In the play “An Inspector Calls”, the author JB. Priestly focuses a lot on the topic of responsibility in the Birling family which is really important and makes up most of the play. The story is all about the death of Eva Smith, and it progresses to show everyone’s involvement in her death. The question “Who bears the most responsibility for the death of Eva Smith?” is to be answered based on the characters’ answers, actions and how much impact they had on Eva. In my opinion, all of the Birling’s family members had contributed to her death and they were the main reason why Eva ended her life. Obviously, some members had a bigger impact and got more involved. Mr. Birling was the first member of the family to impact Eva’s life. He cared more about money and profits than his workers, so when they asked for a better wage, He denied their request and fired all of them which includes Eva, who worked at his factory. Even though Mr. Birling had a big impact and left Eva unemployed for the time, I don’t think he holds much responsibility, since before he fired the workers, he spoke to Eva privately and was willing to give her a raise, but she refused saying that she won’t …show more content…
Gerald then had to abandon her since he had to go back to his city and to his fiancé Sheila, but before he went he gave her money to support herself at that time and find a job. I think Gerald didn’t affect Eva that much since his actions didn’t necessarily ruin her life or her income source, but rather emotionally hurt her. In fact, he also helped her at the end by giving her money before leaving her. The quote from the book “We’re respectable citizens and not criminals” (Act 3) said by Gerald, implies that he does not think he had any responsibility for what happened to Eva. In my opinion, Gerald played the smallest role in Eva’s