Sheila was the second person that the Inspector turned on and her part in the run up to Eva committing suicide shows her in an unfavourable light also. This is because she turned on Eva because she was jealous of her. Sheila mistakenly used her position to turn Eva out of a job. She even admits, ‘It was my own fault’, and that she ‘was in a furious temper.’ She was jealous of Eva Smith, describing her as a ‘very pretty girl too- with big dark eyes.’
Although her actions do show her to be a bad tempered, jealous, malicious person. I get the impression as she begins to talk that that is quite a harsh view of her and that although she does have bad characteristics she isn’t really as awful as you think her to be. She shows herself to be honest, admitting straight away all that she had done, that she caught sight of her smiling at the assistant and ‘I was furious with her.’
Sheila does show sympathy for Eva which is more than her father, Mr Birling did. It is extremely obvious that she regrets all she had done with regard to Eva, claiming, ‘If I could help her now I would.’ Sheila comes across as very sorry as she says, ‘I felt rotten about it at the time and now I feel a lot worse.’ She bitterly resents what she did as well as promising that ‘I’ll never, never do it again.’ This makes me feel less anger for Sheila who now feels terrible guilty for Eva and has now been punished simply by knowing the implications her short temper and jealousy had.
Gerald was the third person to come into the spotlight. He must feel differently towards Eva than either Mr Birling or Sheila did as he knew her personally, not as Eva Smith but as Daisy Renton; who in short was his mistress, until no longer convenient for him. It seemed as if Gerald was Eva’s “saviour” and I think that is how he sees himself as when he first saw her he said that she ‘gave me a glance that was nothing more than a cry for help.’ I Believe that he did genuinely care for Eva but he didn’t love her as he admitted that: ‘I didn’t feel about her as she felt about me.’
Gerald was fairly honest admitting his part in Eva’s life fairly quickly. He had good manners and said the right thing but it is hard to decide whether he does mean what he says.
Gerald seems to be quite a narrow minded character. He would never marry Eva because she was of the wrong class. In a way this says he used Eva for his own needs. Although he denies this saying, ‘I want you to understand that I didn’t install her there to make love to her!’ However he did make her happy for a short period. He does show signs of guilt, ‘She didn’t blame me at all I wish to God she had now. Maybe I would have felt better about it.’ Although Gerald did not feel love for Eva he did have feelings towards her as he accentuates, ‘I’m rather more upset by this business than I probably appear to be.’ I cant tell whether Eva meeting Gerald was a good thing or not, as we will never know whether the happiness Gerald had given Eva was worth the pain and misery she must have felt when he left her, and whether this was responsible for pushing her to the edge.
The next person the Inspector interrogates is Mrs Birling. Before Mrs Birling the Inspector had spoke to each person in succession of when they had met Eva. However, Mrs Birling was the last person to have seen Eva, and was the final person to refuse her any help from the society that she helped run. The reason for this was because Eva used the name Birling which prejudice Mrs Birling had against her.
Mrs Birling was certain that she did, ‘Nothing I am ashamed of.’ It was clear that Mrs Birling disliked Eva and even admitted that, ‘I didn’t like her manner.’ It shows Mrs Birling felt no guilt for her part in Eva’s death.
Mrs Birling comes across as hard and cold hearted with no sensitivity at all and shows no remorse for Eva in the slightest. She was eager to turn the blame away from herself claiming that Eva, ‘only had herself to blame.’ Throughout the play she patronises her children for example to Sheila, ‘You are behaving like a hysterical child tonight.’ From the start Mrs Birling seems to be keen to, ‘keep up appearances,’ in front of the Inspector which makes you think of her as a rather fake as well as callous and cold hearted dishonest women. Mrs Birling does dig herself and her son into a hole as she says, ‘Secondly I blame the young man who was the father of the child’ unknown to her she was describing her son Eric.
Eric was the last person to come under inspection from the Inspector. He had spent a night with Eva and she had fallen pregnant with his child. On describing his night with Eva he said, ‘I didn’t even remember it that’s the hellish thing.’ Eric also admits to stealing money from his father’s office in order to care for Eva. However he was very truthful and admitted straight away that, ‘I got it from the office.’
Eric is also an alcoholic, something that he had managed to keep from his parents. This shows him as dishonest and immature. I believe that he did feel kindly towards Eva but she felt him to be too immature, Eric even said, ‘In a way she treated me like a kid.’
Eric does show he is sorry and even says: ‘I’m not likely to forget.’ However he does not take the responsibility for Eva’s death instead blaming it on Mrs Birling saying to her, ‘Then- you killed her.’ Eric is the one character that does blame another person. It is hard to know whether he does blame Mrs Birling or whether he is trying to divert the responsibility away from himself.
Eva was the last person who we know was involved she committed the suicide. I do think that she must take some blame after all she was the one taking her life. She had the control. Although I don’t believe you can fully blame Eva for her death, as she did not know how things would work out.
I believe there is no right or wrong person to blame for Eva’s death. Each person pushed Eva a little closer to choosing to take her own life, but no one person was responsible for her death. Each character contributed in some way. In my opinion they are all to blame, but some not as harshly as others. Some characters were strung along in the line of events leading to her death. When each person made Eva’s life a little harder they had no idea that their actions would cause this much devastation. On their own I don’t believe they would have led to Eva taking her life, but due to them all together I believe this contributed to Eva committing suicide, and this shows they all helped in a way leading to Eva Smith’s death.