Sheila

• "but these girls aren't cheap labour - they're people" Act 1

  • Sheila recognises the inequality --> 1st hint that she might have socialist views and is open-minded. She also isn't afraid to disagree with her capitalist father
  • "girls" - humanises Eva and tells Birling to look at the working class as human beings not as 'working robots'
• "It was my own fault" - Act 1

  • She's remorseful and accepts responsibility, but only blames herself ('my' - possessive pronoun)
  • Her reaction juxtaposes to her parents' who accept no blame
• "It's you two who are being childish - trying not to face the facts" Act 3

  • believes that it doesn’t matter whether the Inspector is a real police officer or not. She is only concerned that they all harmed someone --> depicts responsibility and maturity
• "If she'd been some miserable plain little creature, I don't suppose I'd have done it" Act 1

  • She was envious of Eva's looks and felt entitled to be better than her
  • She used her power to fire Eva even though she did no harm --> problem with class system
• "She was a very pretty girl too... I couldn't be sorry for her" Act 1

  • "pretty" - adjective, she's insecure of her own looks and envious of Eva's beauty, so she used her power to 'punish' her --> shows the power upper class had over the working class
• "You don't seem to have learnt anything" Act 3

  • "You" - direct address--> accusatory towards her parents
  • declarative sentence - upper classes in Edwardian society were reluctant and too stubborn to change --> depicts Sheila's disgusts toward her parents
• "I know I'm to blame - and I'm desperately sorry" Act 2?

  • "I", "I'm" - Personal pronouns --> she only blames herself
  • "desperately" - shows character development --> Sheila represents the younger generation, Priestley uses her to give hope and show that the younger generation can make a change to society.