Eva Smith in An Inspector Calls

Eva Smith in An Inspector Calls

Do you agree that Eva Smith is presented as a victim in the play ‘An

Inspector Calls’? How does J.B Priestly use the Inspector to make the

Birling family aware of their responsibilities to individuals such as

Eva Smith and how successful is he?

When Eva Smith is presented to the audience by the Inspector, she is

immediately shown to be the victim of the play. The Inspector

highlights and describes how each of the members of the Birling family

has used Eva Smith. The Inspector shows that each character has

victimised her and that each of them has a part to play and a partly

responsible for her death. The Inspector soon shows us that he thinks

she is a victim as he describes her as

“A pretty, lively sort of girl, who never did anybody any harm.”

The Inspector tries to make each family member, including Gerald

Croft, guilty for how they have treated Eva Smith.

‘An Inspector Calls’ is a play all about the social attitudes of the

time. The play shows the attitudes of high class people such as the

Birlings and how they see other members of the community. The

Birlings are a rich family and they don’t feel that they should care

for other people. They think that they should only be responsible for

themselves and there family and not get involved with helping less

well off people. Mr Birling put it that “if we were all responsible

for everything that happened to everybody…it would be very awkward…”

The play shows how Eva Smith is a victim of the attitude of society in

1912. It shows how hard it was for her as she was young, had no

family and was unemployed, meaning she had no income to provide for

herself. The play shows how some women were forced to beg charities

for help to survive or how some young women were even forced into

prostitution to provide themselves money to live on. The play

highlights the bad way in which women, in a position similar to Eva

Smith’s, were treated at that time by society, especially wealthy

members of the public with high social statuses such as the Birlings.

The Inspector targets each member of the Birling family and shows how

they, as individuals, victimised Eva Smith and made her life harder.

The Inspector firstly shows how Mr Birling treated her. Mr Birling is

the father of the family and has a high status in the community.

Mr Birling is a successful business man. He is involved in local

politics and is hoping to be given a knighthood.