The Death of Eva Smith in J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls

The Death of Eva Smith in J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls

'An Inspector Calls' is a play by J.B Priestly; it is an intriguing

tale of how the Birling family, an upper class family who live in the

north of England in an imaginary town called Brumley, lead a young

working class girl called Eva Smith to commit suicide. In act three

the inspector tells the Birling family:

''The girl killed herself-and died a horrible death, but each one of

you had a part to play helped to kill her. Remember that. Never forget

it.''

Arthur Burling is the main man in the Burling family, and seems to

control it, i.e. whatever he says - goes! The play is set in an

imaginary town called Brumley, somewhere in the North of England. Mr.

Burling has a selfish attitude towards life, and also an attitude to

only care for himself and family, and basically forget everybody else,

in fact, this is exactly what he tells a speech on at the celebration

of Sheila's and Gerald's engagement, "... a man has to look after

himself - and his family too, of course..." which gives the impression

of the selfishness, and also greed. Another example of this is when he

tells a speech about how it is the best day of his life, "Gerald, I'm

going to tell you frankly, without any pretenses, that your engagement

with Sheila means a lot to me. She'll make you happy, and I'm sure

you'll make her happy. Your just the type of son-in-law I wanted..."

makes people think whether he wants them to get married for

themselves, or for him, and whether it means a lot to him

sentimentally, or a lot to him in the business world. Burling's first

priority is to make money, "It's my duty to keep labour cost down" and

is also a social climber, and Sheila is engaged to the son of his

"friendly" rival, which is why it could mean a lot to him in the

business world because Gerald's father is in a higher class than the