Sheila Birling Flashcards
I can’t help thinking about this girl - destroying herself so horribly - and I’ve been so happy tonight
We see Shelia being more sympathetic about Eva Smith’s fate than her father as she feels guilty about being so happy. However she shows a level of ignorance by referring to Eva as ‘this girl’ as well as focusing more on her own shame than Eva’s suffering. She implies that Eva’s fate is somewhat her fault which we later find out it is
But these girls aren’t cheap labour - they’re people
She shows an understanding and empathy towards the working classes and it foreshadows her dramatic yet rapid change in attitude. The image of cheap labour dehumanises the workers making them merely machines for industrialists like Mr Birling to make money off of. The determiner ‘these’ shows she feels separate from these women emphasising the class divide
I was in a furious temper
It highlights Sheila’s pretentiousness
If she’s been some miserable plain little creature, I don’t suppose I’d have done it
She wants to rid herself of the guilt so she blames Eva for her attractiveness showing her to be immature and jealous. The noun ‘creature’ has animalistic connotations portraying Eva as beneath Sheila. The adjectives ‘miserable plain little’ are all qualities that are stereotypically working class so Eva was defying those stereotypes which annoyed Sheila
