Eva Smith Character Analysis

Birling: It’s a free country, I told them.
Eric: It isn’t if you can’t go and work somewhere else.

I can’t help thinking about this girl—destroying herself so horribly—and I’ve been so happy tonight.

Miss Birling has just been made to understand what she did to this girl. She feels responsible. And if she leaves us now, and doesn’t hear any more, then she’ll feel she’s entirely to blame, she’ll be alone with her responsibility.

You’ve had children. You must have known what she was feeling. And you slammed the door in her face.

This girl killed herself—and died a horrible death. But each of you helped to kill her. Remember that. Never forget it. But then I don’t think you ever will.

There are millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, with what we think and do. We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other.

Birling: It’s a free country, I told them.
Eric: It isn’t if you can’t go and work somewhere else.

I can’t help thinking about this girl—destroying herself so horribly—and I’ve been so happy tonight.

Miss Birling has just been made to understand what she did to this girl. She feels responsible. And if she leaves us now, and doesn’t hear any more, then she’ll feel she’s entirely to blame, she’ll be alone with her responsibility.

You’ve had children. You must have known what she was feeling. And you slammed the door in her face.

This girl killed herself—and died a horrible death. But each of you helped to kill her. Remember that. Never forget it. But then I don’t think you ever will.

There are millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, with what we think and do. We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other.