Eva Smith Character Analysis (AQA GCSE English Literature) : Revision Note

Eva Smith is Priestley’s symbol of the working classes, and her suffering at the hands of other characters reflects how the poor are exploited and marginalised  by those within a privileged capitalist system.

Eva Smith character summary

Why is Eva Smith important?

Although the audience never meets Eva, the events of the play revolve around her. Victimised in different ways by the Birlings and Gerald, she is a symbol of class inequality in the 1900s. She also contrasts with the character of Sheila Birling: the two characters reflect how the class divide affects women from very different backgrounds.

• She has a strong moral compass: she organises a strike for higher wages among Mr Birling’s workers and is sacked for her principles. She later refuses to accept stolen money from Eric, despite being pregnant and living in poverty.

• She is a hard worker: before being sacked by Mr Birling, she was in line for a promotion, and she also managed to secure a good job at Milwards. This makes her fate all the more tragic: even someone as capable as Eva could not survive the cruel exploitation of capitalism.

• She is an innocent victim: Eva is presented as entirely innocent throughout the play: her only deceitful act — attempting to ask for charity under a false name — was an attempt to protect Eric. Her moral purity places responsibility for her death on the shoulders of the Birlings and Gerald, and increases the sense of tragedy.

Eva Smith language analysis

Eva Smith does not speak at all during the play, but Priestley nevertheless characterises her through brief references to her diary and by the language of other characters:

• Emotionally sensitive language: After Gerald ends his relationship with Eva/Daisy, she is heartbroken and, she writes in her diary, went away for a while “just to make it last longer”. Her language completely contradicts Mrs Birling’s view of her as somehow beneath “elaborate fine feelings”. These words also emphasise the injustice of her situation: Gerald suffered no such devastation, and returned to his normal life.

• Descriptions of her death: On several occasions, Inspector Goole describes Eva’s dead body, “burnt out… on a slab”. These vivid, gruesome descriptions serve to shock the Birlings (and Priestley’s audience) by reminding them of Eva’s suffering, and force the Birlings to think about her body even while she is physically absent from the stage.

Eva Smith key quotes

Eva Smith character development

Eva Smith character interpretation

Rights of women

Eva Smith represents the social position of women in 1912 Britain, and is a victim of both capitalism and the patriarchy. Her relationship with Mr Birling reveals that the only opportunities available to women at the time were those afforded to them by powerful men, while her abuse at Eric’s hands highlights the helplessness of women in the face of appalling sexual violence.

Eva Smith’s descent into prostitution also highlights the hypocrisy of wealthy men: she is morally condemned for selling her body, but men are shown to openly hire prostitutes without fear of consequences. Even Gerald, who treats Eva with something approaching care and respect, nevertheless abuses his social position to secure her as his mistress. When Gerald ends the relationship, he is free to return to his former life, but this is not an option available to Eva. She therefore embodies the powerlessness of women in 1912 to control their own lives.

This powerlessness is also reflected in their lack of political voice: middle-class women were only granted the right to vote in 1918, and universal suffrage (voting for all, regardless of class) was not granted until 1928.