eva smith Flashcards
evas role as a symbol
she has no idenity, rather she is a symbol for all of the lower class women in dire situations and a embulum for the abuse of the lower class, shes how priestly calls for a new welfare state and the extremity of her abuse drives sympathy for her at the hands of a hierachy, patriarchal, classtst 1912 society that would shock a post war audeince as labour was about to get a welfare state this wouldve spurred it on in shock of the harsh past.
shes only narrated thrugh the voice of upper class characters, showing how deeply the poor are opressed and voiceless
use of the name ‘eva’
eve is biblical, this could show the pirstine moral nature of evas character- subverting the stereotypes of dirty cheating lower class women
eve mothers humanity and in this way eva is a symbol of all of the living humans in poverty, by drawing biblical connotations the audience will remember the teachings of agape in the bible
shes somehwat of a supernatural figure as she never phsyically appears but dictates the actions
eve means to live in hebrew- so the sad irony pf her self inflicted death can show even lifes source has surrendered
she corrupts adam in the bible, but here eve is corrupted by men, uncanny
use of the name ‘smith’
smith is the most common name in britain normalising evas character and bringing light to the millions of evas and johns who shared her story
it comes from the working class labour job of blacksmith, so the title is generational and cannot be escaped
in diminsihing it all down to eva and john it blurrs the indiviual identities of the lower class, showing how theyve been forgotten by the upper
use of the name ‘renton’
the verb rent in a euphamism for prostitution- showing how evas desparation and abandonment has lead her to lower herself in societies eyes- especially in a christian one
she has to reinvent herslef in order to survive
significance of evas suicide
the graphic and chrsitian deemed sinful action of her suicide shows the serverity of the upper class mistreatement and awakes the audience to the severity of their actions
disinfectatnt- eva has been sexually abused by two men making her tarnsihed and impure, here she is clensed away of them- putting blame on the men. ‘burnt her insides out’ is shocking visual imagery, burnt draws connotations to fire which biblically links to hell, as suicide is a sin this is fitting, perhaps priestly is showing how evas life was worse than hell
the graphic imagery is needed in order to break through the impact to the birlings but also greater the audeince,
sheila and eva parralels
they are immediatly seen to us as similar girls in their early twenties and attractive, howeveer this is what makes the clashing factor of class so shockingly prominemt
eva dies ‘hating life’ whilst at the same age an infantilised sheila is seen as blissfully ‘excited’ and ‘pleased with life’- its clear they are dictated by their social status as women
they have parrallel men in their lives but very different relations, gerlad strives to marry sheila with no romantic bond whilst he misuses eva for lust
gerald and evas relationship (BAD)
it was customary in the hipocritical society for young chivalrious men to save and abuse ‘fallen women’ whod turned to prositutuion by using them for their own lust
gerlad describes her as ‘young and fresh’- drawing connotation sto food- driven by lust- but alsp ideas of fertility and virginity, men biblically want a virgin, hes able to disguise his need of a prostitute as saving an innocent girl against the ‘hard eyed’ women
gerald and evas relationship (GOOD)
eva seemed genuiley happy and recalls it in her diary as so, though this could just be a testiment to her despiration
it fed geralds ego as he saw himself as a chivsalrious knight esque figure
its fairly sad that the basic human needs of a house and some minimal affection seemed a novelty to eva, despite the fact she was being used she could not care
however this could also show the sadness of the shunning of inter class relations, as gerald leaves immediatly after being asked wether he loved her and is clearly overwhelmed by her death- showing human feelings for her, he struggles to pull himself together and fails to supress the femenine emotions of hysteria and upset
eva as a victim of capitalism
shes a metaphor for the consequences of a voicless lower class in a conservative britain, and the extremity of her treatment would show the audience the benefits of a pro labour gov. she is voicless and facless, her story narrated fully by the upper class and even the respected inspector
shes a vctim of the treatment of strikers, who wouldnt be able to peacefully stand their ground, the absurdity of mr bs refusal is seem whenn he offers to pay ‘thousnads’ to cover up the story, but yet could not put one pound towards her wages- capitalism breeds selfishness
eva as a victim of mrs b and upper class
eva is a victim of the hipocracy, preistly uses her as a vehicle to show how the upper class v=dictate the autonomy of the lowers and keep them down physically. mrs birling runs and charity not for care but for societal merit, she gives her lines ‘with dignity’ showing that nothing she does is drivwen out of compassion
the upper class exert their control by only giving aid to ‘deserving’ cases of morally prisitne poeple, a stereotype we see is so diffuct to fufil even a perfect girl like eva cannot live up to it
eva as a victim of gender inequality
gerald uses a semantic feild of finance and transactional language to show the lack of care he held for her isntead veiwing her as an object of lust, ‘this business’ ‘in return’- we see further he views women as finance through the motif of his ring with sheila
eric sees her as static, ‘pretty and a good sport’- shes refered to as pretty throughout showing the prioritisation of her looks over the depth of her character, good sport is an irresposbile euthamism for sleeping with her, but itd also a hunting term- she is but pray to ben tying in with geralds perception of her as ‘fresh’
eva as a victim of hipocracy
gerald contradicts himself as he echos sheilas story of eva showing that it is likely the same girl- he knows her story of the strikes and the shop and the descripteion- but he values his socail status over the justice despite his affections for her
mrs b diminsihes her over money in person and to them ‘as if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money’ however its clear she would and does- when mr b tries to bride the isnpector with ‘thousands’, eric steals from his fathers stash and they openly choose money over humanity in the arranged marriage of sheila and gerald
eva as a juxtapositon to the lower class stereotypes
the lower class were seen as deserving of their positon due to laziness, though its clear their whole autonomies are controlled and opressed by others, we see this juxaposed by evas surname- smith meaning blacksmith shows that this position is generational
eva is not lazy, rather a modern woman and a hard worker as well as morlaluy doimg no wrong- so her fall to sin is fully blamed upon the class system
she would not marry eric- showing a modern rejection of forced relationships but also a logical understanding of the societal hatred for inter class marriages
eva as socialist propaganda
eva is a ‘hard worker’ and a promising girl whos traits wouldve thrived under socialism but ended brutally in a capitalist society- in a labour 1945 gov she wouldve been rewarded for her efforts and her strikes protected by trade unions
