Sheila CRILD Poster 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 suffragette 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 it her vulnerability just appeals to his big ego. Irony = for Daisy as a WC woman, life was a nightmare not a fairytale.
‘she looked as if she could take care of herself. I couldn’t be sorry for her’
C = reflects class prejudice. Eva does not appear to be vulnerable or needy therefore S. does not regret her actions. R = audience perceives Sheila as spoilt and unsympathetic in abusing her power to get Eva sacked.
‘I know I’m to blame’
Unlike her parents, Sheila 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 WW2 and want to change society for the better – NHS 1948 etc.
‘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 = adj ‘cheap’ normally applied to goods; I /D = Marxist interpretation – human beings reduced to means of production in capitalist society.
‘you mustn’t try to build up a kind of wall between us and the girl’
L = metaphor. I = could represent the class divide that Mrs B tries to assert; could also represent Mrs B’s denial. Mrs B need to accept responsibility for others and accept the truth.
‘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 = feminist interpretation – Sheila has become more independent and will only marry on her own terms, not her father’s.
‘you’re beginning….to pretend that nothing much happened… you don’t seem to have learnt anything’
Unlike her parents, S and E change and learn that they have responsibility for others. L = parents not learning lesson links to Inspector’s fire & blood speech and cyclical structure of play which disrupts its naturalism – doomed to repeat mistakes until they learn from them.
