In my opinion the inspector’s purpose in the play was to make the family see that there ignorance and impertinence could very easily cause a normal person to steep to extreme measures to survive and eventually commit suicide. The inspector’s speech was very dramatic, I thought it was a very good summary of the message the inspector was trying to get across to the family which was ‘ Just because someone isn’t of the same social class does not mean to say they are a lower life form and that it is ok to disrespect and take advantage of them’.
My first impression of Shelia is that she is a rich, arrogant, very spoilt ‘brat’. Shelia’s confession is a very important part of the play, probably the most important bit in the whole story. Shelia’s confession is the gateway to give the other characters the courage to admit their mistakes. I think the audience needs to react to Sheila during her confession slightly shocked at first then after maybe look down on her a little as if to say ‘ who do you think you are doing something like that because you were jealous of the Eva’ By the end of the play I think Shelia is a much more mature and doesn’t act as arrogant as before. I think she does this because she is slightly shocked that her actions could lead to a girl’s death. After Shelia’s confesses to the incident in Millwards I think her characters role is to help the other characters admit to their mistakes.
Now I would like to discuss two productions of ‘An Inspector calls’ firstly the 1992 theatre production.
Shelia uses a lot of body language to express her feeling in this production. She moves her hands a lot she starts hands together shoulders hunched in a slightly nervous position slowly but surely as she confesses more her hands move more, also at the line ‘had held the dress up as if she was wearing it’ Shelia (the actor) acted as if se was holding up the dress. As the speech is coming to a climax her hands begin to shake vigorously and points a lot.
Shelia’s tone of voice is quiet, fairly nervous at the start, it sounds as if her voice is shaking really. She also takes a lot of lengthily dramatic pauses at the start. As the confession develops her voice gets louder and louder she ends up shouting. It also speeds up a considerable amount. It appeared to me that she played with her hair a lot more than necessary. At the line ‘well, when I tried the thing on and looked at myself and realise it was all wrong’ is said slightly curiously, I think. The last five lines of the speech are said in a regretful kind of tone. The speech is slowed back down and the dramatic pauses lengthen again.
The use of dramatic devises are very good in this production, the most noticeable one is the huge house. People are in the house for group talks and they come out into the street when they want to confess things. There is also music at the start of Shelia’s confession and the person that is talking is always spotlighted (when confessing in the street)
Shelia’s speech had a very dramatic impact on the audience because in those times it would have been a great shock to hear someone confess to something let alone something very selfish like that. The audience appear very shocked at the start of the confession then they seem to look down on Shelia and disrespect her. They also seem to lose a great deal of respect for her especially as she is a middle class citizen.
The second production I would like to discuss is the 1954 film version.
You don’t actually see a lot of the confession from the play itself, you actually only see the last two lines and the bit leading up to the confession so I am not going to comment alot on body language or tone of voice. The little I did notice is that Sheila and the inspector never make eye contact and that they speak very quietly and do not raise there voice at all. There a lot of dramatic devises used in this production even more than in the theatre production. The first one is that Shelia is shown in a mirror not actually in the picture. The second is the flashback that re-enacts the scene in Millwards when Sheila accuses Eva of being impertinent and reports her to the manager. There is also dramatic music at the end of the re-enactment. There was one flaw in this production, which was that Shelia said she was trying on a hat and not a dress so they didn’t really stay true to the story. You also can’t here the audience (because it is a film) so I can’t comment on the audience reaction.
In conclusion to this I think that the 1992 theatre production gives most credit to Shelia’s role judging from the original script. I think that the theatre production has a much deeper effect on the audience. It gives across your message much, much better, so I would have to say that I feel the theatre production is a much more effective production.
Yours Sincerely
Jason Lister
