There are many reasons for the death of Eva Smith. Each one of theBirling family and Gerald pushed Eva Smith a little closer to suicidebut no one person was solely responsible for her death. It was notonly the Birling’s that contributed to Eva Smith’s death but herposition in the world she was in, she was very poor and low in societyMr Birling was the first person who we were led to believe started offthe train of events that led to the death of Eva Smith. I don’tbelieve that Mr Birling did anything that ultimately push Eva tocommit suicide the only thing he did was sack her from his factoryafter she started to cause trouble demanding higher wages and gettingthe other girls in the factory to go on strike. Most men in hisposition would have done the same. Mr Birling said to the inspector,’She had a lot to say far too much so she had to go´.
Although I don’t think that Mr Birling did anything really wrongregarding Eva he does not come off well throughout the play as heshows himself up a number of times because of his personality. Themajor fault in his personality is that he seems to show no remorse forEva and his son Eric is annoyed by this. He seems to be a very hardman, and shows no regret for dismissing Eva which led to her death.Sheila was the second person that the Inspector turned on and her partin the run up to Eva’s death shows her in an unfavourable light as sheturned on Eva because she was jealous of her. Sheila wrongfully usedher position as an important customer to turn Eva out of a job. Sheeven admits, ‘it was my own fault´, and that she ‘was in a furioustemper´.
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She was jealous of Eva describing her as a ‘very pretty girltoo – with big dark eyes´.Although her actions show her to be a bad tempered, jealous andmalicious person you get the impression as she begins to talk thatthat is quite a harsh view of her and that although she does have badcharacteristics she isn´t really as bad as you first think her to be.She shows herself to be honest admitting straight away all that shehad done, that she caught sight of her smiling at the assistant and ‘Iwas furious with her´.
Gerald was the third person to come under the spotlight. Gerald mustof felt differently towards Eva than Mr Birling or Sheila because heknew her in person, not as Eva Smith but as Daisy Renton, who was hismistress, for a while until it was no longer convenient for him. Ithink that Gerald considered himself as Eva’s saviour. He says thatshe ‘gave me a glance that was nothing more than a cry for help´. Ibelieve that he did genuinely care for Eva but he didn’t love her ashe admitted that.
‘I didn’t feel about her as she felt about me´.Although Eva’s felling for Gerald he never would have married Evabecause of his old fashion views on the class difference.Gerald was honest admitting his part in Eva’s death. He shows signs ofremorse in what he did in front of Sheila but I think he did not carewhat happened to Eva.The next person that the Inspector interrogates is Mrs Birling. BeforeMrs Birling the Inspector had been talking to each person in order ofwhen they met Eva.
However Mrs Birling was in fact the last person tohave seen Eva and was the one that had given Eva the final shove byrefusing her any help from the society that she helped run. The reasonfor this was because Eva used the name Birling which made Mrs Birlingcast judgment over Eva.Mrs Birling was adamant that she did, ‘Nothing I am ashamed of´.
Itwas clear that Mrs Birling disliked Eva and even admitted that, ‘Ididn’t like her manner´. Mrs Birling felt no guilt for her part inEva’s death I think she and Mr Birling felt no guilt for the for thedeath of Eva unlike their daughter Sheila who was genuinely sorry forher part she had played in the run up to Eva’s death.Mrs Birling does dig herself and her son into a hole as she says,’Secondly I blame the young man who was the father of the child´unknown to her she was describing her son as he was the father of thechild.Eric was the last person to come under scrutiny from the Inspector.
Hehad spent a night with Eva and she had fallen pregnant with his child.Eric had no stable relationship with Eva like Gerald. On describinghis night with her he said, ‘I didn’t even remember it that’s thehellish thing´. Eric also admits to stealing money from his father’soffice in order to support Eva. However he was very truthful andadmitted straight away that, ‘I got it from the office´.Eric does show remorse and even said: ‘I’m not likely to forget´.
However he does not take the blame for Eva’s death instead he blamesMrs Birling saying to her, ‘Then – you killed her´. Eric is the onlycharacter that does blame another person in the room. It is hard toknow whether he does sincerely blame Mrs Birling or whether he istrying to divert the blame away from himself.Overall I would say Mrs Birling. Mrs Birling was Eva’s last chance ofgiving her money and a place to live she turned down Eva appeal whicha few months latter forced Eva to take her own life. Mrs Birlingdenied Eva help although she knew Eva was pregnant see for some reasonwas determined to stop her and persuaded the other members of theorganization to refuse her.
Her selfish, cold hearted manner was themain reason for Eva’s death.
