This essay is a grade 9 answer to the question, ' How does Priestley present the experiences of women'. It provides a holistic approach to the question and level 5/ 6 analysis for wider methods and language techniques. It consists of a concise structure for a introduction.
How does Priestley present the experiences of women?
Priestley shows how women of all classes are disempowered in the Edwardian era in which he sets his
play. He does this in order to remind his post-war audience of the need for equality between the sexes
– although by this point women had the vote and more independence, as the second World War was
drawing to a close, there were those who wanted a return to the more traditional pre-war gender
roles of the early 20th century once men came home from War.
Priestley shows how working class women are objectified and sexually exploited by wealthy men. We
see this in the way Eva Smith is treated by Gerald Croft who has an affair with her because she is
‘young and fresh and charming’. This triplet of adjectives amount to a rather uncomfortable value
judgement, suggesting how he helps her purely because her youth and looks make her intriguing
enough for him to recognise her basic humanity in spite of her low status. The adjective ‘fresh’
suggests rather grotesquely how he sees her like food – something ripe to be consumed. Although it is
true that Gerald helps Eva, it is also undeniable that he is using her for sexual and emotional
gratification, to feel, as Sheila says like ‘a handsome fairy Prince’ who is nobly and heroically saving a
young girl in need. The fact that he knew he ‘didn’t feel the same way about her’ as she did about him,
evokes his awareness of the power imbalance he was exploiting, both as a man and as someone of a
higher class, to continue to use her for as long as he wanted until he was ready to return to his more
socially acceptable engagement to the wealthy Sheila Birling. Ultimately, Gerald’s treatment of Eva is
used to symbolise a particularly unsettling societal ill- where men with wealth and status string a
working class woman along, and not only are not aware of the harm they are causing but in fact
disturbingly believe that they are being helpful and morally good.
Priestley presents an even more shocking example of the sexual exploitation of working class women,
through the way Eva is treated by Eric. He rapes her when drunk, just using her ‘as if she was an
animal, a thing, not a person’. This suggests how he treated her like she didn’t have feelings or rights,
but rather like an object. The use of the asyndetic list emphasises this dehumanising attitude. The fact
that Eric rapes her, a character who has shown care for the working class earlier in the play when he
sympathises with their strike, shows how this idea of working class women as sexual objects has been
internalised by many men. The behaviour of Gerald and Eric reflects how many wealthy men used
working class prostitutes in the Edwardian era, and saw them as sexual objects, not human beings.
Priestley seems to want to bring such behaviour and attitudes to light, in order to encourage his post-
war audience to reflect on a taboo topic which is often hidden.
Priestley shows how middle-class women are also objectified and encouraged to focus on being pretty
and charming so they can secure an eligible husband. We see this in Sheila’s treatment of Eva when
she has her sacked from Milward’s when she believes Eva to be laughing at her when she wears an
unflattering dress. This suggests how insecure Sheila is about her appearance, perhaps because of the
pressure on her to look attractive in order to secure a wealthy husband like Gerald. Furthermore,
because she has been discouraged from learning about social issues, she thinks Eva Smith will be fine
because she is pretty. This suggests how she has no idea of how difficult it can be to be a working class
women, and judges Eva by the standards of her own class. Priestley is showing the damaging
consequences for the moral and intellectual development of middle class women if they only focus on
superficial issues and do not develop an understanding of society.
However, Priestley also shows how women can become empowered. We see this when Sheila grows in
morality and independence over the course of the play, before challenging her family’s immorality and
refusing to take back the engagement ring at the end, saying ‘it’s too soon, I must think’. This suggests
how Sheila now makes her own decisions, even if they are controversial as her parents are keen for
her to marry Gerald, whereas at the start of the play she looks for validation from others, asking if it
was the ring Gerald wanted, and asking her mother to admire the ring. The cyclical structure with
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