Who (or what) do you think is to blame for the death of Eva Smith?

Authors Avatar

Nidhia Babu 11C

A Modern Drama Coursework

Title: Who (or what) do you think is to blame for the death of Eva Smith?

‘An Inspector Calls’ is a Modern Drama written by JB Priestley in 1945 and first performed in 1946, was one of his most successful plays in which the idea of class is clearly publicised. John Boynton Priestley born in 1845 always knew that he wanted to become a writer. After gaining a degree from Cambridge, priestly wrote successful articles and essays, then published the first of many novels, The Good Companions in 1929. Most of his writings were ground- breaking and controversial. He included many of his ideas about possible parallel universes and political messages into many of his plays and books. During the 1930’s Priestly was very concerned about the consequences of social inequality in Britain. Soon after the Second World War, Priestley was hoping for a change in the attitude of the people towards women and other citizens who are lower class in society.  The play itself is set in 1912 but the issue that Priestley is focusing is still relevant in the 1940’s.  

In the play ‘An Inspector Calls’ each character is responsible for the death of Eva Smith in one way or another. Each person played a part in ruining her life and finally forcing her to commit suicide by drinking disinfectant. In the play, we are told that the problems begin for Eva when Mr Birling sacked her from her job. Arthur Birling, the head of the family is described as a ‘heavy- looking, rather portentous man in his middle fifties but rather provincial in his speech.’

The character of Arthur Birling is what we would expect from the Birling family. He is a middle class man and from a respectable family.  We can also see from the opening line of the play that he is aware of the people who are his social superiors, which is why he shows off the port to Gerald,

It’s exactly the same port your father gets.”

This indicates that Mr Birling is a social climber. He is aware of the reputation of Sir George Croft and his company and he wants to be in the same level as them. He even goes as far as telling Gerald that ‘it’s exactly the same port that his father gets from Finchley.’ This is an indication, of the show that Mr Birling is putting on for Gerald. He wants Gerald to know that he is almost as top as the Crofts Company.

In the beginning of the first act we see the whole family happy, content and pleased with themselves,

“Well, well- this is very nice. Very nice.”

We see here that the Birling family are celebrating the engagement of Sheila and Gerald and they are all very pleased about this occasion. Priestly puts in a calm and happy atmosphere in the beginning which might be a bit suspicious and indicates that more hectic issues are on their way.

Mr Birling describes this evening as ‘one of the happiest nights of my life,’ and uses this occasion to give speeches on what he views as important. He talks about politics and he obviously hopes for a chance of business in Sheila’s marriage,

“Now you’ve brought us together, and perhaps we may look forward to the time Crofts and Birling’s are no longer competing but are working together.”

This shows another side of Mr Birling. Even though he is happy about the engagement and happy for Sheila, but the main reason that he wants them to be married is because the two companies will come together ‘for lower costs and higher prices.’ He is also assured in this aspect, ‘with no worries of strikes or silly little war scares.’ All in all Mr Birling has control of everything in his house and has high hopes of a knighthood. Everything is going well for him.

In this scene, even though the atmosphere is quite relaxed, a spot of tension could be seen beneath the surface. Mr Birling throughout the celebration is trying to impress Gerald which we would expect, as he is a social climber,

“I might find a way into the next Honours List. Just a knighthood, of course.”

This shows us that Mr Birling is trying to assure Gerald that his decision about Sheila isn’t wrong even though Lady Croft objects to her because of her social class. He seems to be trying to show himself as upper class in the fact that he even buys the same port as Sir George Croft.

As Mr Birling, quite fond if his speeches also tries to advice and pass on his opinions to the younger generations,

“That a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own-and-.”

This shows us that Mr Birling thinks that people in society should only care about themselves. People should not take responsibility of other people’s actions nor help them in any way.

With the arrival of the Inspector, the happy atmosphere at the Birling’s family comes to an end,

“But I don’t understand why you should come here, Inspector.”

This shows us that Mr Birling is not aware of the situation before the Inspector starts his questioning. It almost seems that Mr Birling hasn’t done anything wrong and the audience at the beginning might not be able to understand where the Birling family comes into all this. We can tell by the way the Mr Birling answers the Inspector that he thinks that he hasn’t done anything wrong,

“A good worker too…..the foreman there told me he was ready to promote her into a leading operator….suddenly decided to ask for more money”

We learn from the account of Mr Birling that the main reason why he fired Eva Smith from her job was because she asked for a pay rise from twenty two and six to about twenty-five shillings a week. Priestley is trying to emphasise on the point that the average weekly wage for women at that time was much lower than what they should be getting. He is trying to emphasise on the point that Twenty-two and six shilling a week wasn’t much and these women could hardly get by. Some of them had to look after families and children and according to Priestley, asking for a pay rise was quite fair. We also now see the attitude of Mr Birling when he refused to increase the wages. The workers in his eyes do not seem to be human beings with needs and necessities. The audience might even think of Mr Birling as selfish because he is only thinking about himself and his company’s profits.      

Join now!

We can also tell that Mr Birling is trying to win the Inspector to his side,

“Have a glass of port….he’s an old friend of mine and I see him fairly frequently. We play golf together sometimes.”

Br Birling here almost seems to intimidate the Inspector with his relations with Colonel Roberts and also introduces Gerald as of Crofts Limited and talks about his history as a Mayor. Priestley is trying to put across the message that because Mr Birling lives in this world of business and upper class and for a man like him, rules are merely important. This ...

This is a preview of the whole essay