How does J.B Priestley use the character of Sheila Birling to convey his message to the audience?

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Kayleigh Howen 10ne

How does J.B Priestley use the character of Sheila Birling to convey his message to the audience?

      In An Inspector Calls, Sheila Birling is an important character, used by J.B Priestley to put across his message to the audience.

      I am going to talk about socio-historic content, Sheila at the beginning of the play, Sheila’s reaction to; finding out the girl had died; finding out her father sacked the girl; finding out she contributed to the girl getting fired; finding out that Gerald knew the girl and finding out that her mother refused to help the girl. I will also talk about how Sheila reacted to discovering; Eric was involved with the girl; the Inspector was a fake and overall, how much Sheila changed through the play and how much she learnt.

      An Inspector Calls was written in 1945, just as World War II was ending. The play is set in 1912, which was known as the Golden Age, the period before the First World War when Britain flourished. Winston Churchill, the Conservative leader, was engaged in an election battle with Clement Attlee, the leader of Labour. Churchill wasn’t a good leader for poor people as the Golden Age was all about rich men. Attlee wanted to change this with the Welfare State, which pledged to look after the working class. An Inspector Calls is a play about the good old days when poor people had no choice in how Britain was run and rich people lived their lives with no regard for others.

      As the play opens, the first impressions of Sheila Birling are of a spoilt, immature young woman who was involved in an arranged marriage. As the play went on, Sheila came across as s naïve selfish person who cared little for anyone other than herself. Sheila shows signs of intelligence occasionally, but soon reverts back to childish silly comments,  “Don’t be an ass, Eric”, probably designed to antagonise her younger brother. Even though the dinner party is in aid of her engagement to Gerald Croft, Sheila doesn’t seem mature enough to marry and shoulder the responsibilities of being a wife and mother.

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      When Sheila discovers that Eva Smith has committed suicide, her reaction is quite shocked and distraught. For the first time we see Sheila show some compassion and we see the other side to Sheila; not selfish and shallow. “Its just that I can’t help thinking about this girl – destroying herself so horribly – and I’ve been so happy. Oh I wish you hadn’t told me.” This quote tells me that Sheila may have realised that her life is quite pathetic in comparison to Eva Smith’s and she may have felt guilty in being so happy when ...

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