Analysis of Quotes - Eva

Question 1

‘A lively, good-looking girl’

Answer 1

Presents Eva as a hardworking, attractive young woman, reinforcing her innocence and how much she had to lose.

Question 2

‘She’d had a lot to say - far too much - so she had to go.’

Answer 2

Shows how she was punished for speaking up, highlighting class oppression and how easily the powerful dismiss the working class.

Question 3

‘She was young and pretty and warm-hearted’

Answer 3

Reveals Eva’s kindness and vulnerability, but also the emotional power imbalance in Gerald’s affair with her.

Question 4

‘She didn’t want to take any more money from him.’

Answer 4

Demonstrates Eva’s strong morals, even when desperate — contrasting her dignity with the upper class’s behaviour.

Question 5

‘Just used her for the end of a stupid, drunken evening as if she was an animal, a thing, not a person’

Answer 5

A powerful line condemning how each character dehumanised Eva.

Priestley uses it to critique society’s treatment of the poor.

Question 6

‘There are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us.’

Answer 6

Eva becomes a symbol of the wider working class.

Priestley’s key message is that we all share responsibility for how people like her are treated.