Who in your opinion was most responsible for the death of Eva Smith?

In “An Inspector Calls” by J.B. Priestley the responsibility for the death of Eva Smith is shared between the whole Birling family including Gerald Croft. They each contributed with one small thing that when put together drove Eva smith to suicide.

The first in the chain of events, which led to Eva’s death, was when Mr Birling sacked her from his factory. Eva Smith was a good worker so Mr Birling put her in charge of a group of workers, this increased Eva’s confidence in herself and her abilities, which helped her become a ringleader in a group of girls who wanted a higher wage. They asked for more money and Mr Birling refused, if he increased their wages he would have to increase the cost of the clothes too and that would not have gone down well with business.

“Well, it’s my duty to keep labour costs down

and if I’d agreed to this demand for a new rate

we’d have added about twelve percent to our labour costs.”

So the girls went on strike. Eventually the girls had to give up the strike and Mr Birling let them get back to work except for the ringleaders whom he sacked for being a nuisance and causing trouble in the factory.