Who is most responsible for the death of Eva Smith?
· Mrs Birling is to blame because she is cruel and snobbish.
“girls of that class” = she is snobbish in the sense that she upholds her own class above the lower class. Believes she is better than everyone else. This led to Eva’s death as she was in control of Eva’s life by either giving her or refusing her aid.
“I used my influence to have it refused” = links back to previous point (snobbish). Also cruel because she made sure that everyone else refused Eva’s appeal also. Used her power for evil and was the last event before her suicide.
· Mr Birling is to blame because he exploited Eva and the workers for his own gain.
“these girls aren’t cheap labour - they’re people” = He viewed the lower class as cheap labour rather than humans. His choice to refuse Eva a pay rise so that his company did not lose money (for personal gain) was the first step, and therefore possibly the most influential, towards her suicide.
“a man has to make his own way” = His rather narrow world view meant that, after Eva lost her job, he expected her to fend for herself. This was clearly not a fair/correct view and did ultimately lead to her death. Priestley uses this to show that people cannot survive on their own and as such everyone has to accept their responsibility for each other (something that Mr Birling was not able to do, even at the end of the play).
· Gerald is to blame because he exploited Eva (sexually) and had no intention of marrying her. It was all for his own gain.
“I became at once the most important person in her life” = He used his power from his class (particularly money) to exploit Eva for his own sexual pleasure. He even knew that Eva depended on him, and yet still he used this power.
· Eric is to blame because he used Eva against her will and more than she used him.
“she didn’t want me to go in” = Eric did not take into account Eva’s will, but just his own, showing the unequal nature of the relationship. Eric had sex with Eva and she became pregnant. This left Eva with the burden of a child, but not Eric. Once again shows the unequal nature of the relationship.
· Sheila is to blame because she is cruel and selfish towards Eva.
“You might be said to have been jealous of her” = She is selfish because she does not want someone else to be better than her, especially someone from the working class, and this leads to Eva being fired. She is cruel because she uses this feeling of jealousy to fire Eva when Eva did nothing to evoke the feeling but smile.
