Eva Smith/Daisy Renton

Eva Smith/Daisy Renton

1. How the Birlings see her.

   • They see her as villainous, a bad person.
     • "The four or five ringleaders, who'd started the trouble."
       • 'Ringleader' and 'trouble' as if she's genuienly done something wrong.
   • Mr Birling thinks "they could go and work somewhere else."
   • She's just seen as an inconvenience during their dinner.
     • Stage direction - 'rather impatiently'.
   • Defined by looks.
     • Mr Birling defines her by her looks and her ability to work - "good-looking girl - country-bred" and later "a good worker."
     • When Sheila finds out - "Pretty?"
   • Old Sheila sees her as smug and arrogant.
     • "As if to say: 'Doesn't she look awful'".
   • Mrs Birling degrades her, generalising "Girls of that class."
   • They try and build a class wall.
     • "My husband was Lord Mayor only two years ago."
   • Gerald sees her as nothing but meat.
     • "She looked young and fresh."
     • Gerald, to a certain extent, genuienly cared - "I was sorry for her, and didn't like the idea of her going back to the palace bar."
     • He gives her rooms, she gives him sex.
   • Hypocrisy - Birling wants Sheila to go because she is "a young unmarried girl."
     • Eva is a young, unmarried girl

2. How Eva really is.

   • All she wanted was enough money to live on.
     • Stands up for what is right.
     • "So they could average about twenty-five shillings a week."
   • Being exploited by Mr Birling - there is nowhere else to work, so he can pay her as little as he likes.
     • "We were paying the usual rates."
       • NOT VERY MUCH.
   • "There was nothing wrong with the way she was doing her work."
     • She genuinely was a good worker!
   • "No relatives to help her, few friends, lonely, half-starved, she was feeling desperate."
     • Just desperate - that is all she is, nothing more.
   • "A nice little promising life."
     • Eva had promise!
   • "I caught sight of this girl smiling."
     • She was probably smiling at something completely unrelated!
   • "A pretty, lively sort of girl, who never did anybody no harm. But she died in misery and agony - hating life."
     • Contrast against two parts of the quote.
     • Eva is literally perfect, she hasn't done anything wrong.
   • "She was - very gallant - about it."
     • No screaming fit, she was a good person.
     • Cared enough about Gerald to go away to the seaside "for about two months."
       • Partly so she doesn't have to see him, but also so he didn't have to see her.

3. Eva and Sheila

   • In Act 1, Eva is the foil to Sheila.
     • She is "lively" and "a good worker."
       • Sheila is just fake! (in act 1 before she becomes wonderful)
   • Sheila eventually defends her - "I think it was a mean thing to do. Perhaps that spoilt everything for her."