Sheila Flashcards
Ts1: Sheila is constructed to reflect class prejudice in the Edwardian era.
‘She looked as if she could take care of herself. I couldn’t be sorry for her’
‘you mustn’t try to build up a kind of wall between us and the girl’
Ts2: as a young women, she challenges the assumption that women are of secondary importance to men.
‘I don’t believe I will’
‘Fairy prince’
‘You and I aren’t the same people’
Ts3: Sheila changes as a character and learns to accept social responsibility for others.
‘You’re beginning…to pretend that nothing much happened… you don’t seem to have learnt anything’
‘I know I’m to blame’
‘These girls aren’t cheap labour… they’re people’
Topic sentences
Ts1: reflect class prejudice Ts2:challenges assumption that women should be of secondary importance to men Ts3: learns to accept social responsibility for others.
‘I don’t believe I will’
C= Sheila refuses to accept taking second place to her husband’s business as her mother has done; reflects differences in generations and rise in suffragette movement and campaign for equality for women.
‘Fairy prince’
L= metaphor. Sheila is using sarcasm to ‘puncture’ Gerald’s representation of himself as Daisy’s noble saviour, realising her vulnerability just appeals to his big ego. Irony= for Daisy as a WC women, life was a nightmare not a fairytale.
‘These girls aren’t cheap labour… they’re people’
C= Sheila begins to realise that her father’s workers aren’t just a collective workforce, but individual human beings and deserve to be treated with respect. L= adj ‘cheap’ normally applied to goods. I/D= reflects Marxist interpretation- human beings reduced to means of production in capitalist society. Even though they are generationally similar, S+G have different views on the treatment of workers.
‘I know I’m to blame’
Unlike her parents, Sheila emerges as more mature and she changes as a character. She accepts that she is partly to blame for Eva’s death. C= reflects Priestley’s belief that hope for social change lies with the younger generation.
R= many of the younger generation would be watching his play post WW2 and want to change society for the better- NHS 1948 etc.
‘You’re beginning…to pretend that nothing much happened… you don’t seem to have learnt anything’
Unlike G, S changes and realised they have responsibility for others. Reflects Priestley’s view that the younger generation needs to change to help the world morally in the future. S is P’s construct which embodies and believes in socialist views which is P’s aim for the younger generation, realising their moral responsibilities, just as S did, to change the world for the better and turn to socialist views. L= links to cyclical structure of the play that they are doomed to repeat mistakes until they learn from them.
‘You and I aren’t the same people’
S has changed over the course of the evening and can no longer be with Gerald, even if it would be financially advantageous, as she has learned truth about him.I= feminist interpretation- Sheila has gained independence and maturity- Suffragette movement (C). She will only marry on her own terms now, not her fathers.
‘You mustn’t try to build up a kind of wall between us and the girl’
L= metaphor. I= could represent the class divide that Mrs B tries to assert; could also represent Mrs B’s denial to accept social responsibility.
‘She looked as if she could take care of herself. I couldn’t be sorry for her’
C= reflects class prejudice. Eva does not appear to be vulnerable or needy therefore S. does not regret her actions. R= audience perceives Sheila as spoilt and unsympathetic in abusing her power to get Eva sacked.
Ts4: contrasts ideologies of workers to her parents
‘These girls aren’t cheap labour, they’re people’
‘You refused her… even the pitiable little bit of organised charity you had in your power to grant her’
