Eva Smith's body.
Eva's body is a construct. It may or may not exist: the Eva/Daisy that encounters each character could be identical, or not.
We might say it's ironic that although Eva is the subject of mistreatment by the Birlings, the Inspector also appropriates her.
1/
Eva's body is a construct. It may or may not exist: the Eva/Daisy that encounters each character could be identical, or not.
We might say it's ironic that although Eva is the subject of mistreatment by the Birlings, the Inspector also appropriates her.
1/
Eva's body is a commodity. It has value because of its youth and physical attractiveness.
Mr B remembers her as "good looking". Her looks help her get the job in Milwards, and they enable her to get "help" from Gerald. They give her a price when she turns to sex work.
2/
Mr B remembers her as "good looking". Her looks help her get the job in Milwards, and they enable her to get "help" from Gerald. They give her a price when she turns to sex work.
2/
Eva's body is all she has of value. She has no other meaningful worth or possessions. Any time her personality shows through -- asking Mr B for a raise, smiling at Sheila, refusing Eric's money, navigating Mrs B's charity -- it ends in disaster.
3/
3/
Eva's body makes her vulnerable, to the predation of Gerald and Eric, the judgement of Sheila and Sybil, and to the paternalistic cruelty of Mr Birling.
4/
4/
Eva's Body is the site of abuse and violence. The treatment she receives from Sheila and Sybil is a response to her physical body as much as to her status. Gerald coerces her into sex by making her materially dependent. Eric rapes her.
5/
5/
Eva's trauma and mistreatment results in suicide, through drinking bleach to symbolically "clean out" the shameful and unwanted baby she carries.
6/
6/
Eva's body, although unseen, also becomes an object of disgust that intrudes into the privileged bubble of the Birlings.
Sheila: "I can't help thinking about this girl – destroying herself so horribly – and I’ve been so happy tonight. Oh, I wish you hadn't told me."
7/
Sheila: "I can't help thinking about this girl – destroying herself so horribly – and I’ve been so happy tonight. Oh, I wish you hadn't told me."
7/
Eva's body becomes a metaphor for others to read and learn from.
The ambiguity over whether Eva/Daisy is one consistent person is linked to the Inspector's "members of one body" speech.
8/
The ambiguity over whether Eva/Daisy is one consistent person is linked to the Inspector's "members of one body" speech.
8/
Eva's body is symbolic of the wider body of vulnerable people, and we are all "intertwined" with it. It represents the interconnected web of responsibility and obligation that Birling denies. Her identity is universal.
9/
9/
In the end, we can say Eva's body never really belongs to her. It is the property of others, the object of their prejudice and desire, and eventually it becomes a text constructed by the Inspector.
10/
10/
One gap that frustrates me in the play is the absence of Eva herself. This is a text that speaks FOR the poor without letting them speak. Eva's identity is that she has no identity. There's a lesson to be learnt from that choice, but an absence too.
11/11
11/11
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