When Eric Birling describes Eva Smith, he says ' She was a pretty and a good sport.' How do the other characters in the play see Eva Smith and what is your final opinion of her?

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When Eric Birling describes Eva Smith, he says ‘ She was a pretty and a good sport.’ How do the other characters in the play see Eva Smith and what is your final opinion of her?

Within ‘An Inspector Calls’ we learn about the sequence of events leading to Eva Smiths death, throughout the confession of the other characters. JB Priestly uses the Inspector as a catalyst and as the voice of a conscience as we, the audience gain more insight into how the various characters manipulated and used Eva for their own gain. In this quote Eric states, ‘ I suppose fifty pounds all told’. This shows that Eric gave her money after he had used her either to keep her quiet or actually in pity for her.

The other characters feel sorry for what happened to Eva Smith although some people put on a brave face and hide their real feelings. They also think of as very little of her and that she wasn’t much of a loss to society. For example, ‘Oh that’s it, is it? Well, we’ve several hundred young women there, y’know, and they keep changing’. This shows that all the workers that Mr. Birling employs mean nothing to him apart from cheap labour.

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Mr Birling feels no sympathy for Eva. He also thinks of her as just an other employee and then Sheila point out that, ‘ But these girls aren’t cheap labour-their people.’  Showing that Sheila has feelings and recognises the working class as real people. Mr. Birling only thinks about his family, profits and himself. He only sacked Eva because she was going to jeopardise his profits if he gave her the pay rise.  Mr Birling has no time for small inconsiderate employees.  Eva can be easily replaced, is ‘run of the mill’ and is nothing special. He does not ...

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