SHEILA Flashcards
SHEILA name analysis
“Sheila” - Analysis of her name
The first evident reference to the fact that the truth has been obscured from the view of Sheila is in her name which is a near homophone for “Shield her” perhaps suggesting that the Birling family believe that she requires protection because women at the time were seen to be weaker than men and it was widely believed that they were unable to look after themselves so should would need to be shielded.
Gaelic origin = ‘blind one’
At first glance, this is exactly how Sheila seems - she’s naive, childish and dismissed from the mens’ s political conversations. However, on a deeper level, Priestley could be indicating that this myopia is a pretence which enables Sheila to conform to the gender and class expectations.
However, on a more implicit level, this could be suggesting that the Birling family want to protect her by preventing her from discovering the truth about the bourgeois consumerism that takes over the entirety of the Edwardian society. They do not want their upper class reputation to be diminished in any way by her actions so she needs to conform to their way of life and the only way to do that is to prevent her from learning about any other political ideologies.
“half playful, half serious”
Sheila is caught in two minds, “half playful” and “half serious” and it’s as though she doesn’t know what the best course of action is.
She’s ‘serious’ because she suspects that Gerald is being unfaithful and is ‘playful’ because she still sees it as her role to put up with it and acts flirtatiously in order to be a good prospect for marriage. This can be seen through the stage directions, where she raises doubt by being “half playful, half serious” when talking about Gerald’s absence. Here, her “half seriousness” challenges the social constructs of the time, as by suspecting her husband’s adultery, she proves that unlike her mother’s relationship, she wants it to be based on pure love rather than a business trade or a monopolising tactic. On the other hand, she is only “half serious” and is in fact “half playful”. This suggests that she is aware of his actions, however still permits him to do as he pleases.
Here, Priestley uses Sheila as a symbol to represent the sexism at the time and the oppression of women; they desperately wanted to speak out and demonstrate that they were “serious” but the gender walls built at the time refrained them and forced them to cover up their seriousness with a “playful” and passive attitude. Moreover, it brings up the obvious fact that although she may seem silly, she really is one of the more mature and sensible characters.
“But these girls aren’t cheap labour - they’re people”
Priestley uses Sheila to voice his own opinions about social construct and responsibility. She is sympathetic towards Eva Smith and girls of her kind, and realises that they’re simply people, practically similar to her in age and womanhood and claims that it is immoral for them to be dehumanised and possessed in the way that they are. Axiomatic statement would be a truism for a modern audience however was simply not considered in an Edwardian society.
Moreover, the dash represents the distance between the two ideas for Sheila.
To add to this, Sheila’s change of character from who she was at the beginning of the play, or even when she had seen Eva at Milwards, could mirror society’s change in attitude towards those less fortunate than themselves.
“Wonderful fairy prince”
While we see Sheila’s change of heart, and subtle liberation with the turn of events as she finds the confidence to mock Gerald with sarcasm, we also see her innocence and heartbreak.
‘fairies’ aren’t real and are fantasy much like the love between her and Gerald since their relationship was constructed on the basis of economic and social benefits.
This further amplifies the idea that Priestley is trying to show that Sheila is a product of her confining environment. Her true opinions and beliefs are suppressed and what she is supposed to believe is embedded in her by the middle-upper-class older generation who have nurtured her and surrounded her with false-ideals - but now she has begun to speak up about her disappointment.
Sheila says this about Gerald who argues that he helped Eva Smith so this line could also be alluding to Eva’s view on Gerald. Obtaining a man like him would have been like a fairy tale for Eva, which is why it could never happen.
This also shows that before their engagement party, Sheila truly loved Gerald and viewed him as ‘wonderful’ but now she uses this as an insult showing the change in their relationship and her taking a more cynical perspective on the situation.
“You mustn’t build up a wall between us and those girls”
The effect on the reader is this concept that the Inspector is more that just a usual police inspector, he has the ability to break down the barriers between social classes as well as people themselves, and Sheila is the one that is attempting to prevent her family from building ‘a kind of wall’ as she begins to realise that inevitably the lower class are abundant and so the lower class can break the wall down again and again - or at least the omniscient Inspector will.
Since Sheila represents the significantly more sympathetic younger generation, she wants to prove to her family, and the audience that it is wrong to detach ourselves from other people in society alluding to Priestley’s socialist beliefs that we are like ‘bees in a hive’ and that we are socially responsible for each other. Building a wall is no use, it is simply a way in which upper class capitalists like the Birlings’ attempt to remove responsibility from themselves and dismiss any feelings of remorse.
“The point is you don’t seem to have learnt anything yet”
Sheila is angry with her parents ignorance. They are so willing to dismiss what happened with the inspectors but she feels she has learnt a very valuable lesson from it. The two attitudes contrast causing conflict.
Sheila is affected by this conflicted in that her opinion of her father has significantly change - The inspector was right in saying that the younger generation is more impressionable.
In context, Sheila is calling her father out on his lack of empathy and his failure to learn anything from the Inspector’s visit. A young woman died, and each member of the household had a small part in her death. Mr. Birling continues to think selfishly of his own good…. the problem is swept under the rug. The Inspector’s departure ended the ordeal. For Mr. Birling this means it’s over. For Sheila, it means a new way of looking at life and the people around her.
“Fire and blood and anguish”
Priestley builds to a climax in a list by repeatedly using ‘and’ and his word choice is extremely powerful. ‘Fire’ and ‘blood’ and ‘anguish’ are all words with connotations of war and death.
Priestley is reminding the audience that if we carry on living selfishly there will be consequences of war (world war 1 broke out just after Priestley set this play) and the death of millions.
If people don’t learn their lesson, the same lesson will continue to be taught, no matter what, including through violence and suffering.
“No, not yet. It’s too soon. I must think.”
This implies that she will no longer conform to the sexist standards and how she has matured. She also doesn’t submit to Gerald’s patriarchal dominance, rejecting him - she might be taking on a more masculine role in her relationship.
‘yet’ - the statement isn’t definitive which means that Sheila may indeed have to reconsider her engagement to Gerald and marry him afterall because:
1) She finds it very difficult, due to the way in which girls in Edwardian society were raised, to risk losing a ‘successful’ and ‘fullfilling’ future aka. children, husband, family home.
2) Deep down she knows that the majority of men were exactly like Gerald thus she may have to fullfil her womanly duty to get married and with Gerald, since it won’t make a difference who she marries - she’s be powerless and not taken seriously either way, and since Gerald is a great suitor in terms of business and social class, she might go ahead and marry him.
