Gerald took her to the County Hotel, They talked and met up again two nights later. He discovered she had no money so he let her stay at his friend’s empty apartment and gave her money to keep her going. ” I made her go to Morgan Terrace because I was sorry for her and I didn’t like the idea of her going back to the Palace Bar. I didn’t ask for anything in return”. Daisy Renton or “Eva Smith” became his mistress, He was her “wonderful fairy prince”. The affair ended ” in the first week of September.
I had to go away for several weeks then – on business. ” I insisted on a parting gift of enough money to see her through till the end of the year” ” I never saw her again and that’s all I can tell you”. Gerald helped Eva with genuine sympathy from her situation and didn’t take advantage of her as Eric had done while he was drunk in a violent way. Gerald did make Eva Smith happy and in many ways he is least to blame for the death of Eva Smith.
It is no doubt that Eva Smiths death was a result of the chain of events led by the Birling family and Gerald Croft. Out of all the people in Eva Smith’s life, Gerald seemed to be the only genuine one of them all. He gave her a place to stay when she needed it most and money which was enough to keep her going with a little extra. Gerald also gave her genuine companionship and only broke the relationship off when they both agreed it was going nowhere. He didn’t ask for anything in return from Eva.
I believe that Sheila was only partly responsible, as was Eric. From Sheila’s selfish, green eyed nature, she went out of her way to get Eva sacked from Milwards just because she was more pretty than she was, and one dress caused Sheila to make Eva’s life hell by complaining to the manager at Milwards and threatening to remove her mothers account with them. If Eva hadn’t been sacked she would never have ended up vulnerable and with Eric.
Eric was more responsible for the death because he pushed her over the edge. He was a liar, a thief and an embezzler, He gave her stolen money and took advantage of her, forcing her back and sleeping with her while he was drunk. He became angry and aggressive when she said no but he violently forced his way back in to the house. Eric left Eva Smith pregnant and when she went to Eric’s mothers committee for help she was turned away and told to get the father of the baby to take responsibility and not to run away, What Sybil didn’t realize was that that father of her unborn baby was, in fact, her son.
Sybil was the last person out of all of them to see Eva alive so she could have changed the end result. If she hadn’t put on airs and grace and turned Eva away from the committee, Eva would have had a future. Overall, I believe that Arthur Birling is the one person who we can hold responsible for Eva Smiths death. Sacking her from the factory made her attitude to life change. If he hadn’t have sacked her from the factory she wouldn’t have ended up working in Milwards where she was to be sacked by a jealous, angry Sheila. Eva wouldn’t have been vulnerable and ended up with Gerald and have been taken advantage of and left pregnant by Eric. If she wasn’t pregnant she wouldn’t have needed his mothers committee for help. She would have had a long and stable job and a happy life, Which Arthur took away. There for I think Arthur Birling is most responsible for the death of Eva Smith.
“An Inspector Calls” _J.B Priestley John Boynton Priestley was born in Yorkshire on the 13th September 1894. He left school at the age of sixteen and in 1910 he became a junior clerk with the local wool firm of Helm and Company. With the outbreak of war in 1914 Priestley joined the infantry at the age of twenty. He left the Army in 1919 after nearly being killed once and being a victim of a gas attack. After leaving the army he went to Cambridge University to study Modern History and Political Science, but in 1921 he left and went to London.
Priestley’s first novel was The Good Companions (1929) and his second novel, Angel Pavement was published in 1930, but it was in 1932. When he was aged 38 that he wrote his first play Dangerous Corner, An Inspector Calls was written in 1945. In this Essay I will try to find whom I think was most responsible for the death of Eva Smith. I will find out some background information for each of the characters and use the evidence and my knowledge to come to a conclusion and to find in my opinion was most responsible.
