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An Inspector Calls very useful essaysCA Clarity PPM v13.x Professional Certification
, How is Sheila presented in ‘An Inspector Calls’? (Level 8-9)
By Rhona Johnston
In Priestley’s play ‘An Inspector Calls’ Sheila is arguably one of the most significant characters
in conveying the playwright’s messages. Although, at the start of the play Sheila shows
some signs of a left-wing ideology, Priestley uses her as a device to show how a woman in
1912 may never have had the exposure to reality she needs in order to enforce her opinions.
Her character is a symbol of his belief in the “famous younger generation” to change their
country’s deeply engrained capitalist thoughts on social equality, and begin to mirror his
own – as a cofounder of a socialist party.
One of the most obvious features about Sheila is how she is infantilised by her family and in
extension, by society. Even in the first stage direction, she is described as a “pretty girl”,
implying that even as an engaged woman she has restrictions similar to that of a girl. This
perhaps juxtaposes her mother’s and father’s ideas that Eva - a woman of similar age –
should be responsible for herself, but Sheila not so. Their only difference being their
position in 1912’s hierarchical society. In addition to this, Sheila refers to Mrs Birling as
“mummy” which is somewhat the sociolect of a child. However, this infantilisation of herself
was very normal for a woman of her age of an upper-midddle-class upbringing. On the
other hand, to contradict this is the implication, even to start with of a more forceful
personality. She speaks to Gerald with “mock aggression” which could portray how she
wishes to express her opinion strongly, but understands Gerald’s supposed superiority to
her. Sheila’s speech is also litters with tag questions, for instance “do you?” showing her
checking herself, and a need for validation.
Another characteristic of Sheila is her initially narrow-minded priorities which mirror he
elitist upbringing and how blatantly unaware she is to the world beyond her own. For
example, she says “now I really fell engaged” after Gerald gives her the ring. We can infer
from this that she needs the materialistic symbol of her ring to truly feel secure and content
in her engagement. As well as this, one of the first questions she asks about Eva is “pretty?”.
This highlights that she is only interested in the attractiveness of Eva, perhaps because she
wants to compare it to herself. That fact that it’s a minor sentence emphasises that she only
cares about this one feature – certainly not the pain that Eva had to go through. This side of
Sheila conveys to the audience how women like her were taught to compare themselves to
others and value their importance (to men) over anything else.
An extremely significant turning point is the gradual metamorphosis of Sheila is the entrance
of the Inspector. After properly “coming in” the room for the send time she almost
immediately opposes her father with “these girls aren’t cheap labour”, This is Sheila
beginning to understand the world away from her rose-tinted view on life. In addition to
this, her idiolect slowly begins to transition to a more mature and perceptive way of
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