Birling has some sympathy for Eva and has a little respect her, but still accept no responsibility for Eva’s death.
Just as she was about to give up hope, she got a job at Millwards. She was lucky because they were short of staff. They gave her the job. She worked in the clothes department, where she happily worked as an assistant. She had been working there for two months. One day she met Sheila at an unfortunate time, she was a good customer at Millwards. So she got sacked for trying a dress on, Sheila knew it didn’t look right on her self but when she saw Eva in the dress and how it suited Eva more she was furious and jealous, she left the shop and threatened the manager that she would close their account in Millwards if Eva would not be sacked. Sheila didn’t think how it would affect Eva’s life.
Here Sheila treated Eva as though she was nothing; she was only a worker, Sheila had money and position and Eva didn’t have any of that.
But when Sheila realises who the dead girl was and what a terrible death she had she feels terribly guilty and sorry for what she had done. She thought nothing of it at the time, but when she heard of her death it concerned her, she would accept full responsibility for her death.
“It didn’t seem to be anything at the tine.”
Sheila thought she must have started it all off. She said she would never behave in a down grading manner like that again; she understood what she did was wrong and learns a valuable lesson.
“I’ll never do it again, to anybody.”
As we finish with Sheila, who has learnt her lesson and will treat people with more respect, we go on to Gerald who was supposed to be engaged with Sheila. This is how Gerald got to know Eva Smith.
Gerald didn’t actually know the girl as Eva Smith but he knew her as Daisy Renton. He came to a bar of music show. Went down stairs to the basement, where he saw a girl who wasn’t like the others, he rescued her from a man called alderman Jo’megagarty who was taking advantage of her. He took her to his friend’s apartment. For a while he kept her as his mistress, he comforted her and gave her money to spend. Then he ended the relationship their, because knew this couldn’t go on any longer. He left her. Gerald felt full of remorse when he heard that she was dead, so he had to leave the house.
“I’m rather more-upset-by this business than I probably appear to be-and-well, I’d like to be alone for a while”
He said, and left the house.
This shows that he was very upset by this. But Gerald has two mixed feelings. He find out it was a hoax after meeting with one of his friend who works in the police department. Gerald asks for the name inspector Goole but his friend says “no”, there’s no such name. He fells relived. Now that he knows this, he accepts no blame for this mess, he tries to prove that he is his innocent by telling them that there could have been a possibility that there are more than one girl, that the inspector is a fake; he feels it wasn’t his fault. Before he was ashamed of what he had done, but now he’s not feeling very guilty and puts it behind him.
If we go back to where he “rescued” Eva from Jo’megagarty, there isn’t much difference in the two because Gerald uses Eva and discards her when he wanted to and that is what Jo’megagarty did.
What do you think of him? He is always trying to bury his problems instead of sorting them out.
With the money Gerald gave her she went to by an apartment. She got a job at a bar and that’s where she meets Eric. They go back to her lodgings all drunk and then made love. Eric spends money on her. He then looked after her and spent time with her. Although he was being kind and caring towards her, e didn’t love her. Then he stayed a little longer because she was a good sport. They made love again and this time Eric made Eva pregnant.
“The girl was a good sport”
Eva knew that Eric didn’t love her and felt she had to leave him. Eric gave her 50 pounds but she refused it because she had the idea that he had stolen it from somewhere. Which Eric did stole the money from Mr Birling’s office. Eric claims that, because he meant to put it back, it was not really a theft. He suggested that they get married but Eva refused because he didn’t love her. So she left.
This is similar to how Gerald treated Eva. They both say that their relationship with Eva developed from a casual relationship into something much more intimate. Eric used her when he wanted. This shows that Eva had a stronger sense of moral responsibility than the others. But Eric’s attitude changes and realises the same as what Sheila realised.
Now we go on to meet the last person who Eva saw, which was Mrs Birling.
It was mid January when Eva met Mrs Birling. It was at the woman’s Charity organisation which women in distress can appeal for help in various forms. Eva appealed for help in that organisation and Mrs Birling “slammed the door in her face”. It was Eva’s last resort when a woman needs help the most and she was turned down. Eva was desperate for help and she was shown the door. Mrs Birling thought Eva was saying a pack of lies, made her stories and that is what made her prejudice against Eva. Mrs Birling did not take any responsibility for the girl’s death. She did not feel guilty about turning Eva away when she most needed help. She says it was the father and girl her self.
“I think…only her self to blame”
“I did nothing I’m ashamed off”
Mrs Birling also blames the father of the baby.
“I blame the young man who was the father”
This shows that Mrs Birling thinks she has no guilt and no sympathy for the girl but Mr Birling has some sympathy for Eva but will no take any responsibility for her death. Where as Sheila accepts full responsibility for her death and learns her lesson, where as the parents didn’t, because they found out it was a hoax and didn’t care any more. The girl was not in there concern and didn’t learn any moderate responsibility. There for I think that it Mrs Birlings was responsible for the death of Eva Smith because this was Eva’s last hope for refining her life, but Mrs Birling just turned her down for her last hope.
