I am going to consider the five different characters in ‘An Inspector Calls’ and their contributions to the death of Eva Smith before concluding who I feel is to blame the most.
Arthur Birling is first to be questioned by the Inspector, at first he does not recognise the girl’s name but after seeing her picture he realises that she was a young girl that once worked as a labourer in his company. He claims that he fired this girl for asking for higher wages. He displays a lack of empathy and understanding for the life of the lower class by adding to the end of his anecdote: ‘I refused- of course.’ This quote shows how he clearly thinks the notion of asking for a raise in pay is so preposterous that it is not worth talking about and this is confirmed by his shock when the inspector enquires why he refused this pay rise.
There is an obvious ignorance about Arthur Birling, he seems to think he has great knowledge, as shown in the way he talks with his family in his speech at the beginning, which is laced with self-importance. Yet he displays very little insight in to how difficult it was for a girl living on such little income. He expresses how he does not need the help of the girl and he says ‘they could go work somewhere else, it’s a free country’ but his son, Eric shows a more realistic view that it isn’t a free country ‘if you can’t go and work somewhere else’ which Birling immediately dismisses.
Birling’s decision to fire Eva Smith showcases how he was very quick not to consider how her life may be affected by this and is indeed a very selfish approach as he also decides to ignore the fact that it would be difficult for Eva Smith to find other work, as pointed out by his son. However Birling has a more thoughtless rather than malicious input into the demise of Eva Smith and so in my view, Birling, despite beginning the girl’s troubles, should not hold