Sheila

• End “no, not yet it’s too soon”

  • Sheila is a tragic figure
  • sheila has no power or influence in 1912 society so she cannot refuse marriage as it is her only way or survival
  • she learnt the lesson but cannot enforce it in society as women were powerless in that time as she was disenfranchised
  • ”it is too soon” as im 1912 women couldn’t make a change so the inspector relies on the 1945 women who do have the franchise to enforce his socialist idea
  • this would anger and empower 1945 women as they would see how they were treated under capitalism and move to socialism
• “you mustn’t try build a wall between us and that girl“

  • A direct refute against Mrs birling when she says “girls of that class”
  • she is breaking the wall between classes, foreshadowing when after the war the classes mixed together
  • she endorses the inspector’s message of socialism.
  • she is modernistic and ahead of her time, she also foreshadows the suffragette movement
• “I’ll never let it go out of my sight for an instant”

  • shows her naivity, she is sheltered
  • She will never let the ring go “out of“ her “sight” but Gerald has gone out of sight to meet other women
  • the ring ensures her financial status as marriage was essential for 1912 women as it ensured their survival, however she knows that she’ll never win Gerald’s love as it was normal for men to desert their wives and meet their mistresses- she must accept his infidelity
• “I’ll never let it go out of my sight for an instant“

  • She is bound by the ring, marriage and the cyclical structure of a ring imolies her lack of freedom, as marriage was the highest level of achievement a woman could obtain in 1912.
  • she doesn’t realise this yet because she is ignorant and is sheltered by the birlings- “oh it’s wonderful, look mummy”