AIC - Sheila Flashcards
(Act 1, pg 1)
“Sheila is a pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited.”
these stage directions highlight Sheila’s youthfulness beauty and happiness which one suggests that she is not a particularly serious character.
(Act 1, pg 2)
“Yes, go on, Mummy. You must drink our health.”
Sheila refers to her mother as ‘mummy’ which makes her seem much younger than twenty and so infantilises her adding to the naïve upper-class women stereotype.
Sheila also seems somewhat assertive in this quotation - she is telling her mum what to do in a very soft way Making Shela seem like a spoiled brat at the start of the play.
(Act 1, pg 19)
“but these girls aren’t cheap labour - they’re people.”
shows that Sheila is standing up to her father and his capitalist views highlighting that she has better morals than her father.
The stress the word ‘people’ humanizes Mr Birling’s factory workers contrasting Sheila’s socialist views with Mr Birling’s capitalist views.
(act 2 pg 40)
“Don’t interfere, please, Father. Gerald knows what I mean, and you apparently don’t.”
Sheila interrupts her father showing her newfound of maturity and independence.
she calls Mr Birling ‘father’ and not daddy - Sheila’s language choices have become less infantile suggesting that she is maturing as the play progresses.
The use of a command ‘Don’t interfere, please, Father’ is telling her father what to do or not do - this inverts the power dynamic seen in families.
(act 3 pg 57)
“I behaved badly too. I know I did. I’m ashamed of it. But now you’re beginning to pretend that nothing much has happened -“
the frequent use of the first-person pronoun ‘I’ shows us that Sheila is aware of her poor behaviour as that she has accepted responsibility for the things that she has done.
Sheila is trying to adopt the assertive mature persona that she has developed across the play.
Sheila clearly displaying that she has learned from the inspector’s teachings – She is becoming Priestley’s new mouthpiece after the inspector leaves.
(act 3 pg 59)
Sheila tells her parents “(flaring up) I’m not being. If you want to know, it’s you two who are being childish”.
This implies that the younger generation breaking the limits their parents are putting on them.
The stage directions say that she is ‘flaring up’ when her mother calls her ‘childish’ showing a lack of control over her emotions which could be seen as a very immature and childish reaction – This highlights the importance of changing attitudes for the newer generation.
quotes
initial presentation
* (Act 1, pg 1) - “Sheila is a pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited.”
* (Act 1, pg 2) - “Yes, go on, Mummy. You must drink our health.”
standing up to father
* (Act 1, pg 19) - “but these girls aren’t cheap labour - they’re people.”
* (act 2 pg 40) -“Don’t interfere, please, Father. Gerald knows what I mean, and you apparently don’t.”
acceptance of responsibility / disappointment with parents
* (act 3 pg 57) - “I behaved badly too. I know I did. I’m ashamed of it. But now you’re beginning to pretend that nothing much has happened -“
* (act 3 pg 59) - Sheila tells her parents “(flaring up) I’m not being. If you want to know, it’s you two who are being childish”.
