Sheila Flashcards
How does Priestly present the character of Sheila Birling?
From one level the audience will initially react positively to her because she is young and attractive: ‘A pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited’.
However, looks can be deceiving as in Act One she is presented as quite boring and unlikable; a stereotypical ‘rich daddy’s girl’ who is soon going to be a ‘kept woman’.
She is very intelligent and intuitive; she knows Eric drinks a lot and knows Gerald is lying about his whereabouts last summer when he ‘never came near’ her.
Of all the characters, it is Sheila who develops more as the play progresses.
Eric’s observation that she has ‘a nasty temper sometimes’ leads her to demand the dismissal of Eva Smith from the clothes shop.
She gains some sympathy from the audience when she acknowledges her role in Eva Smith’s downfall and admits she was jealous of her looks.
Although she feels the Inspector may not be all he claims to be, she acknowledges her responsibility and does not try to get away with what she has done, unlike her parents.
Her reaction to the photograph is instinctive; she does not deny knowing Eva Smith and her instinctive reaction of running from the room betrays her guilt.
Her reaction is indicative of her horror and subsequent guilt at what she has done.
During the second act, her guilt and acknowledgement of the family’s collective responsibility is reflected in her support for the Inspector (‘He’ll get it out of you. He always does’).
Whats has she learnt by the end of the play?
She has acquired more self-knowledge and developed a conscience.
She has acknowledged her guilt and sense of social responsibility and compassion.
She has been most affected and changed by the evening’s events.
Sheila is much wiser. She can now judge her parents and Gerald from a new perspective, but the greatest change has been in herself: her social conscience has been awakened and she is aware of her responsibilities
What it she easily influenced by?
Sheila is sympathetic to the ideals of socialism: she thinks it was wrong of her father to sack Eva for trying to obtain higher wages; and she expresses horror that poor women like Eva are seen simply as “cheap labour” and not as people.
What qualities does she display?
Sheila also displays a free-thinking spiritedness that is characteristic of the suffragette (women’s rights) movement of that period.
She shows her compassion immediately she hears of her father’s treatment of Eva Smith: “But these girls aren’t cheap labour - they’re people.”
How is she portrayed as a brave character?
At the beginning of the play, unaware of what has really happened, she expresses displeasure at Gerald for having been so distant towards her the previous summer.
Then, when she finds out about his affair, she gives him back her engagement ring.
This is a very brave act: Sheila knows that Gerald’s family, the Crofts, are extremely wealthy and important, and that marrying Gerald will help her father and his business and boost the social standing of the Birling family.
Most women in that position at that time would have accepted Gerald’s behaviour for the sake of the marriage.
What does Priestley show through Sheila?
Through Sheila, Priestly suggests that when it comes to women’s rights, socialism is a better and fairer system.
How is she shown as perceptive?
She realises that Gerald knew Daisy Renton from his reaction, the moment the Inspector mentioned her name.
At the end of Act II, she is the first to realise how Eric was involved in Eva Smith’s death.
Significantly, she is the first to wonder who the Inspector really is, saying to him, ‘wonderingly’, “I don’t understand about you.”
She warns the others “he’s giving us the rope - so that we’ll hang ourselves” (Act II) and, near the end, is the first to consider whether the Inspector may not be real.
How is Sheila Birling shown as curious and mature?
She genuinely wants to know about Gerald’s part in the story. It’s interesting that she is not angry with him when she hears about the affair: she says that she respects his honesty.
This presents her as a very mature character, possibly more mature than her parents in some way, this may contrast with how she is perceived by her family as they believe her to be very childish
How is her anger shown?
She is angry with her parents in Act 3 for trying to “pretend that nothing much has happened.” Sheila says “It frightens me the way you talk:” she cannot understand how they cannot have learnt from the evening in the same way that she has.
She is seeing her parents in a new, unfavourable light.
