Sheila Flashcards
‘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 suffragettes 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. This is ironic as for Daisy as a working class woman, 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 are not just a collective workforce, but individual human beings, and deserve to be treated with respect.
L - adjectives
Cheap normally applied goods.
I/D - in Marxist interpretation, human beings are reduced to means of production in capitalist society.
‘I know I’m to blame’
Unlike her parents, she 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 younger generation would be watching his play post World War II and want to change society for the better.
‘you’re beginning…to pretend that nothing much happened…you don’t seem to have learnt anything’
Unlike her parents, Sheila and Eric change and learn that they have responsibility for others.
L - cyclical structure
parents not learning lesson links to Innspector’s fire and blood speech and the cyclical structure of play which disrupts its naturalism. They are doomed to repeat mistakes until they learn from them.
‘you and I aren’t the same people’
Sheila has changed as a person and can no longer marry Gerald even if it would be financially advantageous.
I - in feminist’s point of view, Sheila has become more independent and will only marry on her own terms, not her father’s.
‘you mustn’t try to build up a kind of wall between us and the girl’
L - metaphor
I - this could represent the class divide that Mrs. Birling tries to assert. But this could also represent Mrs. Birling denial to accept her responsibility and the truth.
‘she looked as if she could take care of herself. I couldn’t be sorry for her’
Sheila is jealous as a working class girl looks better in the dress than she would. She thinks that the girl’s smile is impertinent, and Eva should know her place, not mock her.
C - reflects the class prejudice. Eva does not appear to be vulnerable or needy therefore Sheila does not regret her actions.
R - audience perceives Sheila as spoilt and unsympathetic in abusing her power to get Eva sacked.
