In various parts of the play her parents refer to her as a “child” suggesting that they haven’t quite realized that their daughter I now a grown woman and that they would rather go on thinking of her as a young child. When Gerald is confessing his affair with Eva Smith her parents feel that “it would be much better if Sheila didn’t listen at all” and when Gerald talks of prostitutes Mr Birling indicates to Sheila and hastily tries to change the subject. It seems indeed that her parents do not realize that she has grown into a young woman and still see her as a young “child”.
During his speech before the Inspector arrives Mr. Birling even implies that Sheila is the lucky one who was chosen by Gerald, rather than Gerald is the lucky one who was chosen by her. It seems that marrying their daughter to a man who comes from a titled family “means a tremendous amount” to Mr and Mrs Birling. When Sheila breaks her engagement with Gerald their disappointment is very evident and they try to encourage her to change her mind about it.
From the beginning of the play Sheila seems fairly caring from the way she responds to Eva Smiths death and the disapproving way she regards her father when she is told about the way Eva Smith was dismissed from his employment. She thinks it was a “mean” thing to do and realizes that it may possibly have ruined her life.
During the Inspector’s questioning Sheila is very “distressed” and it seems that she has truly seen the error of her ways and is indeed very sorry for the action she had taken against Eva Smith. Sheila is very “miserable” because of what she had done and wishes there was a way that she could change what she had done. She understands the consequences of her actions and is genuinely sorry.
After Sheila hears about Gerald’s affair with Eva Smith her worst suspicions are confirmed, since she had always doubted Gerald sincerity when he talked of the months he was supposed to be too busy to come near her at all, She feels that even the little trust that remained between them is shattered completely. But she now feels more respect for him “in a way”. When she returns the ring to him she has matured and does not hate him at all but only feels that she cannot spend the rest of her life with him.
Sheila has definitely learned from her experience with the Inspector and now fully understands her social responsibilities towards the others who may be less fortunate than herself. She recognizes the part she had played in driving Eva Smith to commit such an horrendous act and accepts her guilt.
Sheila is very sensitive in understanding how her parents are only worried about a public scandal and don’t feel any remorse about what they have done, only fearing that it may bring about their disgrace. In a way she becomes an ally to the Inspector warning her family not to hold any thing back and not to “build up a kind of a wall” between them and Eva Smith “because the Inspector will just break it down”. She really agrees with the Inspector that they were each responsible for Eva Smith’s death and is more than willing to take her fair share of blame and eager not to make the same mistakes again, since it could be fatal to another young girls future. Sheila takes the Inspectors last words to heart and remembers “what he said, how he looked” and how he made her feel. “Blood, fire and anguish” are the Inspector’s words that she repeats to her parent, which shows how deeply he had affected her and how accurately she had understood his message.
Sheila is exasperated by her parents’ manners when they dismiss the evening’s events when they are offered a chance to believe that the Inspector was not a real Police Inspector after all. She accuses them of being childish and reminds them that he was their Inspector and he did inspect all their actions, and that they had all done what they did to a girl, whether it was the same one or not and irrespective of whether she died or not.
By the end of the play Sheila’s character has developed from a young naïve girl to that of a woman and to a more mature and understanding person.
Priestley has used Sheila to show that there may still be hope for the younger generation if they choose to be responsible. Priestley wanted to give the Inspector’s message that society can only be a better place if people start to understand how their actions affects other peoples lives and how they may have unforeseen consequences.
Before the Inspector’s arrival when the family are dining, Mrs Birling seems very reserved and rather old with her own ideas of what is proper and what is not. She seems to be telling everyone how to behave themselves, although in a discreet manner. She scolds Sheila and Eric for picking on one another, and “reproaches” Mr Birling when he tells the maid to praise the cook for the dinner, in front of Gerald.
In her opinion a woman’s duty is to serve her husband dutifully, even if she has no respect for him as is the case with her and Mr Birling, and without asking any questions and understanding that “men with important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time and energy on business” and therefore ignore their wives for however long it takes to settle their business affairs. All this and the fact that she tries to discourage her daughter from breaking her engagement with Gerald after hearing about his “disgusting” affair with Eva suggests that she has rather low values.
When she first encounters the Inspector she tries to intimidate him by “grandly” reminding him that she is “Mrs Birling, y’know.” And that she is sure they cannot help him much. She considers the Inspector very “rude”, “impertinent” and “assertive”.
She does not seem to have any sympathy for Eva Smith and her situation. She thinks it was Eva’s own fault that always landed her in trouble and she pointedly expressed her opinion that Eva Smith had only herself to blame for her situation and that she does not regret refusing her help for even a second. She thinks that it is “absurd” for a girl in Eva’s position to have moral values. She feels that Eva Smith was giving herself “ridiculous airs” and that she has done her duty by refusing Eva help.
During the Inspector’s interrogation of Mrs Birling her attitude change from being reserved and haughty to being “stung”, “rather cowed” and “agitated”. This shows that even though she feels no remorse in denying Eva Smith assistance, she very much fears a public inquest resulting in a scandal.
Mrs Birling doesn’t seem to have a very close relationship with her children as she is quite shocked to find out Eric has a drinking problem. When hearing this from Sheila, Mrs Birling is unwilling to believe her own daughter and turns to Gerald, urging him to contradict what Sheila has just told her.
