Who Was Most To Blame For The Death Of Eva Smith? Essay

The character Mr Birling in ‘An Inspector Calls’ by J.B Priestley is a greedy, arrogant and selfish ‘hardheaded businessman’, father of two, Sheila Birling and Eric Birling. Through Mr Birling Priestley shows what upper middle-class men were like in 1912. I believe Priestley set the play in 1912 and first performed it in 1946 because this date represented an era where everything was different. In 1912 there was a strict class system and gender roles, Priestley took the chance the end of the war had given them to create a different, more equal society.

Writers do portray characters in several way; some are portrayed as bold and courageous while others come out weak and gullible. This essay focuses on the play ‘An Inspector Calls’. This is a play written by J.B. Priestley. It gives an account of how an inspector known as Poole investigates the apparent murder of a young working class woman known as Eva Smith. When the Inspector Poole visits the Birling family, he slowly reveals how every member of that family might have taken part in the murder of Eva. The main issue under discussion is how Priestly strikingly portrays Birling in Act 1 of the play. The main argument is that the author portrays the Birling as a self-centered, selfish and hardheaded businessperson, who does not take care of social responsibility and thus is anti-socialist.

In the play “The inspector calls” written by Presley, the story is set in 1912, and describes a family in the middle class. Eric, the son of Mr. Birling is one of the key characters in the play

John Boynton Priestley was born in Bradford, Yorkshire on September 13th 1984. The play “An Inspector Calls” was written by him in 1945, and came onstage in 1914. An Inspector calls, is a play that revolves around the apparent suicide of a young woman called Eva Smith. In the play, the unsuspecting Birling family are visited by the mysterious Inspector Goole. Priestley uses a variety of different techniques, especially language and quotations, to contrast and elicit differing responses to Mr Birling and Inspector Goole.

Priestley’s Main Aim in An Inspector Calls JB Priestly wrote ‘An Inspector Calls’ to enhance the message that ‘we don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other’. This is something Priestly felt strongly about and he succeeded in representing his views through the character of the Inspector in the play itself.

An Inspector Calls is a play written in 1945 by J.B Priestly. It was set in 1912 where there were strong distinctions between the upper and lower classes. Therefore, to convey the socialist message, Priestly portrays characters from the upper class in an exposed manner. He definitely doesn’t hide any of their flaws. Gerald Croft is one of the main characters in the play that Priestly has done a great job at showing the thoughts of the upper class.

In the play 'An Inspector Calls', many contrasts and paradox's are present and at the centre of them all is the character known as Inspector Goole. However, the inspector is not any ordinary inspector. I believe that the inspector is used as a device by Priestley to explore the wider themes of the play and to depict other characters true personalities. This essay will explore some of the techniques Priestley presents the inspector in An Inspector Calls.

The play ‘An Inspector Calls’ is set in the North Midlands, the industrial city of Brumley in 1912. The play revolves around the death of a young girl named Eva Smith and the wealthy, middle class Birling family. The Birling family consists of four main members. In addition, there is Gerald Croft who is engaged to the daughter of the family, Sheila Birling, and the maid Edna who plays a small role in the play.

“An Inspector Calls” is a play written by J.B. Priestley in 1945. The play, which is set in 1912, illustrates the vast status difference in society at the time. Gerald Croft is a typical upper-class man, who already has his future carved out for him. He is the son of a wealthy businessman, who, in time will eventually hand the business over to him. However, being brought up in the upper class has made Gerald oblivious to the strife of the lower classes. He is content with his life and so does not care for anyone else.

You feel that the Inspector knows everything already, and that by telling him, you are not giving information, but confessing to what you have done- which he already knows. This makes Sheila and Eric in particular give a lot more information than is necessary to the questions that the Inspector asks. The Inspector sets up a scene, and then inserts snippets of information that two parties will both be able to individually interpret, and will reveal more than necessary. The Inspector makes the information he gives ambiguous in order to draw the largest reaction. In this way, he is able to play off their response and extract more information from them. In some aspects, Inspector's character seems to be ahead of his time. The manner in which he conducts his questioning seems to be more advanced than the way in which they are received. Also the way in which he conducts himself gives the impression of being ahead of the family that he is questioning. He also has the sensibility of someone who lived during the 1945/46, after the wars. The Inspector does not ‘fit' in with the way in which things where done during the time of this play. Priestley makes the Inspector seem ahead of his

In this play we can notoriously see that Gerald is a selfish person, who wants to marry Sheila not only because of business, also because she is pretty. He does not care about other people; a clear example is that he cheated on Sheila with Eva Smith. Gerald is not committed to his relationship, this is shown when he unsuccessfully tries to hide that he had known Eva. In the end, his efforts make the revelation ruder. He does not care about Sheila's feelings and he has not gained a new sense of social responsibility, understanding that he, too, was part of the events that led Eva’s suicide. This is why Sheila is unsure whether to take back the engagement ring or not. Croft’s family has a very high status in society, and since being in business with the Birlings would not necessarily be good for their company, Gerald is engaged to Sheila because he wants to. His parents are not happy as they think she is not good enough for Gerald and because

An inspector calls is a morality play that challenges the ideas of an upper class Edwardian audience,preistley achieves this both through the attitudes of the play but also through his implementation of personal morals. Sheila is initially presented as the stereotypical Edwardian daughter but soon freely presents her emotions, without the need for approval from her parents.

An Inspector Calls is set in 1912 before World War One. The play is centred around, a wealthy family called the Birlings. The visit from the Inspector reveals that all the characters had played a part in the suicide of a girl called Eva Smith. In some ways, all the characters are responsible for the death of Eva Smith, each one of them did something that affected her in some way or another. Overall I feel that some characters were more responsible than others for many different reasons. In the book we see several different reactions from the characters when they find out that they are caught up in the suicide, some were upset and distressed and others just tried to pass the blame to others and tried to excuse what they had done. The characters selfishness was a huge contributions to Eva Smiths suicide.

Both Eva Smith and Curley’s wife are victims of their class as Eva is victimised by each member of the Birling Family, who each make her life harder and each of them are ultimately partially responsible for her

Veronica Smith came home from work one afternoon and noticed her house was very quiet. She looked around and saw that her daughter was crying on the floor because all three of their dogs were missing. They immediately started looking for them and put up missing dog signs. About a week later, Veronica received an anonymous letter on her doorstep that said: “Veronica, I have a proposition for you... if you do something for me, I’ll give you your beloved pets back safe and sound. But only if you follow my directions very carefully..”She realized this was solicitation. As she read on, she started to cry. He wanted her to steal a $600,000,000 in jewelry from his ex-wife. The next day, her daughter was missing. Although she did not want to