Sheila's Character Developement throughout the course of An Inspector Calls by J.B Priestley

"I behaved badly too. I know I did. I'm ashamed of it. But now you're

At this point Mrs Birling feels “distressed” and tries to pass of what she did “I didn’t know”. The inspector is quite rude to Mrs Birling “do you want me to tell you-in plain words” and has to really prompt her to talk about what she did “Aren’t you?” “As what then?” this shows that Mrs Birling is a very proud woman and does not feel that any of her actions were wrong.

see that this is true by looking at his speech and at the manner in

" The character Mrs. Birling automatically tries to pass the blame and responsibility of the suicide of Eva Smith onto someone else, willingly creating a scapegoat, "Go and look for the father of the child, it's his responsibility", she tells the Inspector. Although Sheila Birling's views are more socialist she represents the younger generation in society, she is more concerned with fashion, her appearance and family life, rather that the

This is shown when he tells Sheila that he wants to try and “settle it sensibly for you” which he does not offer to do for Gerald or Eric. This would suggest that he does not think that Sheila is capable enough for the truth of the real world instead of her upper class life. Sheila would have had to marry well in order to have security in her life, which is why the engagement between her and Gerald would have been instrumental in giving her a good future that she would not have been able to achieve on her own. Gerald describes the character Eva Smith / Daisy Renton using the words “young, fresh and charming” this off hand manner suggests that, in his eyes, she was just someone of little substance that he could amuse himself with until he decided he no longer wanted her. He gives her a house and looks after her which shows that he knew she was vulnerable and in need of help; but quite soon he abandoned her. This confirms to the audience that men often had the balance of power in their favour, whichever class of woman they were dealing

Birling enters “briskly and self-confidently”, with her social superiority to the Inspector being made very apparent following her social and easy tone. She then proceeds to deny responsibility for Eva’s death, which besides leading audience to form a negative bias towards her, also prompts Sheila to interrupt her and warn her about saying or doing “something that (she’ll) be sorry for afterwards.” This brings about Mrs. Birling’s protective side, with her first instinct being to send Sheila to bed, proclaiming her beliefs and statements to be “nothing but morbid curiosity.” This statement at first glance appears to be a mother sheltering her child from what may be a matter too gruesome to discuss, however, when Sheila denies the request, it is made obvious that the suggestion was made only to get Sheila out of the way, who at this point in the story, according to Mrs. Birling’s beliefs, is greatly impressioned by the Inspector. She conducts in the same manner later in the play, when talking about Eric’s drinking habits, using euphemism to explain his behaviour as “an excitable silly mood” and calling him “only a boy” and also when suggesting that “it would be much better if Sheila didn’t listen” to Gerald’s account of his affair with Eva. This leads the audience to believe that Mrs Birling either does not pay attention to her kids and their

can see that Sheila is in favour of getting all the facts out in the

Priestley reveals conflict at the heart of the Birling family by shaping up disagreement between them throughout the play. This is evident in ‘but these girls aren’t cheap labor. They’re people.’ Sheila portrays the younger generation’s impressionability. Although she views the workers as people, she refers to them as ‘these girls’ which is still harsh and cold but not as dehumanizing as Mr. Birling’s referral and treatment. The italicized letters of the noun ‘people’ emphasises how different Mr. Birling and Sheila view lower class society. however, Birling completely opposes his daughter in, ‘It has nothing whatever to do with this wretched girls suicide. Eh, Inspector?’ he is quite remorseless

You feel that the Inspector knows everything already, and that by telling him, you are not giving information, but confessing to what you have done- which he already knows. This makes Sheila and Eric in particular give a lot more information than is necessary to the questions that the Inspector asks. The Inspector sets up a scene, and then inserts snippets of information that two parties will both be able to individually interpret, and will reveal more than necessary. The Inspector makes the information he gives ambiguous in order to draw the largest reaction. In this way, he is able to play off their response and extract more information from them. In some aspects, Inspector's character seems to be ahead of his time. The manner in which he conducts his questioning seems to be more advanced than the way in which they are received. Also the way in which he conducts himself gives the impression of being ahead of the family that he is questioning. He also has the sensibility of someone who lived during the 1945/46, after the wars. The Inspector does not ‘fit' in with the way in which things where done during the time of this play. Priestley makes the Inspector seem ahead of his

For instances, Simmonds was speaking to Ross, a young lass who was on his first day in the workforce. Simmonds stated, “Money’s not important, boy.” To Ross’ reply “You’ve got to consider it.” Simmonds rudely remarks back, “You’ve got to consider your arsehole too.” Through this insolent behavior, the audience can obtain an understanding that Simmonds is a disrespectful and obnoxious man. Simmonds is also observed to have a sexual motive as seen throughout the play, specifically when two young women come in to the station to report a beating assault from one of the lady’s husband. From bruises exposed on her thighs, the sergeant insists that she needed to strip off parts of her clothing stating that photographs must be taken. The younger sister Fiona is quite hesitant and insecure with the actions demanded, however as the victim of abuse she follows the requests. Unlike Fiona, her elder sister Kate is similar to Simmonds. Not only does Kate also like to be in the position of power, which is displayed through the controlling of her sister, but she is also liberal with sexual lechery favours. During the scene of photographing Fiona’s bruises, Kate recognizes what Simmonds was trying to achieve with his sexual motives, and plays on with the action just for her own amusement in watching her sister be

However at the start we also notice another suspicious side to her where she says ‘’Yes, that’s what YOU say’’ to Gerald when she doubts his excuses about vanishing over summer. This

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

A number of other issues that were around at the time the play was set

Birling is also very dismissive of Sheila; we witness this when he says “nothing to do with you, Shelia. Run along”, the way in which he speaks to her is quite belittling and we are made to believe that although she is his daughter, women are second class to men, he truly believes that she is not worthy of being spoken to with regard to the inspectors visit. Birling is a very single minded man who does not take kindly to opposition to his beliefs. This is seen when he says “we’ve had experience – and we know” this shows he is no longer prepared to discuss the topic any further, when discussing war with his son Eric.

this is his role in the events of the play. This, and the fact that