Exploitation

• Exploitation


  When someone treats something in an unfair and underhand (dishonest) way in order to benefit from it. This could be a person, system, or position. It often involves taking advantage of weakness or trust.
• The theme of exploitation runs through the play, as Eva Smith is exploited by individuals and the system of Capitalism as a whole
• Eva


  • She is vulnerable because she is a working class woman. Even though as an individual she is strong and assertive, her position in society means she has no power and faces discrimination from others.
• Priestley presents the ways in which employers - and the Capitalist economy as a whole - prey on the vulnerability of working class women to make huge profits


  They are able to exploit their desperation by making them work for a low wage
• Priestley implies the systems of class and power in British society are exploited by the upper classes
• The Birlings take advantage of their trusted positions in the community to get their own way and escape punishment
• At the time the play is set the upper classes controlled everything in society, including money and employment. The poor lived on the landowners' estates and had to pay rent, or were employed by factory workers and had to follow their rules. This means the lower classes were dependent on the upper classes for everything, and Priestley argues that the upper classes exploited this dependency to control others.
• Forms of exploitation used by the Birlings against Eva


  • Mr Birling exploited her for cheap labour
  • Sheila exploited her status as the daughter of a well-known man to get Eva fired without a sufficient cause
  • Gerald and Eric exploited her for sex
  • Mrs Birling exploited her influence at the charity to get her case denied
• Through Eva's story, Priestley outlines the different forms of exploitation that support and benefit the upper classes of society. He shows how the class system and Capitalism rely on the exploitation of the weak, vulnerable, or powerless.
• Allegory


  A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one
• Mr Birling's business practices are used by Priestley as an allegory for Capitalism's exploitation of the working class
• Priestley details the ways in which profit is prioritised over personal wellbeing, and how the poor are dehumanised and reduced to cheap labour
• Mr Birling's business motto

  To work "together" with Crofts Limited "for lower costs and higher prices"
• Mr Birling's goal is unconcerned with improving working conditions or workers' rights. Instead, he wants to make even more profit, even though it is clear his business is already successful
• Mr Birling's workers are reduced to a simple "cost", a figure he wants to lower. His workers never receive the benefit of these "higher prices" as Mr Birling keeps the profit for himself
• Mr Birling outlines how he has "several hundred young women" at his factory who "keep changing" which shows how he doesn't see his workers as individuals
• The phrase "keep changing" alludes to the vast number of unemployed people available, as Priestley suggests the company consistently hires new staff while firing old staff to keep their costs low
• As they are all "women", Priestley again indicates that working class women were the most targeted by Capitalist endeavours, because companies could give them a lower wage than if they were men
• The Inspector explains how beneficial extreme poverty and despair are for Capitalist companies. He tells Sheila: "There are a lot of young girls living that sort of existence in every city and big town in this country, Miss Birling. If there weren't, the factories and warehouses wouldn't know where to look for cheap labour"
• Priestley demonstrates how the comfort and luxury of one person's life, or the success of one business, is directly dependent on the distress and hardship of others
• Priestley accuses "the factories and warehouses" of perpetuating the cycle of poverty to ensure they always had a cheap workforce available
• Priestley suggests the issue of poverty could be solved, but isn't, because others benefit from it
• Gerald's exploitation of Eva

  He rescues Eva, gives her money and a place to stay and brings her love and happiness. However, he makes her his mistress and abandons her when he sees fit, so his actions appear to have an ulterior motive. He takes advantage of her vulnerability for his own entertainment.
• Gerald's descriptions of when he first met Eva show his worth was based purely on how attractive she was
• Gerald implies that if Eva rejects him, she will be in trouble again, forcing her to be reliant on him. He takes advantage of her distress, her need for "help", and how she was "out of place"
• Gerald confesses he "didn't feel about her as she felt about [him]", and he enjoyed being the "wonderful Fairy Prince", suggesting he exploited Eva's need for him in order to sleep with her
• Eric admits: "I wasn't in love with her or anything - but I liked her - she was pretty and a good sport" which shows how he used her to satisfy his own sexual desires
• The Inspector summarises how Eric exploited Eva to satisfy his own urges, saying he "just used her for the end of a stupid drunken evening, as if she was an animal, a thing, not a person"
• Priestley likens the upper classes' exploitation of the working classes to the treatment of "animals", showing how they were treated inhumanely and barbarically