Sheila is happy and excited through the first scene by the way she talks high pitched and manages to talk at lest once to everybody on the table, such as the conversation with her mother about Geralds odd disappearance over last summer “ And I've told you I was awfully busy at the works all that time, yes that’s what you say,” then once her mother intervenes and tells Sheila she’ll have to get used to that feeling she claims, “I don’t believe I will (half playful and half serious to Gerald”.
The first scene carries on like this until Gerald hands over the engagement ring to Sheila as a way of cheering her up, but when Sheila first sees the ring we get the impression that she is more pleased about its wealth than its significant value. The scene carries on like this until the Inspector knocks on the door and asks Edna if he can have a word with Mr Birling, when the Inspector first enters the room he has an awkwardly dominating presence over the Birlings. At first Mr Birling takes this visit as an enquiry regarding an unpaid bill or even a mistake but when the Inspector informs him of the death of a young girl due to suicide, Mr Birling begins to listen intently. The first thing he tells the Inspector is about how Mr Birling was an alderman for years and was lord Mayor 2 years ago, and in a very subtle way threatens the Inspector with how he is still on the bench and knows the Brumley police force well. Though none of this stirs the Inspector, as he already knows this, the Inspector tells Mr Birling of the death of Eva Smith and rudely overrules Mr Birlings question of what it has to do with him, the first sign of the Inspectors power, Mr Birling does not remember the name Eva smith but does remember her once he'd seen her photograph, which the Inspector didn’t allow Eric or Gerald to see. The Inspector asks lots of questions concerning Eva Smiths death and then Sheila enters the room, “What's this about streets? Oh sorry, I didn’t know. Mummy sent me in to ask you why you didn’t come along to the drawing room.” And when Sheila tries to exit the room she is stopped by the Inspector, which makes Mr Birling angry. The Inspector proudly introduces himself to Sheila and then tells her about the suicide and how Mr Birlings discharging of her 2 years ago could have helped her to her death. The first thing Sheila asks about the death is whether the girl was young and pretty, to which Mr Birling apologises to the Inspector once he knows that Sheila is also involved, one of the most important things Sheila says is “ What do you mean by saying that? You talk as if we were responsible” The Inspector explains to Sheila how she's involved in Eva Smiths death and tells her about her job in Milwards, to which Sheila excitedly reacts and tells of how shed gone there this morning. The inspector reminds Sheila of the day she got a girl fired from Milwards because she thought that they were being rude to her when Sheila tried on a dress that didn’t look good on her, but in a selfish cruel manner she got paranoid that the girl in Milwards was laughing at her and thinking that she looked a lot better in the dress than Sheila would. This makes Sheila confess that she was jealous of Eva Smith for her beauty and features and got her fired from Milwards as an act of petty revenge, this is the first impression we get of Sheila changing under the influence of the Inspectors questions.
At the beginning of the second act there a little argument between Gerald and Sheila about whether she should stay in the room and hear Geralds story, but as Gerald becomes more scared he also gets more feisty and talks to Sheila rudely, “ You’ve been through it- and now you want to see somebody else put through it,” to which Sheila starts to make predictions about Geralds thoughts and the Inspector has to calm things down by explaining Sheilas presence in the room. Sheila stays in the room and the Inspector finally begins to ask his questions and Gerald unravels his confession of how he helped Eva Smith from old Meggerty and provided her with somewhere to stay and a small sum of money and how they had made love on several occasions. Sheila begins to criticise him and ask him whether he was in love with her, to which Mr Birling protests only to be silenced for the dominance of Inspector Goole.
Gerald explains and finishes his story and Sheila almost congratulates him for being honest and shows that Sheila is becoming more mature and sensible as well as abiding by people feelings and triumphs. Sheila does not believe nor feel that her parents feel guilty about the events and that there not to blame, this makes Sheila upset and ashamed and she confronts them by saying “ It means that we’ve no excuse now for putting on airs and that if we’ve any sense we wont try. Father threw this girl out because she asked for decent wages. I went and pushed her farther out, right into the street, just because I was angry and she was pretty. Gerald set her up as his mistress and then dropped her when it suited him. And now you’re pretending that you don’t recognise her from that photograph. I admit I don’t know why you should, but I know jolly well you did in fact recognise her, from the way you looked. And if you’re not telling the truth, why should the Inspector apologise? And can’t you see, both of you, you’re making it worse?”
