Eva Smith's Death in An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley
John Boyton Priestley was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, in 1894 and
sadly, his mother also died that same year. When Priestley left school
he already knew he wanted to be a writer, but he wanted to experience
the "real outside world" to draw upon for inspiration. We could
perhaps comment on the fact that Priestley's loss of his mother could
be linked with the premature death of Eva Smith in "An Inspector
Calls".
Evidence is given quite early on in the first act of "An Inspector
Calls" to suggest that the play was set in the past to allow J.B.
Priestley to "let Mr Birling lead himself up the garden path in
historical predictions, and show him to be wrong in his whole outlook
on the world". It could be argued that the most important theme of "An
Inspector Calls" is responsibility which can be described in two ways
- each of the Birlings and Gerald Croft's own personal responsibility
for Eva Smith's death or how the cause of her death would affect their
social responsibility.
In September 1910, Eva Smith was sacked by Mr Arthur Birling, owner of
the company she worked for, Birling & Co. We can describe Mr Birling
as a self-important and pompous man who is driven by his own
interests. It is proved in "An Inspector Calls" that Mr Birling is a
self-important person as he sees the engagement of his daughter,
Sheila to Gerald Croft as a good business deal for himself. He was
unsympathetic towards Eva when she demanded higher wages to simply
live off and retaliated by sacking her and when Inspector Goole tells
him of Eva's suicide he accepts no responsibility whatsoever.
After Eva was sacked by Birling & Co., in December 1910, she was
employed by Milwards, a shop often visited by Sheila Birling, the
daughter of Arthur Birling. In late January 1911, Sheila visited the
shop on a day when she was clearly not in a very good mood and claimed
On June 7th 2008, Sarah May Ward was arrested for the murder of Eli Westlake after she ran him over in a motor vehicle in St. Leonards. Prior to the incident the offender had been driving the wrong way down Christine Lane which was a one way street. Whilst this was occurring she was intoxicated, under the influence of marijuana, valium, and ecstasy and was unlicensed to drive. The victim and his brother who were also intoxicated, where walking down the lane and where nearly hit by the offender. This prompted the victim to throw cheese balls at the car and make a few sarcastic remarks regarding her driving ability. After a brief confrontation between the two parties the victim and his brother turned away and proceeded to walk down Lithgow Street. The offender followed the victim into the street and drove into him while he was crossing a driveway.
In The Murder of Helen Jewett, Patricia Cohen uses one of the most trivial murders during the 1800’s to illustrate the sexiest society accommodations to the privileged, hypocritical tunneled views toward sexual behavior, and the exploitation of legal codes, use of tabloid journalism, and politics. Taking the fact that woman was made from taking a rib from man was more than biblical knowledge, but incorporated into the male belief that a woman’s place is determined by the man. Helen had the proper rearing a maid servant, but how did she fall so far from grace. Judge Weston properly takes credit for rearing her with the proper strictness and education. Was Helen seduced at an early age and introduced to sexual perversions that were more persuasive that the bible belt life that the Weston’s tried to live? Was Helen simply a woman who knew how to use what she had to get what she wanted? Through personal correspondence, legal documentation, census reports, paintings, and newspapers we are able to make our own determinations. Cohen provides more than enough background and history to allow any one to make their own opinion how the murder of a woman could be turned into a side show at a circus.
she needed more money. So she said to him give me 25/6 because of that
was on his way and that a girl was on her way to the hospital after
Do you agree that Eva Smith is presented as a victim in the play ‘An
but she seems to be a person who would only marry for love and not for
makes each of them aware of the part they had played that lead to her
The play is set two years before World War I, in 1912, and in the year
faced to even make it back to the shop the next day with any money at all. Proudly
hand Mr and Mrs Birling are not able to do that as they think of no
In the Victorian Britain there was 88 minors were killed from the start of 1851 to the end of 1851 from many, many different things. I am talking about deaths in Victorian Britain and what I think the deaths mean is that the people who died, died cruelly. There may be some people who die of accidental deaths but most people die of a cruel death. The Victorians viewed death as a sad time because the deaths caused a great deal of sadness and pain to the person's family mates and friends.
the world in which he grew up. He became a spoilt brat, spurred on by
Agatha Christie books brings up the problem of peoples morals, especially in the books ATTWN and MOTOE. The moral ambiguity presented in both books further shows that there are questionable areas in the justice system, and if the readers are left to question if whether or not the culprit was justified in what they did then, there must be some unreliable sections in the law. It’s made even harder to make it any clearer with Freud’s concepts on psychoanalysis, it questions the previously held assumptions on human nature, making people to acknowledge that they still hold some of their instinct back from primitive times.
paid for the items, collected the bags and was about to leave the store when the blaring siren went off.
Morals are principles which help people to behave rightly. Also, they need to protect the rules. However, in Agatha Christie’s novel, Murder on the Orient Express, the characters act dishonestly: twelve passengers on the Orient Express murder Cassetti, they lie to the Belgian private detective, Hercule Poirot and the protagonist overlooks the passengers. Agatha Christie wrote these intensions fairly. From Murder on the Orient Express, the readers can learn that some set of morals are endorsed.