Gerald Croft

Gerald Croft

APPEARANCE/PERSONALITY
1. "attractive chap about thirty"
  1. He's considerably younger than Mr & Mrs Birling but older than Sheila & Eric.
2. "a young man about town"
3. Shows a cool head and ANALYTICAL MIND in picking apart events and pointing out that they could've been shown different photographs.
4. He thinks quickly and takes charge of the situation by ringing up the infirmary, ironically using concern for the welfare of an employee as an excuse to find if there'd been a suicide.
5. Presented in a negative light for trying to forget the "hoax" and ask Sheila to take the ring back.
6. Some what sympathetic towards Eva's death but decides to ignore the Inspectors teachings and doesn't learn his lesson.
7. At the beginning he seems to be well mannered and polite "absolutely first-class" and intent on fitting in to the family "I insist upon being one of the family now."
Like Mrs Birling, Gerald initially attempts to cover up his involvement with Eva. However, he gave himself away from his reaction to hearing Daisy's name.
1. He still feels he can keep the details quiet and away from the Inspector telling Sheila "we can keep it from him". When confronted with the fact that he will have to reveal all, he tries to get Sheila to leave. He appears to do this to spare her feelings rather than to keep the details from her. In the end, he confesses in front of Sheila and her mother.
EVA
1. He reveals that they met when he came to her assistance in the "Palace Bar" where she was being harassed by Meggarty. Unlike the others, he took an interest in her finding out details about her family life and where she worked.
  1. When he found she was "desperately hungry" he arranged food for her, in stark contrast to what Eric does later which is simply play her with drinks. He seemed to be asking for nothing in return at this point and was doing it out of kindness.
    1. He finds that she has no where to stay so gives her use of a friend's flat as well as money to provide for her. He claims that he "didn't install her there so I could make love to her" and that it was b/c he felt "sorry for her"
      1. We can believe this is sincere as he's genuinely upset at her death so obviously cared about her. But, we do wonder if he would've done this has she not been "very pretty". Eva became his mistress but he admits he didn't love her "I didn't feel about her the same as she did about me"
        She made him feel good about himself "you were the wonderful Fairy Prince" showing it boosted his ego to come to the aid of a damsel in distress. He admits this and that the affair wouldn't last; it wouldn't be right for an upper class man to be with a working class girl long-term & Eva understands this.
        We think he may have got bored with her but he at least attempts to look after her giving her enough money to "see her through to the end of the year"
        He continues to take an interest in what happened to her after, showing he could have genuine feelings for her.
RESPONSIBILITY
1. We may conclude that Gerald is the least responsible for her death.
2. The Inspector doesn't criticise him as he does the others in summing up saying that he "at least had some affection for her and made her happy for a time."
SOCIAL CLASS
1. He is upper class but seems perfectly happy to marry Sheila despite the fact she is a lower class to him, something his mother clearly doesn't approve of, proved by his parents absence from the gathering.
  1. Yet, he does appear to have some prejudice against the working class, siding with Birling when he talks about sacking Eva saying "you couldn't have done anything else" and commenting that the workers on strike would've been "broke" after the holidays as though they all had spent their pittance having a good time.
    1. He agrees with much of what Birling says, including his comments that the country was heading for a "time of increasing prosperity." It may be, however, he is simply trying to forge a good relationship with his future father in law
2. He takes his social status for granted making him seem arrogant.
Priestley cleverly links the play with the seven deadly sins. As the majority of his audience was Christian at the time and the seven deadly sins were part of Christian teachings, they would find it easy to relate to the seven deadly sins. Each character is linked with one of the sins, Gerald's is lust as he had an affair with Daisy. The strong correlation towards the seven deadly sins clearly helps the broadly Christian audience of the time to understand that each of the characters did things that could happen in everyday life and that these things are wrong.

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	Created by Alysia Bradley almost 9 years ago