Mr. Birling was the one to knock Eva the first time you could say she was knocked off her horse, but she managed to get back up on it again. I think Mr. Birling was right to fire Eva because she was causing trouble and making women protest to try and get the pay increased by up to around 15% which was a lot of money to ask especially from thousands of workers. I think Mr. Birling should have considered that she was a good worker before sacking her. Sheila was the second one to kick Eva off the horse and I think this was Eva’s final blow because everything seemed to go down hill from then on.
Sheila is one of the people that I think is most responsible because she had to know real reason to fire Eva apart from that she was in a bad mood, it could have been to do with the hormones but I still think that she was wrong to fire her. She might have been rich and had the power to get her fired but with power comes responsibility and I think Sheila took advantage of this. Gerald seemed to me to be the best thing that happened to Eva and his intentions were to help her out and not start an affair which did happen later on.
I think Eva knew that Gerald would never actually marry her or anything but he did a lot for Eva for example giving her a house and also gave her money (wasn’t stolen). Even though Gerald’s intentions were good he did end up having an affair with her and Eva developed a relationship with him and then he went back to Sheila as if nothing had happened where as Eva went away and tried to get her head sorted out which she did but then came a long someone else. Eric went out looking for sex and came across Eva, he got sex. I have some sympathy for Eric because he was young and drunk.
The fact that he comes back for more is what makes me less sympathetic towards him, he forces himself on Eva, which puts pressure on Eva and Eva doesn’t really try to force him off but if she did she probably would have got beaten up. Then once they sort of start dating Eric gives Eva money but then when Eric’s drunk he tells her that the money was stolen and Eva doesn’t want to take that money, then Eva finds out she is pregnant and tells Eric that she is and Eric does the honest thing and asks for her hand in marriage which shows that he is willing to sacrifice something which I think is quite decent of him.
Eva rejects him because he is too young for her, Eric offers her money but Eva doesn’t want stolen money. Mrs Birling is one of the people that I hate in this story because even after Eva is dead she still thinks that she is right in what she did even though she knows about who did what to Eva which I think is shocking and shows me that she is stubborn, that she can’t even admit that she was wrong to a dead person. Mrs Birling is the final and last rejection that Eva gets.
Eva goes to Mrs Birling for help but Eva lies at the beginning so then Mrs Birling doesn’t believe her but the thing that infuriates Mrs Birling is that she said her name was Miss Birling. I think the fact that she lies at the beginning made Mrs Birling not trust her and I think that this was alright but when Eva came clean and told her about the stolen money and everything Mrs Birling said that she should still go and find the father because he should be more responsible and dismissed her and made all other members of the charity committee reject her as well.
Eva herself should have known that suicide was not the answer to her problems and she killed her child which I think is just selfish and she should have thought it through before taking the life of her child. I also think that she could have really avoided some of things that happened like in Mr Birling’s case just go along with the strike, she didn’t have to be a ring leader. If I was to put the people I have mentioned in an order I would probably put: 1. Sheila 2. Eric 3. Eva 4. Mrs Birling 5. Mr Birling 6. Gerald
The reason I think Sheila was the most responsible was because she had know real reason to fire Eva because Eva didn’t do anything wrong. I also think that the way she used her power to get Eva sacked was just wrong and she should have thought a lot more before actually opening her mouth and getting angry at Eva because she looked better in the dress than she did.
