Sheila

• Mr B calls it "the happiest night of my life"

  "Isn't it a beauty"

  [pretty girl]

  Act 1


  -Sheilas oppression is emblematic of the typical oppression of women in early 20th century

  -Sheilas purpose is to marry and advance her family politically and socially- why Mr B was happy

  -Presented as typical 1912 woman- very materialistic about ring, but later disillusioned to idea of marriage

  -instantly introduced as [pretty girl]- reinforces how her purpose and value at the beginning did not surpass her physical value
• "Yes go on mummy"

  "You're squiffy"

  Act 1


  -silencing is prevalent in act 1- represents how she is a disenfranchised woman

  -her lack of voice could be utilised by Priestley to critique the lack of political voice women had in the Edwardian era

  -her language remains infantile and childlike

  -she's been sheltered from hardships of life resulting in her infantile and being prohibited from seeing the belligerent world
• "But these girls aren't cheap labour- they're people"

  Act 2


  -Inspector= embodiment of socialism

  -liberates Sheila through introducing her to socialist ideologies- ones which juxtapose the views she had been exposed to her whole life

  -she directly indicts her fathers exploitative capitalist ways- girls connote innocence and vulnerability - Sheila has realised that upper class members exploit the innocence and vulnerability of the lower classes

  -previously sheltered Sheila would never of had this realisation

  -she shows disgust towards capitalist behaviour
• "You mustn't try to build a kind of wall between us and that girl. If you do the inspector will just break it down"

  Act 2


  -Sheila changes from being ridiculed in act 1 to mocking and ridiculing her ignorant families oblivion to the inspectors omniscience and moral power

  -"wall"-serves as a symbol for the barrier the Birlings have created from the real world -they live in their [pink and intimate] lives filled with oblivion.

  -Sheila becomes one of the shrewdest characters despite her earlier naive presentation
• "What he made me feel. Fire and blood and anguish"

  Act 3


  -repetition of the polysyndeton "and" shows how Sheila is desperately trying to reinforce the belligerent and relentless consequences of having no social conscience

  -Sheila provides a moralistic example for her family to follow showing her development of empathy as she now "feels" remorse

  -Priestley uses Sheila as his mouthpiece - she takes on the inspectors socialist ideologies

  -Sheila becomes symbol of hope for a 1945 audience - ignorant and parsimonious individuals in society are capable of repenting and reforming when given a moral example