In act two, Sheila is quite hysterical to start of with. She knew what the inspector was going to say to Gerald, and he obviously doesn’t want to admit his part in the case in front to Sheila. He realises that she is getting hysterical and uses this to try and get her out of the room. Sheila says, “He means that I’m getting hysterical now” and then admits to the inspector that she probably is.
When the inspector says that she can leave, she doesn’t want to. She knows Gerald was involved and as he is her fiancé, she wants to find out HOW he was involved.
Gerald still tries to put her off; he says, “Why should you? Its bound to be unpleasant and disturbing.” He then admits to the inspector that women should be kept from unpleasant and disturbing things. The inspector tells Gerald that Eva smith wasn’t and he realises that he probably asked for that. He then goes back to Sheila and says, “Why stay when you’ll hate it?” Sheila says “It can’t be any worse for me than it has been. And it might be better.” Gerald says to Sheila that because she has been through the inspectors questioning, Now she wants to see him put through it. Sheila retaliates by saying “So that’s what you think I’m really like. I’m glad I realised it in time.” Gerald tries to back pedal by saying, “No, No I didn’t mean – “ Sheila says “yes you did. And if you really loved me you couldn’t have said that. You listened to that nice story about me. I got that girl sacked from Milwards. And now you’ve made up your mind, I must obviously be a selfish vindictive creature.”
The carry on sniping at each other until the inspector steps in.
He says that he can understand why Sheila wants to stay – because a young girl died a terrible death and Sheila has been made to understand her part in the tragedy. Sheila feels responsible and if she leaves now she will feel entirely to blame. Sheila agrees with the inspector. Sheila feels so sorry at what she has done to the girl but Sheila won’t believe that she is entirely responsible. The inspector says to them both “ you see we have to share something. If there’s nothing else, we will have to share out guilt”
So. The inspector knows Gerald is guilty of something and Sheila cottons on to this.
Mrs Birling then enters the room and tells the inspector that Mr Birling has explained why he is there but she doesn’t think the family can help him much with his enquires. Sheila thinks that her mother is starting all wrong and tells her so. Mrs Birling says that Sheila is getting over tired and tries to get her out of the room. Sheila won’t go and Mrs Birling says that she only wants to stay out of morbid curiosity. Sheila disagrees with her mother and answers back. Mrs Birling starts to get quite cross with Sheila and Sheila gets told not to contradict her mother and Mrs Birling starts to build up a wall between them and the girl and Sheila tells her not to as the inspector will just break it down.
Sheila’s mother still seems to be building up a wall and Gerald and Sheila try to stop her doing this. The inspector asks Mrs Birling where her Husband is, she tells him that he is with their son Eric, and she tells the inspector that he is a bit excitable and may have had a bit much to drink. The inspector asks, “Isn’t he used to that?” Mrs Birling sticks up for Eric and says of course he doesn’t drink too much but Sheila tells the inspector that he does. Mrs Birling is shocked at Sheila for saying that her brother drinks too much, she asks Gerald’s opinion and he agrees with Sheila.
The inspector starts to question Gerald when the inspector renters the room, and Gerald tells the inspector how he knew Eva smith. And Sheila says that between them they probably killed Eva, and when Gerald has explained to the inspector that her was seeing Eva while he as with Sheila, Sheila tells him that she has respect for him for admitting it she knew that he was up to something when he didn’t go near her last year, and that now she knows.
The inspector tells Mrs Birling that she spoke to and saw Eva smith only two weeks ago. Sheila is shocked and Mrs Birling admits that this is true. Eva smith had appealed to Mrs Birling’s charity for money, she hadn’t called herself Eva Smith or Even Daisy Renton; She had called herself, Mrs. Birling. Which had prejudiced the “real” Mrs Birling towards her case. The inspector asked, “you admit to being prejudiced towards her case?” and Mrs Birling replied “yes” Sheila Says “Mother she has just died a horrible death – don’t forget.” Sheila is feeling really guilty because so many members of her family are involved with the death of this young girl. Mrs Birling said that she didn’t like Eva Smith’s attitude and that she felt that refusing her case was the right thing to do. The inspector wants Mrs Birling to realise that she did something wrong and says “I think you did something terribly wrong and you are going to spend the rest of your life regretting it. I wish you’d been with me tonight in the infirmary, you’d have seen –“ The inspector really does want Mrs Birling to feel guilty for refusing Eva smith claim. Sheila bursts in and says, “No, No please! I’ve imagined it enough already.” The inspector deliberately carries on and tells the inspector that Eva smith was pregnant. Sheila was horrified and says to her mother “you must have known” Sheila feels even worse that Eva smith not only killed herself, she killed another little life too. Mr Birling Butts in and asks if Gerald was responsible. The inspector reassures them that he wasn’t. Sheila says “thank goodness for that! Though I don’t know why I should care now.” Mrs Birling had told the girl to go and find the father of the baby and that he was responsible The inspector says “that doesn’t make it any less yours, She came to you for help, at a time when no woman could have needed it more. And you not only refused it yourself but you saw to it that the others refused it too. She was here alone, friendless, almost penniless, and desperate. She needed money but advice; sympathy, friendliness, you’ve had children. You must have known what she was feeling. And you slammed the door in her face.” The inspector said this because her really wants Mrs Birling to know that she IS responsible and he wants her o realise that she was wrong. Also he hints that she may be further involved. Sheila realises that her mother is wrong and tells her this: “Mother I think it was cruel and vile” and even Mr Birling agrees Mrs Birling starts to get agitated and blames the situation on Sheila and Mr birling for both having turned Eva Smith out of a job in the first place. And that it really was the responsibility of the father of the baby Eva Smith had told her that the father was a young boy, rather silly and wild and Eva Smith wouldn’t take any more money from him because she felt he had been stealing it.