Mrs Birling has not learned anything from this experience as she goes back to being her old self after finding out that the Inspector wasn’t in fact a real Police inspector. Her relief is over-whelming and she considers her self very smart in not having taken the Inspector as a real one. She still feels that everyone should only look after themselves and that no one is responsible for other people in society.
Priestley uses Mrs Birling to represent some of the older generation who refuse to see their responsibilities to society and refuse to change their ways. The audience of 1945 who had been through two world wars would have been disgusted by Mrs Birling’s attitude. They would have suffered the consequences of the action of people who had thought and acted similarly to Mrs Birling.
One could argue that Eva Smith is the central character, or rather her memory is. When the Inspector first introduces her character to the play he rouses our sympathy for her by describing the “agony” she went through whilst trying to commit suicide. “She’d swallowed a lot of strong disinfectant. Burnt her inside out, of course” and by this description a hideous picture is painted in our minds and we ask ourselves the question what drove her to end her life in such a despicable manner?
Our sympathy for her is roused still more when Mr. Birling is being interrogated by the Inspector. He admit that she was a “good worker” and was only dismissed for asking for a raise, and being refused this raise she have gone on a strike that hadn’t lasted for long and got sacked after that.
After being turned out of two jobs Eva Smith was in a very vulnerable position and resorts to prostitution. It is then that Gerald Craft rescues her; “her wonderful fairy prince”. She feels so grateful to him that she becomes his mistress and falls in love with this “hero”. Gerald first describes her as being “young” “fresh”, “charming” and obviously attractive enough for Gerald to get involved with her immediately. When the affair comes to an end she is “very gallant about it” and makes it really easy for him because she must have known it cannot last forever and neither did she expect him to marry her.
At this point we feel more sympathetic towards her than ever. She has been turned out of two jobs and now hurt by Gerald. This makes her more vulnerable than ever.
Eva Smith went to Mrs. Birling’s committee when she was in need of great help. She had the “impudence” to appeal to the organisation under the name of Mrs Birling. This had made the pompous Mrs Birling Prejudiced against her case before she even heard why Eva needed help. Mrs Birling “turned her away when she most needed help.” she had “refused her even the pitiable bit of organized charity” she could grant Eva. This makes us even more sympathetic towards Eva smith because it would have been very hard for her to swallow her pride and go to Mrs Birling’s committee for help. Before this she had even attempted prostitution rather than going to a charity. But this time because she was carrying a child, Eric’s child, she had to appeal to a charity. The fact that the child that Eva was carrying was Eric’s, makes Mrs Birling seem even more cold-hearted. Eva even refused Eric’s offer of marriage because she didn’t love him. This shows her very strong principles because if she had married Eric she would have led a very easy life, living on his money. She even refused to take more money from him when she found out that the money was stolen, which again shows her principles and how strong her morals are compared to the Birlings.
J. B Priestly uses her to show the under dogs of that society. She was a very nice girl who was abused by all members of the Birling family. She was sacked by Mr Birling because she stood up for what she thought was fair and spoke out against injustice. She was sacked from her second job because of Sheila Birling’s paranoia, which must have been quite devastating. Then she is kept by Gerald as a mistress and thrown out when it didn’t suit him to be with her any more. When she turns to prostitution yet again, she is abused by Eric to end the night. And after that she was deprived of help from charity because of Mrs Birling’s ego. All these events lead her to commit suicide. The Birling family’s actions make the audience feel a strong distaste for them. In a way she represents all that is good and true. She chooses to have a hard life because her conscience doesn’t allow her to do the wrong thing.
Sheila Birling shows that there is yet hope for the younger generation. She is remorseful and understands what a horrendous thing she has done. I feel I relate most of all to her because everyone at some point in their life make mistakes and this mistake was a huge one but not fatal. The very fact that she is sorry for what she has done makes me relate to her.
Mrs Birling is the one who makes the fatal decision of advising her committee against helping Eva smith. She is the character, along with Mr Birling, that refuses to see her wrong deeds, and this makes her horribly detestable.
I admire Eva Smith because she wasn’t afraid to stand up for her beliefs and was never afraid of bearing hardship because of her beliefs.
The female characters indeed have a dramatic importance in bringing Priestley’s message forward. Sheila is the bright light of hope for the new and younger generation who understand injustice and are prepared to mend their ways in order to build a better future.
Mrs Birling is the representative of the old generation who quite simply refuse to admit their faults and mistakes and who were responsible for the war and most of the suffering in the society.
Eva Smith is the representative of the people who are good and have a conscience. They feel responsible even though other people in society don’t seem to care. They are the sufferers.
Priestly uses Eva and Sheila to show that they are people in society who care or seem to be prepared to care and take responsibility. Mrs Birling is the one who refuses to see the reality and seems to hold on to the old world, and yet she seems to lose that grip fast because of people like Sheila.
Priestley’s message is somewhat still relevant today. There are still people in this society who seem to suffer. E.g. the homeless people who live on streets. But now days because there are a lot of people who only pretend to be homeless are on the streets, one doesn’t know who is genuinely in need of help and who isn’t. So Priestley’s message is still relevant today to an extent, but I think that from 1945 society has come a long way and now is better equipped to help the needy. There is the benefit agency and the housing association to help people, but still a lot of people suffer because of pretenders who just want to take advantage of this system. Today social class hold no real meaning in society, and the Birling’s of this society are those pretenders.
