The Inspector’s inquiry leads on to the part Mr Birling’s daughter Sheila played in the chain of events that lead to Eva’s death. After expressing her disgust for her father’s actions; ‘I think it was a very mean thing to do’, she realises that she herself had a part to play in the death of Eva Smith by getting Eva sacked from a clothing shop where she had a promising future; ‘I went to the manager at Milwards and I told him that if they didn’t get rid of that girl, I’d never go near the place again and I’d persuade mother to close our account with them’. Sheila did this for the superficial reason that she was envious of how pretty Eva Smith was and how she looked much better in clothes that Sheila wanted to purchase herself. However, unlike her father, Sheila showed great remorse for her actions and realized that they had consequences; ‘It’s the only time I’ve ever done anything like that, and I’ll never, never do it again to anybody.’ The audience can sympathise with Sheila far more than Mr Birling because of her realisation of her actions.
Sheila’s fiancé, Gerald Croft, also plays a part in the chain of events leading to Eva Smith’s suicide. The Inspector makes it apparent that Gerald knew more about Eva Smith than he had let on. Very early on in the play, Sheila had talked about how she did not see much of Gerald last summer; ‘except for all last summer, when you never came near me and I wondered what had happened to you’. Gerald had claimed that he ‘was very busy at the works at the time’, but he soon admits that at this time he had been having an affair with Eva Smith, or Daisy Renton as she claimed her name was. He put her up in an apartment and continued to visit her there from time to time. As Eva (Daisy) had no one else, Gerald soon became the most important person in her life and she fell deeply in love with him. When Eva’s life was in tatters, Gerald seemed to her like a way of getting her life back on track and when Gerald is bored of the affair he finishes it, leaving her in a worst position than she was before she met Gerald. Like Mr Birling, Gerald does not seem to accept that these actions affected the life of anybody and when he finds out the inspector is a fake he believes that his actions were insignificant; ‘Everything is all right now Sheila’. He is happy just to have a drink with Mr Birling.
Mrs Birling is the next person who should take some the responsibility for Eva Smith’s death. Mrs Birling was the chairwoman of Brumley Women’s Charity Organisation. When Eva Smith came to the Organisation seeking financial support, she claims her name is Mrs Birling. This disgusts Mrs Birling; ‘it was simply a piece of gross impertinence’, and she consequently refuses to give Eva Smith aid, who at this point is heavily pregnant. She shows absolutely no remorse; ‘I’m sorry she should have come to such a horrible end. But I accept no blame for it at all’. She instead pins the blame on the father of her child; ‘take some steps to find this young man and then make sure that he’s compelled to confess in public his responsibility’. She is gob smacked when she finds out who this young man is.
Eric Birling, the son of Mr and Mrs Birling and sister of Sheila, had met Eva Smith at the same bar as Gerald. He got drunk and almost forced Eva to have sex with him. Two weeks later they had sex again and they soon realised that Eva was pregnant. Mrs Birling is shocked at her son, especially after everything she had said about the father of Eva’s child. Eric resorted to stealing from his father’s office to try and temporarily support her which appalled his parents farther. Unlike his parents and Gerald Croft, Eric shows a lot of remorse and seems to realise the consequences of his actions; ‘You’re beginning to pretend now that nothings really happened at all… The girl’s still dead, isn’t she?’
To conclude, I think everyone was partly to blame for the death of Eva Smith, but perhaps Mr Birling should be held mostly responsible for his actions triggered the chain of events that ultimately resulted in her suicide. What we can see by the end of the play is which characters are mature enough to accept that their actions have consequences, no matter what class someone is in. Surprisingly, the only two characters that understand what they have done wrong are the youngest, Eric and Sheila. I think that Priestley was trying to say something about the capitalism of the older generation of people and how the newer generations were taking on socialist ideas.
