Eva Smith/Daisy Renton Character notes
- Created by: emmak10
- Created on: 04-04-17 10:03
EVA SMITH/DAISY RENTON
"very pretty - soft brown hair and big dark eyes."
Priestley uses names to tell us more about Eva/Daisy: Smith was one of the most common surnames for the working class at the time so this highlights Eva as an everyman character and Renton suggests people ‘rented’ her- could link to her being a prostitute? This is not confirmed in the book, however.
Her parents are dead, “both her parents were dead, so that she’d no home to go back to” and she came from outside Brumley- Mr Birling says she is “country bred”.
-Hardworking and good at her job: Birling says she was “a good worker” and he was “ready to promote her”.
-Brave and stands up for what she believes in: Birling explains how the girls in the factory “wanted the rates raised” and so “went on strike”. She was one of the “ring leaders” and had Birling thinks she had “far too much” to say, which is why he fired her. This suggests she is strong willed, argumentative and determined.
-Pretty: Mr Birling says she was a “good looking lively girl”, the Inspector says “she’d been pretty- very pretty”, Sheila gets her fired because the dress Sheila liked “suited her” and not Sheila and explains that “she was a very pretty girl too… and that didn’t make it any better”, Gerald says she was "very pretty - soft brown hair and big dark eyes." and Eric refers to her as “pretty”.
-Mysterious: The Inspector reveals “she’d used more than one name” which foreshadows to the ending of the play. We never get to see Eva/Daisy Renton and this makes her ambiguous so by the end of the play, the characters and audience are questioning whether she is real or not. This adds dramatic tension to the play.
-Honourable: After she found out Eric was stealing money, “she wouldn’t take anymore”. Despite Mrs Birling refusing to believe that “a girl of that sort would ever refuse money”, Eva appears to be one of the most honourable characters in the play- which is very ironic as she is the one who actually needs the money. Her actions directly contradict Mr and Mrs Birling’s judgement of the working class.
Priestley has clearly presented Eva/Daisy as a good person which increases our sympathy towards her. Priestley also makes us feel sympathy towards her through the descriptions of her death, how the disinfectant “burnt out inside” and the negatives used when describing the way she was living after Birling fired her: “no work, no money coming in… no relatives to help her, few…
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