This Essay explores the character of Eva Smith, her role, significance. effect and juxtaposition with other characters. This Essay was marked as Grade 9 or A*, and includes a variety of quotes with detailed analysis (no context as it was not needed for my exam board) and an introduction and conclus...
You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on this question.
You should use the extract below and your knowledge of the whole play to answer this question.
Write about the role Eva Smith and the way she is presented in An Inspector Calls.
In your response you should:
refer to the extract and the play as a whole;
show your understanding of characters and events in the play.[40]
5 of this question’s marks are allocated for accuracy in spelling, punctuation and the use of
vocabulary and sentence structures
An Inspector Calls was written by J.B Priestley, based in the industrial city of
Brumley, 1912. Eva Smith is arguably the most important character in the play
and despite being absent from it, she is the focus of the plot and events.
Priestley uses Eva Smith as a paradigm of working class women, emphasising
the treatment they received from the upper classes, such as the Birling family,
who are edified and shown their lack of empathy and compassion through their
actions towards her.
Priestley successfully introduces Eva Smith through the words of the
Inspector, perhaps signifying how little support the working class had, but also
her didactic message of socialism. He states: ‘She'd been taken there this
afternoon because she swallowed a lot of strong disinfectant burnt her inside out
of course.’ The Inspectors language here is straight forward and almost
sequenced, possible denoting how the actions of the Birling towards her have
lead in a chain of events to the steps she takes to kill herself. The use of the
noun ‘disinfectant’ implies how Eva had to clean herself of sins and the darkness
of the society lives in. The noun ‘insides’ could refer to the emotional damage
she has suffered due to the actions of the Birlings, evoking sympathy in the
audience towards the life of Eva Smith as a working class woman and the
treatment she has had to endure simply because of her class. She further
symbolises the working class through the line: ‘Her original name – her real
name – was Eva Smith.’ The use of the adjectives ‘real’ and ‘original’ exemplifies
how she is reflective of Eve, indicated through her name, the first woman on
Earth. He surname ‘Smith’ was a common name in the Edwardian Era,
highlighting how she, and the working class, lacked a voice and individuality due
to the categorisation and prejudiced of the upper classes. This lack of a voice is
further proven by the fact she has no dialogue, presenting her role as a true
working class women.
Priestley effectively presents the Birlings’ views of Eva, and their shallow,
arrogant language towards her. Birling refers to Eva’s case with the phrase:
‘wretched girls suicide’, the adjective ‘wretched’ showing his condescension to
Eva simply because she is of a lower class to him. Hr further comments she was
a: ‘lively, good-looking girl…a good worker.’ The adverb ‘lively’ demonstrates
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