Sheila (the socialist)

Sheila is the daughter of Mr & Mrs. Birling and at the start of the play she’s engaged to Gerald Croft.

Sheila shows genuine concern for Eva Smith and understands the inspectors message. She forms a contrast to her narrow-minded, materialistic parents.

representation

• Upper Class women → Focuses on socialist issues: frivolous concerns on marriage and status

• Lack of independence → Growing independence: dependent on men

• Sheltered and shielded → Defends and sympathises with the lower class: unaware of suffering of lower classes

ACTIONS DURING THE PLAY

• Shows real emotion after hearing a young woman (like her) died

  • this is shown through stage directions and quotes, through this we can tell how Sheila sympathises with Eva, and views her as an equal person unlike a lot of the upper class

• Takes responsibility for getting Eva fired from her job in the dress shop

  • early on in the play Sheila understands the Inspector’s message and easily starts to try improve herself and work on a better future

• Realises the inspector is important and shouldn’t be ignored or lied to

  • unlike a lot of the family, Sheila takes the inspector seriously as she doesn’t believe she is superior and isn’t arrogant. She is open to the possibility that she and others need to change in order to improve others lives/society

• Breaks off her engagement to Gerald after hearing of his affair

  • Instead of continuing with her marriage and relying on Gerald after hearing of his infidelity and lies, Sheila decides to become more independent, she starts to form her own opinions instead of being controlled by her parents or future husband. With this she shows a feminist side of her and showing the audience that it’s important to educate women and include them in society

• Understands her family needs to take responsibility for what they’ve done and change their treatment towards working class people.

  • later in the play Sheila starts to reflect the Inspector and try spread the message of social responsibility to her family, she understands that they can only create change in they work together and all change. It’s a group effort to change society for the better

Opening

Sheila is playful and self-centred, enjoying the attention from her engagement. She’s particularly excited about her engagement ring, calling it ‘wonderful’. She is completely oblivious to the problems for the lower classes in England and is happily stuck in her comfortable bubble.

At first she seems superficial and materialistic like the rest of her family, Priestley could be presenting Sheila like this at the start to add significant and noticeable growth and progression later on. Right now she is relatable to a lot of the upper class

Inspectors entrance and interrogation

When Sheila meets the inspector, she shows a sensitive side. She responds to Eva as a person, not cheap labour (Mr. Birling), a lower-class girl (Mrs. Birling) or a thing (Eric). When she realises her temper and jealousy caused Eva to lose her job, she’s genuinely sorry.

She shows remorse and takes responsibility, Priestley uses Sheila’s reaction to the Inspector to demonstrate to the upper class audience how they should react to the problems in Edwardian Society, they shouldn’t ignore or tolerate them

Ending

Sheila has changed more than any other character. She refuses to continue her engagement to Gerald, she’s understood the inspector’s message and even echoes his words, ‘fire and blood and anguish’. These things help make her a sympathetic character.

Sheila has grown throughout the play after learning of Eva’s struggles, wanting to help, and trying to create change. With this progression Priestley hopes to show Edwardian Society how they should change after WW2, and to learn from their mistakes and try care for the lower classes

PRIESTLEY’S MESSAGE

Priestley uses Sheila, along with Eric, as a symbol to represent the younger generation and socialism. Sheila gives the 1945 audience hope that their society can improve if people take responsibility for their actions, like she did. She also reflects new ideas about gender equality, connecting to the suffragette movement of that time - she challenges the outdated attitudes of her parents and speaks for herself.