Sheila questions her family and pleads to her mother not to give away anything that could help the Inspectors case. By the end of the scene, Sheila is in tears and her reaction to Geralds story is a very passive one. She hands him back the ring and tells him that in a funny sort of way she respects him for what he done and confesses that she had been suspicious of him ever since that summer and spring that he had not bothered to visit her. She also confesses that it was her fault Eva Smith was in such a desperate position when she first met Gerald due to Sheila getting her sacked from Milwards spitefully, Gerald eventually stands up and leaves the house after a nice speech from Sheila claiming that their relationship isn’t completely over showing us that Sheila has matured and accepts Geralds disrespect as a learning curve for them both.
At the start of the third act, all the characters are a little shaken up by the Inspectors interrogation. The tension and fear of the confessions makes them confront each other. Mr and Mrs Birling both blame Eric and Sheila but unsurprisingly Sheila blames all of them for the death of Eva Smith. The reason why it is unsurprising that Sheila blames the whole family is because of her dramatic change from the first act to her more mature figure in the third act, she is the only one that is agreeing with the readers thoughts as she is the only one who has really changed from the experience and has completely separated from the Birling family image.
Throughout the last 2 acts Sheila has only judged her family for the death but has not made an important impact on them yet, Sheila realises that her family do not share her guilt and begin to see the real them and hate them for there ignorance in this incident. Sheila feels that they should have learnt not to be intimidating with there money and spiteful: she feels that Mr Birling shouldn’t contain his life within his business and that he was just being mean when he refused to increase the workers wages.
Although the Birlings begin to undermine the seriousness of the situation, they still haven’t learnt their lesson: her mother is still spiteful, Eric is still rude though he has managed to release some of his pent-up anger on his father, and Sheila has learnt that just the smallest complaint can lead to the most dramatic of events. Sheila begins to become suspicious of the Inspector when Eric mentions his fathers speech at dinner concerning cranks and there opinions, and Sheila begins to consider the chance of one of those exact cranks walking through there door that night, but she cant work out why or who would set up such a thing or whether it is actually a hoax.
Once the Inspectors gone, Sheila turns to her family and says, “ I suppose were all nice people now,” of which she’s using sarcasm as a way of making her father feel regret, because they’re the complete opposite of nice people, in Sheilas mind, they’re all murderers. Once Mr Birling had calmed down and broken down the facts with Gerald’s help he starts to act as if nothing has happened “I want to get out of this. It frightens me the way you talk,” Sheila being in her mental state, claims that the way he talks scares her. This is mostly because of the dramatic events that have ensued, and still Mr Birling refuses to take the blame and see that it’s everybody elses fault except him and his wife Sybil Birling.
The story of Eva Smith is like an epiphony for Sheila. In the first act, Sheila is obedient to her family, and even-tempered, but through her learning of the spiteful and cruel acts her family have caused, the lack of regret from her family makes her realise the error of her ways. She becomes rude and sarcastic to her parents and looks past their original images to see completely different people.
Sheila’s change is like a wake up call for her; she has lived her life in a shallow way and not bothered to learn about the consequences of her actions. When she is told she helped kill a young pretty and innocent girl she changes, she stops taking life for granted and does not fear to give her opinions. She matures into a woman who doesn’t want to be like her mother.
I think that the inspector was a devise to make the Birlings feel regret and guilt and in some ways John Priestley is trying to express his views by talking through the inspector. J.B. Priestley has done an amazing job of voicing his views in this play and though the story has a predicable ending it changes right at the end with a huge dramatic twist that makes the audience want to read on.
In conclusion Priestley has used his own socialist views of life to create a rich higher-class family, which represents real life characters and then placing himself in the play to tell rich higher-class people how he truly feels. In a way, Sheilas change is what he feels people should be like once they realise the error of their ways, and as the great John Boynton Priestley said “we have to fight this great battle, not only with guns in daylight, but alone in the night, communing with our souls, strengthening our faith that in common men everywhere there is a spring of innocent aspiration and good will that shall not be sealed”. Priestley has used an “Inspector Calls” as a way of interpretating his feelings and emotions.
