Eva Smith - character study.
There are many reasons for the death of Eva Smith. Each one of the
Birling family and Gerald pushed Eva Smith a little closer to suicide
but no one person was solely responsible for her death. It was not
only the Birling's that contributed to Eva Smith's death but her
position in the world she was in, she was very poor and low in society
Mr Birling was the first person who we were led to believe started off
the train of events that led to the death of Eva Smith. I don't
believe that Mr Birling did anything that ultimately push Eva to
commit suicide the only thing he did was sack her from his factory
after she started to cause trouble demanding higher wages and getting
the other girls in the factory to go on strike. Most men in his
position 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 wrong
regarding Eva he does not come off well throughout the play as he
shows himself up a number of times because of his personality. The
major fault in his personality is that he seems to show no remorse for
Eva and his son Eric is annoyed by this. He seems to be a very hard
man, and shows no regret for dismissing Eva which led to her death.
Sheila was the second person that the Inspector turned on and her part
in the run up to Eva's death shows her in an unfavourable light as she
turned on Eva because she was jealous of her. Sheila wrongfully used
her position as an important customer to turn Eva out of a job. She
even admits, 'it was my own fault´, and that she 'was in a furious
temper´. She was jealous of Eva describing her as a 'very pretty girl
too - with big dark eyes´.
Although her actions show her to be a bad tempered, jealous and
malicious person you get the impression as she begins to talk that
that is quite a harsh view of her and that although she does have bad
characteristics she isn´t really as bad as you first think her to be.
She shows herself to be honest admitting straight away all that she
had done, that she caught sight of her smiling at the assistant and 'I
was furious with her´.
Gerald was the third person to come under the spotlight.
person was a hardship she did not understand what purpose in life she has and
one page 11) this indicates that he is a selfish man and cares for his
1912. It shows how hard it was for her as she was young, had no
The play is set two years before World War I, in 1912, and in the year
Priestley's Social Message in An Inspector Calls The play an Inspector Call’s was written at the time of 1945 but is set in 1912. Priestley conveys a lot of social and important messages in this play. He conveys the messages through the character of Inspector Goole. One most important message that Priestley conveys is about Socialism.
especially for a woman. Even if a woman did get a job they would get
upon so many levels. On the surface it is a simple tale of how one man
A morality play is a medieval play designed to teach the audience right from wrong. JB Priestley uses An Inspector call to convey a moral message, which is that you should not judge people on their class i.e. lower working class/higher class. He also expands the views of socialism within the message; this is all made very clear by the use of dramatic devices. Although it is a morality play it is not in the traditional format. Priestley makes it very clear in what he wants the audience to think is moral and immoral. The play also conveys a strong political message. The play encourages the idea of socialism, a society in which responsibility and community are essential, also a place where the community all work together and are responsible for their actions. This is in contrast with capitalism. JB priestly wrote the play in 1945, but it was set in 1912 just before the war, it was later performed in 1946. The play was written after World War I and World War II, Priestley used this to his advantage, it makes the audience feel awful after what has just happened, the majority of the audience would have either lived through one or both of the wars. This helped Priestley promote socialism against capitalism.
Birlings, as they find out that they have all played a part in a young
J.B. Priestley wrote the play "An Inspector Calls" in 1945 and set it in 1912. These dates are both relevant because he wrote his play in a world emerging from the Second World War, at a time when people were getting nostalgic about pre-world war one. Priestley used his play to try and show people that the idea of a community in 1912 was gradually being washed away by the upper classes and that the world needed to change rather than return to the egotistical society that existed in pre war England.
J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls J. B. Priestly was born in Bradford in 1894. He fought in the First
The Birlings are holding a party to celebrate their daughter’s engagement with Gerald Croft. The pleasant scene is interrupted when a rather shady looking Inspector gives them a visit, investigating the suicide of a young working-class girl in her middle twenties. Each family member is interrogated and they all find out that they are somehow linked to the girl’s death.
but she seems to be a person who would only marry for love and not for
about her. We do learn that she is haughty, but this might be evidence of the bias on the
her life. She longed to live an independent life, but struggled to earn a living wage with the jobs she