Sheila Birling Flashcards
Sheila is..
Strong-minded: “I don’t believe I will. So you be careful?
Sharp: “he’s giving us the rope — so that we’ll hang oursele Selfish: “you used the power you had I…! to punish the girl Moral: “But these girls aren’t cheap labour — they’re people
Sheila’s language makes her seem childish at first
1) The stage directions say she’s “very pleased with life and rather excited”.
2) She uses slang expressions like “squiffy” which remind the audience that Sheila belongs to a younger generation.
3) When she gets the ring she’s very excited, and looks to her mother for approval when she says “Look — Mummy — isn’t it a beauty?”
4) She jokes with Gerald, but the stage directions say that she’s
“hall serious, half playful”. Her childishness might be a way to hide “serious” concerns about her relationship with Gerald.
But shes more mature
Sheila behaves childishly at the beginning, but what she learns over the evening makes her feel she has to be herself and break away from her parents.
1) She has wise instincts — she sees what the Inspector is doing, and knew Gerald’s absence was suspicious.
2) She’s not naive — she knows men use prostitutes and knows about dirty old men like Alderman Meggarty.
3) As the Inspector says, she “isn’t living on the moon”. and as she says to her father, “I’m not a child.”
Sheila becomes a bit like the inspector herself
She reveals Eric’s drinking problem to her mother.
She contradicis and undermines her parents, like the Inspector does.
When she’s giving the ring back to Gerald she tells her father, “Don’t interfere”.
4). She shocks Eric by telling him that his mother refused to help Eva/Daisy. The Inspector move the discussion on quickly by suddenly startling the listeners, and Sheila does the same.
Sheila sees that the Inspector attacks the others’ confidence by asking questions. He does thi down the “wall” which they’ve put between themselves and the girl — Sheila wants to do the