Sheila Priestley's Play Sheila

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

Mayor two years ago – and I’m still on the Bench – so I know the

Finally as a result, Sheila uses people just to get what she wants. Through the story, she uses the narrator just to go see a boy that she likes and leads the boy to think it’s a date. This is shown when Sheila tells the boy she will be going home with another boy. “She would be going home in Eric Caswell’s Corvette” (Wetherell 297). She used the boy to get to the concert and hang out with Eric Caswell.

Throughout the short story “Sheila Mant”, the boy must decide between the bass and Sheila. ……… First of all, as the main character tries to secretly reel in the big bass, he doesn’t listen to a word Sheila is saying. The author shows us this in the book “ While all this was going on, Sheila had begun talking and it was a few minutes before I was able to catch up with her train of thought” (Wetherell 3). This

In the play An Inspector Calls, Priestley uses different characters to portray women. At the start of the play, Sheila is seen as fragile, materialistic and inferior to the men in her life, which is typically the view of higher-class women. This is followed by the perspective of lower class women having excellent morals yet being disposable, which is seen through Eva Smith’s character. This contradicts to Mrs Birling’s control on others and her strong social class views.

Gerald Croft plays a young, caring, polite man in the play, and he is engaged to Sheila Birling. He also contributed to death of Eva smith in a different way. Gerald’s personality was helpful to a certain extent. He knew Eva Smith as being named Daisy Renton. He saved her and let her

This shows symbolism, Sheila is representing the young youth and women in general, she is taking a stand for all the lower class women who aren’t treated very well by the society, and this also comes back to JB Priestley’s message from this book that we’re all responsible for each other, and we all have to look out for each other.

Thirdly is Gerald Croft. Gerald is Sheila’s fiancé. He is of a slightly higher class than the Birlings and this could be one of the reasons for their engagement. However it seems that the main reason for their engagement is to do with the combining of Mr Birling’s and Gerald's father's businesses. He seems to be a generally decent man but it appears that he his not all he seems to be. Until that night it seemed that they were very much in love. Sheila mentions that last year during the summer, Gerald wouldn’t go near her, saying that he was: “... awfully busy at the works all that time.” This was partially true, but it then is revealed that he was also having an affair with Eva

Priestly presents Mrs Birling as a cold and heartless Character. As her character they play goes on she never takes responsibility for what she done and tries to pass the blame to everyone else.

Sheila’s language changes throughout the play. She starts off very simplistic and quite excitable, “Careful! I’ll never let it go out of my way”. But the changes and becomes more stern and quite sincere as a reflection of the Inspectors speech. At the beginning of the play she calls her mother, “mummy” but by the end of the play she calls her “mother” showing her maturity and how she has changed her language.

How are Priestley’s Views on Inequalities in society shown in the Presentation on Sheila before, during and after the Inspectors Visit?

The inspector shows another side to Sheila’s character, her gentle side. Perhaps Sheila can be separated from the rest of the family because; she is the only one, apart from Eric who is able to accept responsibility for her actions. Also, when Gerald’s affair is revealed, Sheila is expected by her parents to forgive his behaviour and carry on as though nothing had happened. Sheila disagrees and returns her engagement ring. This shows how much Sheila changed from her old self.

In contrast to Mr and Mrs Birling, Priestley sets up the younger generation (Eric and Sheila) as reformed characters to contrast with the older generation, who are too set in their ways,"[sarcastically] so nothing really happened. So there's nothing to be sorry for, nothing to learn. We can all go on behaving just as we did". Again we must remember that Eric and Sheila are just caricatures of the younger generation, who have the capacity to learn and to carry Priestley's message.

In this play we can notoriously see that Gerald is a selfish person, who wants to marry Sheila not only because of business, also because she is pretty. He does not care about other people; a clear example is that he cheated on Sheila with Eva Smith. Gerald is not committed to his relationship, this is shown when he unsuccessfully tries to hide that he had known Eva. In the end, his efforts make the revelation ruder. He does not care about Sheila's feelings and he has not gained a new sense of social responsibility, understanding that he, too, was part of the events that led Eva’s suicide. This is why Sheila is unsure whether to take back the engagement ring or not. Croft’s family has a very high status in society, and since being in business with the Birlings would not necessarily be good for their company, Gerald is engaged to Sheila because he wants to. His parents are not happy as they think she is not good enough for Gerald and because

for putting on airs and that if we've any sense we wont try", and "And