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 …show more content…
She replies with “these girls aren’t cheap labour – they’re people”. Here the author / playwright shows that the younger members of the Birling family like Sheila and Eric have a more sympathetic side for people that work under them and they actually see them as people as well as just workers. Now the audience can see that Sheila seems to have matured a bit and is actually starting to consider what her actions have done to the lower class. The phrase “they’re people” shows the audience that Sheila has finally come to the realisation that no matter what class the person is technically classified under they all have feelings, need money and food to survive. In the 1900s there was a large class divide between people that were rich and people that were poor. The poor were generally the lower class who had to work and save each and every penny in order to survive. This was because there was no Welfare State which would’ve helped the poor a lot and kept them fed and clothed. This means that firing someone, especially a woman, and then if they could not find another job they would’ve possibly had to turn to begging or prostitution. Which is what Eva Smith / Daisy Renton invariably
J B Priestley uses a variety of theatrical and literary devices such as dramatic irony in this play to present the characters to the audiences in a way that shows they are often deluded or false. The play was set in 1912 but was not written and performed until after World War Two. Priestley’s intention was to make the point that everyone has social responsibilities and that they should fulfil them too. J.B Priestley presents the Inspector as an unusual figure who is a catalyst on stage, eliciting changes in the other characters.
"I behaved badly too. I know I did. I'm ashamed of it. But now you're
see that this is true by looking at his speech and at the manner in
How does JB Priestley present the older and younger generations differently throughout the play ‘An Inspector Calls’ (45 mins)
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.
" 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
He wanted to communicate the message that our actions, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, always affect others. He uses the downfall of Eva Smith and a chain of events to demonstrate this. This leads to a very convincing and well-devised play, which puts across JB Priestley’s views clearly and precisely. In Edwardian Britain there was a
By constructing the Inspector as just and omniscient, Priestley encourages the audience to view left-wing values as morally virtuous. Through the Inspector's authority, commanding presence and stature Priestley makes a direct jab at the audience with the Inspector's last
Throughout Priestley’s play, ‘An inspector calls’, a main theme runs about responsibility and differentiation between classes. Each character is accountable of doing something that brought about the death of Eva smith. All the characters contribute to her death in one way or the other, and all of them are at fault for the death of
command at the end of Act I and the start of Act 2, and the end of Act
Often throughout the book she mentions that it is said that "you're paid what you're worth", saying that little pay results in you not being to good of a person. With that label they were looked down on and viewed kind of as untouchables. They had low pay, long hours, no overtime pay, and no benefits which leads to low socio-economic-status a job that no one wants to pursue. She stressed that poverty wasn’t a sustainable condition, it's a state of emergency. Citizens in the lower classes are left to fend for themselves and the ten, eight, or six dollar jobs are all that's there for them. What she would encourage them to do is to demand to be paid what they're worth because in the end they will be better off.
In this essay, I am going to discuss how the character Eva Smith in the play An Inspector Calls by JB Priestley is treated in the play and the relation of this to the socialist views of the playwright. I will look at the historical context of when the play was written and when it was set, describe what happens to Eva Smith throughout the play and then link this to a socialist viewpoint.
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.
Sheila is portrayed as a beautiful young lady in her early twenties with a rather selfish and arrogant nature. Using her compelling personality she is able to obtain anything in which she desires through her father. She makes inconsequential remarks and speaks in a childish manner. However she is the only one to accept immediate responsibility for her role in Eva Smith’s death, making her most probably the furthermost sympathetic character throughout the play. She is horrified by her own part in Eva's death; she feels full of guilt for her jealous actions and blames herself and she is genuinely remorseful for her actions. She is very perceptive towards the inspector, first to wonder who he really is, realising he already knows much of what
that of Eva Smith, and wanted to show how hard it is to cope with life