Sheila In An Inspector Calls

Comparison of The Attitudes Of Arthur Birling And Sheila Birling From An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley

Before the inspector entered the birling household Sheila presented herself as the perfect fiancé to Gerald, despite knowing something happened during the summer she is still very reserved in what she says. With the inspector acting as a defence she begins to take on the role of the

"What about this girl?" Her role is to be the girl that needs to know

At the beginning of Act 2 we found out that Gerald had an affair with

Inspector calls is a play written by the author J.B priestly. Set in 1912, but performed in 1945, after 2 world wars, this play evolves around the suicide of a pregnant working-class girl whose name is Eva smith. An inspector by the name of Goole, questions the involvement of a family business with the name Birling.Co and its upper-class owners. Priestly, being a socialist, writes this play to prevent a social divide between classes. I believe Eva Smith is the most important character in AIC even though she never appears during the play. Priestly uses her as a metaphor for socialism, catalyst for responsibility and highlights the corruption of men.

“An Inspector Calls” written by J.B Priestley is about the unexpected suicide of a lower class working girl called Eva Smith. Every character in the play played a big part in her demise. Mr Birling fired her from his own business, Sheila got her fired from Milwards, Gerald had an affair with her, Eric raped her making her pregnant and Mrs Birling rejected her from her charity when she was desperate. At the end of the play Eva is shown to be desperate because she is in the Palace Bar, J.B Priestley reflects society in each and every character. In this play its shown that the lower class have to obey and be in awe of the upper class.

In the play, An Inspector Calls, the character of Eric is presented in a myriad of ways. When the audience is first introduced to Eric, he is proven to be juvenile and ignorant - shown by his nonchalance towards his sister’s marriage and Birling’s advice. As the play develops however, it become clear that this most likely was inherited from his parents, who don’t even acknowledge the existence of the working class as being human beings. In Birling’s factory, the working class are de-humanised as they enter and become lifeless droids - who have no need for the luxuries of money nor a roof over their heads, not to mention sanitary conditions – whose lives are simply parts in a factory which can be replaced effortlessly. Furthermore, Mrs

In act one; we know that Sheila is upset with Gerald due to the fact that he didn’t spend much time with her the summer before. However when Gerald presents to her the engagement ring and she puts it on, she admires and says that she is very excited and that she will never let it go out of her sight for an instant. This clearly epitomizes the fact that she believes that her engagement to Gerald will bring her and her family up in their social class. We can also tell that moving in the social ladder is very important to the berlins especially the parents as they continuously suck up to Gerald. Mr birling boasts about his business and wealth and even feels the need to mention to Gerald that he drinks the same wine as his parents. In additions he makes a speech about being very happy that Sheila is engaged as he knows what comes in for him. Similarly Mrs birling stops Sheila from expressing how she feels about Gerald’s disappearance, but she shuts her up by saying that women just have to get used to them type of things. It clearly shows that the billings are dependent on Sheila to bring them up in the social ladder and links to the fact that they have as capitalist way of thinking. Sheila refuses to be submissive to this and lead up to the expectations of the 20th century’s gender roles. Though this is the case, Sheila fails to meets these expectations by the end of the

“What was she like?” and “quite young?” However her attitude changes drastically when she knows about Eva’s death and her father’s contribution. Sheila didn’t show any respect for the working class but when she knows what her father did to Eva she doesn’t take long to change her character and to be concerned. We know this because she says "But these girls aren't cheap labour - they're people." This quote clearly shows the change in her attitude. She now becomes concerned about this girl who is in a lower class. Also Sheila becomes very affectionate towards Eva and is sorry for what happened to her. Her sorrow is show again when she says “if I could help her now, I would”. I think this quotations clearly show that Sheila is quite regretful of what she did and would like to undo what was done. This shows a great change from her selfishness at the beginning. Sheila already feels bad for both Eva’s death and her father’s contribution to it but she then feels even worse when she learns that she also took a part in the suicide of Eva. // Sheila in the play is presented to us by Priestly as being very perceptive in the way that when she realises that Gerald knew Daisy Renton (Eva Smith) from his reaction, the moment the Inspector mentioned her name. She genuinely wants to know about Gerald's part in the story. Her perceptiveness is shown as she is not angry with him when she hears about the affair she surprisingly respects his honesty. This is an

‘An Inspector’s Calls’ is a play that was written by J.B. Priestley in 1945 but set in Edwardian England 1912. The play is set in a fictional industrial city in the North Midlands called Brumley. The fictional industrial city of Brumley would have been typical of many towns, as in the town there would be factory owners, who would provide much needed jobs, this meant that the factory owners were able to run their businesses any way they wanted to. These factory owners were more important in 1912 than they are now, as many industrialists got rich in the 1800s. For example, men like Arthur Birling may have come from a modest background but his new wealth helped him climb up the social ladder, gaining both a lot of power and respect. This

When she find out about her father’s involvement, her attitude begins to change slightly, and she says “I think it was a mean thing to do. Perhaps that spoilt everything for her” which shows that she understands that her father is partly responsible for Eva Smith’s death, and she sees how he could have had something to do with it, whereas, he doesn’t see how he could be responsible, responding to Sheila’s comment with “Rubbish!”. This is the first example we see of the differences between the younger and older generations, as Sheila can see how Mr Birling could be at fault, whereas he is denying any responsibility, and insists it was all Eva Smith’s own fault. The fact that Sheila is portrayed as a naïve child at first, but then begins to understand how her father could’ve impacted Eva Smith’s life demonstrates Priestley’s idea that the younger generation are also more open to change, and to accepting what they have done

An Inspector Calls is a play written by JB Priestley. It was set straight after the Second World War where the men and society was completely different to the ones nowadays.The society would be capitalist and the rich would be rich and the poor poor. In this play he presents a wide range of themos.

Dramatic Tension in J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls An Inspector Calls was written in 1946, many decades after the end of World War One and just after World War Two. However the actual play is back in 1912; before World War one and just before the start of voyage of The Titanic. Furthermore at the time of spring 1912, most people did not fear of German resistance, as there seemed to be no possibility that Britain would intervene; and they had all justified that the Titanic was unsinkable.

J.B Priestley uses the character Sheila to portray his ideas to the audience. One of the author's / playwright’s techniques is the change within Sheila, from a young girl that desires material things to a conscientious and clear headed woman who makes a conscious decision to admit her failings. After the inspector started talking to Sheila, the audience quickly found out that she did actually have a part in the events that lead to the death of Eva Smith / Daisy Renton. Sheila had forced the manager at Millwards to fire Eva / Daisy because she was jealous of how well the dress fitted her. As soon as she admitted to making the manager fire Eva Smith / Daisy Renton she then defended herself by saying, “she was a pretty girl and looked like she

" From the words “wasn’t satisfied” we can infer that she was uninterested in Eva's attempt at lying, which was for her son's benefit, and when Eva reluctantly told the truth, Mrs. Birling was already put off the idea of helping her. This proves once again how selfish Mrs. Birling is. Unless it amuses her, she will not be of assistance which goes against her supposed role. She uses her power to have Eva’s case “removed”, mocking the image of the organisation. However, instead of thinking about the long-term effects, she focuses on the present time.