Profile

Full name: Miss Sheila Birling

Age: ‘early twenties’

Role: Birling’s daughter

Ideology: Mild capitalist → socialist

Other Key Facts:

• Sheila accepts responsibility and feels the most guilty

• Changes her ideology and the way she approaches life

• Goes from being childish and petty to thoughtful and sensitive

Characteristics

• Selfish

‘I told him that if they didn’t get rid of that girl, I’d never go near the place again and I’d persuade mother to close our account with them’

• Uses her power to punish Eva

• Childish

‘Mummy’

‘squiffy’

‘very pleased with life and rather excited’

‘half serious, half playful’

• Her childishness might be a way to hide serious concerns about her relationship with Gerald

• Moral

‘But these girls aren’t cheap labour - they’re people’

‘if I could help her now, I would’

Maturity

• Has wise instincts - sees what the Inspector is doing and knows that Gerald’s absence is suspicious

• Knows that men use prostitutes

• The Inspector says that she ‘isn’t living on the moon’

Eva and Sheila

• Sheila is supposed to juxtapose Eva

• Eva is who Sheila would’ve been if she wasn’t born wealthy

They are both similar:

• Similar ages

• Both young girls

• Both equally as intelligent and sharp