The word ‘discharge’ is used three times in AIC in relation to Eva.

I think this is really interesting.

Some thoughts... /1

So, when I think of discharge I immediately think of it in a military context, as in being discharged from the army.

Given in each example Eva is the one being discharged by a Birling, this suggests to me some of the power dynamic between the two. /2

The Birlings are being framed as the ones in a position of power and authority and they are abusing that position in order to rid themselves of Eva.

The military allusion suggests something of the rigidity of this dynamic and the hierarchies within which it is manifest. /3

This dynamic is suggested too by the broader sense of the word discharge meaning to allow someone to leave.

This is really telling. Again Birlings are the ones in power and they permit Eva to leave. There’s a certain perversion here, pointing to the fact Eva never had a choice

But I also think of being discharged from hospital or a place of care. This is again really interesting. There’s a sense here the Birlings, by discharging Eva, have abdicated their responsibility and duty. They have reneged on their civic duty of care. /5

Then there’s the sense of discharging something bringing about a release. Again a real perversion at work here that the Birlings could possibly conceive of discharging Eva as a release for *them*. /6

But also it aligns perfectly to their worldview. She was, for them, a burden and of course that’s the problem Priestley seeks to address. They discharged her because she became a problem, a hindrance to remove /7

Now undoubtedly pushing this too far we also have discharge in the sense of discharging a weapon.

I like to think of Eva as just such a weapon, coming back to rupture and puncture the ideological bubble of the Birlings, a weapon turned on them by their own making.

END