Sheila Birling

• Her silence is clear in Act 1 as her speech is short and simplistic such as "yes, go on, mummy" and "you're squiffy". This shows how she is being silenced due to her being an inferior young woman and also represents how she is a disenfranchised (no right to vote) woman. Her lack of voice could have been utilised by Priestly to critique how women didn't have a voice in the Edwardian Era.
• Her language is very regressive and simplistic for a woman of her class and age . Her language is also infantile and childish as she refers to her mother as "mummy". This reinforces that she has been sheltered from the hardships of life which results in her staying infantile and prohibited from seeing the brutal world.
• Sheila's oppression serves to be symbolic of the typical impression of women in the Edwardian Era.
• Her life is surrounded by patriarchal (men dominant society) expectations of getting married to advance her family financially and politically.
• Her engagement to Gerald is a product of patriarchy, as the "Uniting of Birling's and Croft's" is the real reason Mr Birling is so overjoyed.
• Sheila is instantly introduced as a "pretty girl" which shows how her purpose and value did not surpass her physical value.
• We see that Sheila is mesmerised by the "beauty" of the ring that Gerald gives her but her later realisation of marriage (the ring holds no value to Gerlad) proves that the marriage was not a union for her but for her father.
• Sheila and her fathers relationship is a microcosm for the oppression inflicted by the patriarchy. Women were utilised as a transaction to advance the political and social statues of thier fathers.