An inspector calls:Who, in your opinion, is most responsible for the death of Eva smith? Use references from the text to substantiate your answer.
...nd was cast aside to fend for herself. Mr. Birling’s capitalist ideology meant that he would not even consider for one moment that he was in the slightest responsible for Eva Smiths death. “Still I can’t accept responsibility. If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we’d had anything to do with, it would be very awkward.” Mr.Birling's views are so blinkered that he did not even show a sense of remorse for what the girl had endured; he thinks of Eva Smith as just a worker, a possession and not a person, he makes sure inspector Goole knows this to, “…in fact there’s nothing I can tell him, I told the girl to clear out, and she went…” Mr. Birling was the first person to trigger off a long line of terrible events in a tragic life, and still he is not affected by this thought and carries on to insist he has no involvement in the matter. The next character the inspector moves on to is Sheila Birling. Sheila Birling is extremely indulged by her doting parents and is a spoilt young woman who has been sheltered from all things that could affect her in any emotional way for all her life, and yet again, the inspector is here to destroy all the false pretences. Sheila Birling came into Eva Smith’s life, after Arthur Birling had sacked her, when she found a job in a respectable ladies clothes shop, Milwards. Sheila and Sybil Birling were regular customers at this shop and had a very large account. The second tragedy for Eva started when Sheila and her mother came into the store to find a dress for Sheila to wear and, Sheila being spoilt went against her mother’s and the shop assistants advice and went for a dress that would not suit her, just to spite her mother. Eva, who was working there at the time, went to fetch the dress from the workroom and when she came back, the other assistant, Mrs. Francis, asked her something about the dress, she held it up against herself and demonstrated what she meant. Of course, it suited Eva and when Sheila tried the dress on, it looked “silly”, even Sheila realised this, to her dismay “…It just suited her, she was the right type for it, just as I was the wrong type.” At that moment, Sheila looked in the mirror and saw Eva looking at Mrs. Francis and smiling. Sheila twisted this idea completely and thought Eva was mocking her, so she stormed off to the manager and threatened to close their account if they didn’t fire the girl, and of course, Sheila got her own way, as always. At this stage, she is distraught with the thought that her careless actions could have affected someone so badly that they would take their life. She is moved to tears and is generally sorry for what she has done. This means that the inspector’s job is successful with Sheila, he has torn down the walls of naivety and is making her realise that not everyone has money and happy lives’ like her, in fact, her family are in the minority. Although Sheila has learnt her lesson and is remorseful, Eva still had to turn to prostitution. The inspector then moves on to Gerald Croft, who is portrayed as a very socially confident and well off young man, in the prime of his life. He is part of successful family business, is affluent and has a beautiful fiancé from which, when he is married he will inherit another business. He is charming and a little manipulative. At first, Gerald Croft refuses all knowledge of Eva (when by that time she had changed her name to Daisy Renton) and acts in an extremely guilty manner. After inspector Goole mentions Daisy Renton, he leaves the room to further question Mr. Birling in the drawing room, leaving Sheila and Gerald alone. Sheila is already suspicious “…Oh don’t be stupid. We haven’t much time. You gave yourself away as soon as he mentioned her name.” Gerald then breaks down and admits to Sheila that he had an affair with her, last summer, and that it was all over and done with. He then begs her not to tell the inspector, but Sheila has realised that the inspector already knows and tells him, almost triumphantly that the truth will eventually come out. When the inspector questions Gerald, he admits that he met Daisy Renton in March in the stalls at the Palace Bar in Brumley, and from then on, he took pity on her. He offered her something that she had never had before, warmth and security. Although he seems like a “hero” figure, he takes advantage of her in a vulnerable state, and led her to believe things that weren’t true. He let her stay in a friend’s set of rooms as she had no money, looked after he and then eventually she became his mistress. Yet to Daisy, it was more than an affair: it was love. At this point Gerald seems quite distressed and then breaks down “She was very pretty- soft brown hair and big dark eyes- my god-sorry- I –well I’ve suddenly realised- taken it in properly- that she’s dead” He then goes on to explain that in the first week of September the affair came to an end and she moved out of the rooms. Gerald gave her enough money to “see her through to the end of the year”. As all of this is going on, Sheila is still listening and is taking it surprisingly well. “I don’t dislike you as I did half an hour ago Gerald. In fact, in some odd way, I rather respect you more than I’ve ever done before.” At this point, Gerald leaves the room to get some air and to think of what he has done. The next person Inspector Goole questions' is Sybil Birling. Mrs. Birling is a lot like her husband, proud and snobbish. She believes that she and her family take priority over anyone else and is spoilt, like her daughter. She is a cold and heartless women, whose’ only interest is for her self and her family. She treats the inspector with none of the respect he deserves. She thinks he is from an inferior class, so therefore she thinks she can order him about. Mrs. Birling met Eva Smith two weeks before her death when she held a meeting of the interviewing committee of the organisation she was a member of, the Brumley women’s charity, ironically. Surprisingly, Mrs. Birling does not deny all knowledge of her meeting with Eva and is quite truthful. Eva turned up to the meeting and called herself “Mrs. Birling” which the act...