Eva Smith (Daisy Renton)

• Eva Smith


  • Never appears on-stage
  • Has no dialogue in the play
  • Holds a central role in 'An Inspector Calls'
• Priestley uses Eva's lack of voice and presence on stage to symbolise the lack of power held by women and the working class in Edwardian England
• Eva


  Intertextual Biblical reference to Eve, the first woman, and the person from whom we are all descended
• Smith


  Suggests Eva Smith symbolises all women
• Inspector Goole: 'There are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths'
• Priestley does not want his audience to feel sorry for one working class woman, but to consider Eva Smith as representing all working-class women
• Daisy Renton


  Symbolic of Eva Smith: a common flower, cheap and pretty, representing how she was judged largely on her physical appearance
• Renton


  Could symbolise that Eva's spirit has been broken, as she has left respectable society and is now trying to exist in the underworld of crime
• Priestley uses descriptions of Eva's appearance by others to show how women were objectified in Edwardian England
• Descriptions of Eva's appearance

  • A lively good-looking girl
  • A very pretty girl too—with big dark eyes
  • Very pretty—soft brown hair and big dark eyes
  • She had been pretty—very pretty
• These descriptions all focus on Eva's physical appearance and beauty, highlighting the way in which women were objectified and regarded as sources of pleasure for men, rather than as equals
• Eva lied to the charity committee, saying she was married, because admitting to having had sex outside of marriage would have made her unlikely to receive help


  However, the same high moral standards were not expected of men
• Eric slept with Eva, impregnated her and stole money from his father's business, but it is the stolen money that features most heavily in the parental reprimand from Mr Birling
• Inspector Goole: 'Eric treated Eva 'as if she was an animal, a thing, not a person''
• This quotation summarises the way in which women were objectified by men as sources of pleasure, not equals
• Eva is a hard worker, and has strong moral values which see her refuse to accept stolen money, yet she is the one who feels forced to commit suicide whereas the men of the play seem to have suffered no ill consequences for their actions
• These double standards can be seen as relating to gender or class, and the message is clear: women/the working class cannot get away with the poor behaviour and actions that men/ the middle and upper class can
• Inspector Goole: 'One Eva Smith has gone—but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us'
• Priestley's use of repetition and the rule of three with the word 'millions' develops rhythm and momentum, building up to his point about the quantity of vulnerable poor still living
• Priestley positions the inspector to be the champion of all the poor in society, regardless of gender