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Responsibility
Responsibility
Sheila π
Responsible
Sheila blames herself as "really responsible" for Eva's death and feels full of guilt for her jealous actions and is angry with her parents in Act 3 for trying to "pretend that nothing much has happened."
Irresponsible
Sheila has never considered the conditions of the working class and so she is more than happy to have Eva fired, as she does not realize how important some peoples jobs are to them
Mrs Birling π
Responsible
Mrs Birling takes responsibility when she admits she was "prejudiced" against Eva when she applied to her committee for help and saw it as her "duty" / responsibility to refuse to help her. But i dont think she is a generaly responsible person.
Irresponsible
Mrs Birling tries to deny things that she doesn't want to believe like Eric's drinking, Gerald's affair with Eva, and the fact that a working class girl would refuse money even if it was stolen. She also refuses to believe that she did anything wrong and doesn't accept responsibility for her part in Eva's death.
Mr Birling π°
Responsible
Birling is never shown to be responsible because he represents capitalism in one of its purests forms, so Priestley would not have wanted to give the audience the ability to decide if Mr birling was good or not if he had only done wrong
Irresponsible
Mr Birling is selfish because he wants to protect himself and his family. He believes that socialist ideas that stress the importance of the community are "nonsense" and that "a man has to make his own way." He cannot see that he did anything wrong when he fired Eva Smith - he was just looking after his business interests.
Gerald π©
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Irresponsible
Gerald initially pretends that he never knew Eva, protecting himself instead of being truthful
Eva Smith π₯
Responsible
Eva shows responsibility when she goes to Mrs Birling to ask for financial help, rather than take stolen money from Eric
Irresponsible
Eva is never shown to be doing anything irresponsible. This could be because Priestley wanted to show that for the lower class in a capitalist society, you can be very responsible but still get unlucky and end up in bad situations. This further proves the inspector is correct when he suggests Eva did not lead herself to suicide.
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Eric πΎ
Responsible
Gerald is ashamed of his parents' inability to admit their own responsibility. He tells them "I'm ashamed of you." When Mr Birling tries to threaten him in Act 3, Eric says "I don't give a damn now."
Irresponsible
Eric is irresponsible because he tries to hide his alcoholism and the fact that he is a farther from everyone. He is in denial but i believe this may be as a result of him feeling depressed and confused, possibly because he is the first to realize the reality of working class lives