Bycommitting suicide Essay Example for Free

Bycommitting suicide Essay Discuss the view that Eva Smith was an immoral troublemaker who, by  committing suicide, was responsible for her own fate, and the murder of her unborn child  This statement is neither right nor wrong, it has two different sides to it, and in this essay I shall try and discuss both sides of this opinion.  Eva Smith had an acceptable job at Mr Birlings factory, and she had the normal wages of a factory worker, but these wages were as low as the factory could make them, and they werent nearly enough to live off. With a few of her fellow workers Eva decided to ask for higher wages, instead of twenty-two and six they asked for twenty-five shillings a week, which is only two and a half shillings more, hardly a substantial increase. Their boss refused, so they decided to go on strike to try and get the rise that they wanted. However their pitiful savings didnt last long, and eventually they had to return to the factory, and ask for their jobs back. Most of the girls were taken on again, apart from the ring leaders, who were fired. Eva was one of these ring leaders, and she was fired along with the others. Mr Birling says that she was a good worker and that the foreman there told me he was ready to promote her into a leading operator head of a small group of girls. If Mr Birling himself said that she was a good worker then he didnt have to fire her, he could have kept her on and she would have worked even harder as a result of that. Also Mr Birling said that they should work for lower costs and higher prices, and why shouldnt Eva  strive for higher wages too? However no one forced Eva into taking part in the strike, and she should have been satisfied with the job that she had, she was better off than some people, and at least she had some wages. Also she would have known that it wasnt easy to find another job, and she shouldnt have risked so much on such a small pay rise, it was reckless and thoughtless of her to have gone on strike. After much hard searching and a stroke of luck, Eva managed to find another, very good job in Milwards, an expensive clothes shop. She was fired after only a couple of months, just when she felt she was settling down nicely (Inspector). She was fired through no fault of her own, but because of Shelia losing her temper, and because of Shelias jealousy of Eva. Shelia says that Eva was a very pretty girl with big dark eyes, and she looked as if she could take care of herself, so Shelia decided to use her power as a valued customer to fire her. There was nothing wrong with the way she was doing her work. They [the shop owners] admitted that. (Inspector). Shelia admits that she had been in a foul temper, and had taken it out on Eva by telling the manager of Milwards that if they didnt get rid of that girl, Id never go near the place again and Id persuade mother to close our account with them. All Eva had done is supposedly to smirk at the assistant whilst Shelia was trying on an ill-fitting dress. There is no proof that Eva had done this at all, and it is probably a figment of Shelias angry imagination at the time. Yet on the other hand, Eva may have smiled at the assistant because Shelia looked silly, to say doesnt she look awful (Sheila) and if she did, this was very presumptuous of her and she should have been more respectful of the customers. As a last resort to gain money, Eva (or Daisy, which she changed her name to) then went to the Palace Bar, and became a woman of the town. There was no other way for Eva to then make money apart from turning to prostitution. In the Palace Bar one night she was picked up by a friendly and handsome man, who offered her a set of rooms to stay in for a while, in fact he even insisted on Daisy moving into those rooms and he made her take some money to keep her going there (Gerald). Not surprisingly she said yes, for a woman in her position this must have been a lovely offer! She must have known what he would have wanted from her, but what he was  offering seemed so perfect, probably almost like heaven. He said he would supply food for her, and all she would have to do is offer herself to him in return. What woman in that situation would say no? She was broke, with no home, no way of earning an income, and it was stay with a nice man in a lovely set of rooms instead of prostitution. It wasnt remotely immoral of her to have taken Geralds money; he offered it freely to her, even insisted upon her taking it, and even though she did accept it, she also gave him what he wanted in return. Throughout the time she stayed with him, its not surprising that she gradually fell in love with him. He was so persuasive and charming, and she had never been cared for like that before, she  couldnt help but feel that way about him, he must have seemed like a saviour to her. Gerald says that she was intensely grateful and that he became at once the most important person in her life. Their relationship was completely dictated by Gerald; he was the one who started the relationship and if he wanted to see her, he would have to go to her, she could never come to him. Also Gerald only thought about his wants and needs during the relationship, he would never take into consideration that she  might miss him or she might wish he was with her more, it was only his thoughts that mattered. This is shown particularly by Gerald dropping Daisy as soon as he wanted to, when it was convenient for him. He didnt even think about whether it was convenient for her, he didnt ask her to leave, he just told her that she had to. Also Gerald knew that she had fallen in love with him, I didnt feel about her as she felt about me but he didnt let this bother him about leaving her, because he had never loved her, so it didnt matter that he was never going to see her. It was irrelevant to him that she loved him more than anyone else in the world; it didnt affect him. Then when he did ask her to leave she was very gallant about it (Gerald). This shows that she knew it wasnt going to last for ever; she wasnt stupid. However, on the other side of this point, it was stupid of Daisy to go to the Palace Bar in the first place. She knew what went on in the Bar, and she knew that the men didnt exactly treat the women there nicely. It was silly to put herself at risk to the rough-handling of men, and she should have expected what Gerald had done to her. Daisy should have tried for another job instead of going to the dangerous Palace Bar. She  could have at least applied for a factory job, like the one she had before, or she could have made an attempt to look for one. Also, she would have known that she would fall for this dashing young man who saved her from prostitution, and she should have refused his offer. She would have known that he wouldnt look after her forever, and she shouldnt have let herself get emotionally attached to him in the first place.