The inspector asked Mrs Birling who she thinks is responsible for the death of Eva Smith,
Mrs Birling says that firstly it was the girl’s fault, and secondly the father of the baby should be dealt with severely. Sheila starts to get hysterical realising that Eric may be the father of the child and begs her mother to stop. Mrs Birling still carries on to say that the father should be made an example of and should publicly accept his responsibility, when she says to the inspector that’s what he should do; He says that he is staying to do his duty. That’s when the other members of the family realise Eric is the father. Sheila tells her “I tried to get you to stop.”
In act three, Eric walks into the room and is told by Sheila that’s it’s a good job he doesn’t know what they’ve been saying because “mother’s been busy blaming everything on the young man who got this girl into trouble, and saying he shouldn’t escape and should be made an example of –“ Her father then stops her. Sheila wants Eric to know exactly what’s been happening. Sheila also tells Eric that she has told her mother about him getting drunk and Eric calls her a “little sneak” Sheila replies “No, that’s not fair Eric. I could have told her months ago, but of course I didn’t. I only told her tonight because I knew everything was coming out – it was simply bound to come out tonight – so I thought she might as well know in advance. Don’t forget I’ve been through it.” Mr and Mrs Birling start to question her sense of loyalty the inspector stops them because he wants to question Eric.
While the inspector questions Eric, Mrs Birling starts to get hysterical so Sheila is made to take her out of the room, which she protests about. Sheila doesn’t last out of the room long because her mother wants to come back in. Sheila keeps quiet but then tells Eric that Eva smith told her mother about the stolen money. Mrs Birling is shocked that Sheila could just blurt that out Sheila says, “well he has to know” Sheila feels it would just be easier all round if they are all honest with each other.
Eric starts to get very cross when he hears that his mother refused Eva Smith charity this frightens Sheila and she begs him to stop.
The inspector delivers the moral message of the play then leaves.
Mr and Mrs Birling tell Eric that they are ashamed o him. They say that things turned out unfortunately for them “that’s all.” Sheila Scorns her parents for saying this. Sheila tells them that she thinks they haven’t learnt anything, and Sheila starts to question whether or not the inspector really was an inspector. The Birling start to think that maybe they might get away with what happened to the girl and that it really does matter whether the inspector was a real one or not. Sheila disagrees with this and Sheila flares up when her mother tells her not to be babyish. “I’m not being. If you want to know, its you two that are being childish trying not to face the facts” Sheila feels that her parents aren’t facing the facts about why the girl died and who’s responsibility it is.
Sheila tries to round up the situation “… But don’t you see, if all that’s come out tonight is true, then it doesn’t much matter who it was that made us confess. And it was true, wasn’t it, you had the girl turned out of one job, I had her turned out of another, Gerald kept her, at a time when he was supposed to be too busy to see me, Eric- well we know what Eric did. And mother hardened her heart and gave her the final push that finished her. That’s what’s important and not whether the man was a police inspector or not”
Sheila was quite cross that her parents seem to want to forget and deny what has happened. Sheila gets told to calm down or leave the room.
Sheila and Eric think that is makes a lot of difference whether the inspector was real or not. Mr and Mrs Birling disagree. And they argue about this until Gerald Re-appears.
Gerald tells the family that he met a police sergeant and had asked about the inspector that had been questioning the family – and there was no inspector like that in the police force, so Mr Birling calls the police force just to check and this is confirmed by the police constable, Mr and Mrs Birling and Gerald start to celebrate and Sheila is Bitter about this. Mr Birling tells Sheila and Eric that if they are still feeling on the edge the least they can do is keep quiet but they still argue about their need to feel guilty about what happened to the girl. They keep arguing until Gerald starts to question whether all these things happened to the same girl. Gerald thinks that these things could have happened to 4 or 5 different girls. And Sheila wants to know how they can prove this, so Gerald calls the infirmary and no girl had died, So everyone continues on with the celebrations except Sheila and Eric “if everything we said had happened. If it didn’t end tragically then that’s lucky for us, but it might have done.” Sheila wants them all to realise the extent of what they did, Sheila passionately says, “you’re pretending everything’s just as it was before.” And Sheila wants her family to talk it over but they don’t seem to want to do this. Gerald tries to give back the engagement ring but Sheila says, “No, no not yet, it’s too soon, I must think”
The interesting thing about Sheila is that she’s the one character who really changes in the course of the play. The Inspector’s words have an effect on her and she realises what she’s done. She recognises that she did wrong to Eva Smith, and she wants to mend her ways. All of this has to be conveyed in stage performance.
At the start she’s rather complacent when the Inspector takes her through the incident in the dress shop when Eva Smith serves her. In the course of the interrogation she’s naturally rather defensive but she eventually acknowledges she’s not acted correctly. A lot of this can be conveyed to the audience through tone of voice and posture on stage.
When the Inspector goes onto interrogate the others she realises what he’s saying. So she changes and becomes on his side. Once again voice and body language will play a big part here. She goes onto confront other members of her family when they attempt to dodge the guilt that’s thrown at them. So just think about how you can get this across to the audience.
