Who Was Most To Blame For The Death Of Eva Smith?
Who Was Most to Blame For the Death of Eva Smith?
An Inspector Calls is a three-act drama, which takes place on a single night in 1912, and focuses on the Birling family, who live in a wealthy but not particulary homely house in Brumley. The story begins when the mysterious Inspector Goole calls unexpectedly on the prosperous Birling family. The idea of the play, and particularly the role of the inspector, is to try to bring the Birling family to understand that they have a moral responsibility for the death of Eva Smith, if not a legal one. In Act Three, the Inspector tells the Birling family: “The girl killed herself and died a horrible death. But each of you helped to kill her. Remember that. Never forget it.” But who was really the most to blame for her death? I believe that they all had their own part to play in her death but am not entirely sure if anyone has more blame than another. So in turn I will go through each of the characters and study their role in the death and hopefully come to some conclusion as to who is the most to blame.
Firstly we come to Mr Birling, the head of the family. He feels that he has to prove himself to others and does this by showing off. For example boasting to Gerald about how it’s been hinted to him that he will be knighted: “… there’s a fair chance that I might find my way into the next Honours List. Just a knighthood, of course.” A wealthy man who has worked his way up the social ladder and describes himself as a: “hard-headed business man” and thinks that he is a perfect role model for his children. He doesn’t realise that being away from his wife and children, because of work, has a negative effect on his family relationships. He had Eva Smith working for him in his factory and as she was a good worker she was about to be promoted. However she was dismissed when she came back from her holidays with the other workers because she was the ringleader of a group of workers who went on strike for wanting higher wages. Mr
An Inspector Calls is a three-act drama, which takes place on a single night in 1912, and focuses on the Birling family, who live in a wealthy but not particulary homely house in Brumley. The story begins when the mysterious Inspector Goole calls unexpectedly on the prosperous Birling family. The idea of the play, and particularly the role of the inspector, is to try to bring the Birling family to understand that they have a moral responsibility for the death of Eva Smith, if not a legal one. In Act Three, the Inspector tells the Birling family: “The girl killed herself and died a horrible death. But each of you helped to kill her. Remember that. Never forget it.” But who was really the most to blame for her death? I believe that they all had their own part to play in her death but am not entirely sure if anyone has more blame than another. So in turn I will go through each of the characters and study their role in the death and hopefully come to some conclusion as to who is the most to blame.
Firstly we come to Mr Birling, the head of the family. He feels that he has to prove himself to others and does this by showing off. For example boasting to Gerald about how it’s been hinted to him that he will be knighted: “… there’s a fair chance that I might find my way into the next Honours List. Just a knighthood, of course.” A wealthy man who has worked his way up the social ladder and describes himself as a: “hard-headed business man” and thinks that he is a perfect role model for his children. He doesn’t realise that being away from his wife and children, because of work, has a negative effect on his family relationships. He had Eva Smith working for him in his factory and as she was a good worker she was about to be promoted. However she was dismissed when she came back from her holidays with the other workers because she was the ringleader of a group of workers who went on strike for wanting higher wages. Mr