Exploitation

• Exploitation is when someone treats something in an unfair of underhand wau in order to benefit from it
• Eva Smith is exploited by individuals and the system of Capitalism as a whole

  Eva is vulnerable because she is working class

  despite her strong and assertive characteristics her position in society means she is powerless
• Priestley implies the system f class and power in British society are exploited by the upper class

  Birlings take advantage of their trusted positions in the community to get their own way
• Upper class controlled everything in society at the time

  • money
  • employment
  • the poor lived on landowners estates and had to pay rent
  • employees had t abide by the rules of the factory
  • lower class where heavily dependent on upper classes for everything
  • priestly argued upper class exploited this for control
• Mr Birling exploited her for cheap labour
• Shiela exploited her status as the daughter of a well-known man to get her fired
• Gerald and Eric exploited her for sex
• Mrs Birling exploited her influence at the charity to get her case denied
• Capitalism relied on the exploitation of the weak, vulnerable or powerless
• Mr Birling uses his position as an employer to boss others around and threaten unemployment if they did not adhere

  He takes advantage of poverty and high unemployment rates to find worker who will work for low wage

  • Target the weak and vulnerable
  • unprepared when this backfired
• "lower costs and higher prices"

  • his goal is unconcerned with working conditions or right of workers
  • he wants more profit despite already successful
  • his workers are reduced to 'costs'
  • do not receive benefit from 'higher prices'
  • dehumanises workers
• comfort of one person is directly dependent on the distress and hardships of the other

  prosperity enjoyed by the upper class in 1912 was only possible because others where struggling
• Gerald and Eric represent the way exploitation and mistreatment of women is normalised and encouraged in society

  Behaviour is a symptom of a wider culture of aggressive masculinity and pride
• Gerald's morality is questionable

  • he resuces Eva
  • Gives her money
  • A place to stay
  • Brings her love and happiness
  • suggesting he is a good Samaritan and selfless
  • however he makes her his mistress and abandons her when he sees fit
  • ulterior motive
  • takes advantage of her vulnerability for his own entertainment
• Gerald's descriptions of Eva show her worth was based on her attractiveness

  "looked quite different

  "was very pretty"

  "looked young and fresh and charming and altogether out of place down there"

  • sensual, romantic descriptions imply his sexual attraction to her was always a factor in his decisions to befriend her
  • focus on appearance
  • repetition of 'looked'
• Imbalance of Gerald and Eva's relationship

  showed working classes dependence on upper class

  • "intensely grateful"
  • "became at once the most important person in her life"
  • she felt she owed Gerald
  • instead of him just being selfless
  • She was so lonely and desperate that she was grateful despite his bad treatment
  • sexual exploitation
  • 'most' superlative
  • 'intensely' adverb
• Love and dependency was not equal

  "didn't feel about her as she felt about [him]"

  • exploited Eva's needs in order to sleep with him
  • took advantage of her kindness
  • "she didn't blame [him] at all" as she "hadn't expected it to last"
  • aware of his lack of investment
• Eric's relationship with Eva was also one sided

  "I wasn't in love with her or anything - but i liked her - she was pretty and a good sport"

  • 'pretty and a good sport'
  • objectifies her
  • prey rather than a willing participant
  • 'good sport'
  • she only tolerated him
• "Insist[ing]" and "threaten[ing]"

  • clear that Eric forced her into positions she didn't want to be in
  • consequence was more permanent for Eva
  • shows the exploitation of working class women caused long-lasting trauma and damage for them
• Inspector summarises Eric's exploitation of Eva to satisfy his own urges

  "just used her for the end of a stupid drunken evening, as if she was an animal, a thing, not a person"

  • didn't consider her own feelings
  • used her as a 'thing' without committing to marriage
  • dehumanised her because she was of lower class