sheila 2

• keywords:

  • empowered, liberated, disgusted, shrewd, morally righteous, compassionate
• Sheila goes from being ridiculed in Act 1, to mocking and ridiculing her ignorant family's oblivion to the Inspector's omniscience and moral power.

  • She tries to educate her family on their obliviousness;

  "You mustn't try to build up a kind of wall between us and that girl. If you do, the Inspector will just break it down."
• Surprisingly, Sheila becomes one of the shrewdest (sharp) characters, despite her earlier naive presentation.

  • She is the first to recognise both the intent and moral message the Inspector was trying to propagate (spread).
• "You mustn't try to build up a kind of wall between us and that girl. If you do, the Inspector will just break it down."

  • The metaphorical phrase of a "wall" serves as a symbol for the wall and barrier the Birling's have created from the real world - they live in their [pink and intimate] lives filled with oblivion:

  Avoiding being morally righteous and permitting this through their constant state of ignorance.
• Sheila becomes empowered through her development of empathy and responsibility, causing her to be a foil (opposite) to her remorseless and irresponsible parents, recognising;

  • "[rather wildly, with a laugh] No, he's giving us the rope - so that we'll hang ourselves."
• "[rather wildly, with a laugh] No, he's giving us the rope - so that we'll hang ourselves."

  • The stage direction "[wildly]" demonstrates how Sheila has become disillusioned with the ideas of capitalism and the proper etiquette of the middle class.

  She is now unapologetically freed from these constraints and appears not to hold back this 'wild' side.
• "[rather wildly, with a laugh] No, he's giving us the rope - so that we'll hang ourselves."

  • "rope" has fibres that are all intertwined, this mimicking how Sheila has recognised that everybody in society is intertwined with their responsibilities.

  Capitalist or not, they have a moral obligation to protect the "millions and millions" that suffer.
• The motif (recurring symbol) of death permeates the play.

  • Sheila reinforces this through the vivid diction "hang" and reminding her mother that Eva "died a horrible death".

  Sheila is used by Priestley to transport this motif to the audience as it resonates deeper that although the middle class may carelessly neglect their responsibility, in an extreme case leading to death, they can still embark on a pathway of redemption when introduced into the moral way of living - socialism.