Gerald helped her after seeing her being harassed by Joe Meggarty and coming to her rescue. It was in the Palace bar that he met Eva Smith. The palace bar was a "favourite haunt of women of the town" this meant is was a place in which prostitutes. Gerald housed her and gave her money to live on, and
was the one who helped Eva Smith the most. Priestley is trying to show that the upper classes are unaware that the easy lives they lead rest upon hard work of the lower classes.
Next, Eric was the irresponsible one, he Saw Eva in the Palace Bar, he took her back to her apartment and made her
pregnant. This gives Eva Smith a lesser change of surviving as she has to care for her and the baby.
After this it was Mrs Birling who was very irresponsible and also very ungenerous, for refusing to give Eva any of her
charity to this needy case. Because Eva Smith used the
name, Mrs Birling, simply because she was carrying Eric Birlings
child. She did not know that it was Mrs Birling, Eric's mum who was chairman of the Charity. Ironically Mrs Birling says to “go and look for the father of the child. Its his responsibility”
Throughout the story the blame for the girl's death has been passed backwards and forwards through the Birling family.
The Inspector wanted each member of the family to share the responsibility of Eva's death. He tells them, "Each of you helped to kill her." However, his final speech is aimed not only at the characters on stage, but at the audience too.
“One Eva Smith has gone - but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, and what we think and say and do.” The Inspector is talking about a collective responsibility, everyone is society is linked, in the same way that the characters are linked to Eva Smith. Everyone is a part of "one body", the Inspector sees society as more important than individual interests. The views he is propounding are like those of Priestley who was a socialist.
The inspector seems to take over the whole family and have total control over who he is speaking to. I think that the way the inspector talks to the Birlings is the way that Priestley would talk to them. Priestley was a socialist and believed in freedom and was for the poor, against the rich.
Throughout the play there are different ways in which Priestley conveys the theme of responsibility in the play and one of which is through people being responsible for others. Mr Birling has failed as a father figure to both children because he has let Sheila get engaged to a man who is not faithful and would have seen them marry and create a family filled with suspicion. He has failed with Eric because he has failed to teach him the dangers of sex with other women and to be cautious with who he fools around with, Eric says himself that he is uncomfortable with his father figure when he says “well your not the kind of person a chap could go to when he needed help”.
Class responsibility is not shown at the start of the play when Mrs Birling refers to Eva as “Girls of that class”. This is a good example of social and class irresponsibility because she is looking down her nose at Eva simply because she is not is a very high and wealthy position. Mrs Birling is being very rude about Eva just because she isn’t in the same economic situation as she is.
Mrs Birling also feels the she needs to take responsibly for Mr Birlings poor classed manners. For example he was told off by Mrs Birling for complimenting the food.
Priestley also shows the difference between the upper and lower classes very strongly throughout the play. He uses the Birling family as a representative of the Upper Class and Eva Smith as a representative of the Lower Class. Priestley shows how in 1912, Upper Class citizens, such as the Birlings had no respect for Lower Class citizens. He uses this class divide to convey his message and to show that the rigidity of the class system is incompatible with his views on community and responsibility.
Eric and Sheila's positive response to the Inspector's message, compared to Mr and Mrs Birlings negative response, is also greatly symbolic. Priestley uses this generation divide to show that the younger generation symbolise hope for the future. The fact that they are remorseful of what they have done suggests that they will make a conscious effort to improve human relationships. Unlike their parents, who are only interested in wealth and material items.
These views are very much capitalist. “it’s my duty to keep labour costs down”. Mr Birling only thinks about wealth. And on the other hand Priestley shows that the younger generation will endeavour to perform their moral duties towards their fellow citizens, especially people such as Eva Smith.
The play An Inspector Calls conveys a strong political message. It promotes the idea of socialism, as a society in which community and responsibility are central. Capitalism failed in helping out Eva Smith.
The reader learns that Priestly is a socialist and abides their way of views. Priestly writes this play as socialist critique convincing the audience that socialism would have worked more effectively for the people.
With Eva’s death, the reader notices that Priestly calls to the reader’s moral views and that tries to convince them that socialism could people jobs, homes and lives. He tries to put across the point that the capitalist governments didn’t want to help the working class because they were too worried about their money, but the socialists would have helped her a lot more.
