Although last summer Gerald was a bit too caught up in all his work because he was “too busy” for Sheila, but Sheila realised he wasn’t just doing work and she try’s to tease an answer out of him. Because she doesn’t have the authority in their relationship to just ask him up front. Another example of Gerald having more authority in their relationship is when he chooses their engagement ring, not her. Or in the time the play was set, usually the man choose it and offered it her, instead of them choosing.
When the Inspector arrives and drops the dramatical shell shock that a girl called Eva Smith just committed suicide. The family are very surprised and confused. As Mr Birling is wondering what this has to do with him, when the inspector informs him that he was one of the components in the course of her death. After seeing a photo of her he realises that he sacked her from his company, for going on strike and wanting a pay rise. Sheila’s reaction to this is that she shouldn’t have been sacked and that he should of got a pay rise, because she needed all the money to survive in day-to-day life. However Gerald been the businessman himself, new that you can’t have employees that go around making demands and going on strike all the time, because it ruins the atmosphere at a work place.
Soon Sheila realises that she isn’t much better than her Dad because she was the reason that Eva Smith was sacked from Millwards. She doesn’t take the news very well and she feels very guilty and very upset. And she feels solely responsible for her death. After the Inspector says the she isn’t the only one to blame for her death. He does this to ease the guilt for her and so all the others can think whether they’ve ever done anything bad to anyone. At the end of Act 1 Gerald and Sheila are left alone to reflect on what’s happened. Sheila questions him on whether Gerald new her because his reaction said he did when the Inspector showed him a photo of her. Sheila says she won’t keep the secret that Gerald had a part to play, so she can share the guilt with someone else. Gerald knows he had a part and knows he has to be honest.
In act 2 Gerald starts to confess what happened. Sheila is eager to stay and listen to what he says so she can find out what he did last summer. Gerald realises that and he hopes that whatever he says hopefully their engagement isn’t called off. All the time that Gerald confesses and struggles to say what has to be said, Sheila sits their and makes sarcastic comments which aren’t relavent, and the certainly don’t make it any easier for Gerald. But when she realises what he says is from the heart and the truth she respects him and understands the difficulty of what he just had to do. After all is said Sheila gives him the ring back and says, “ I respect you more now than I ever had.” But the fact that he had an affair with Eva Smith was too much for her to forget that easily. Gerald understands the wrong he’s done and agrees with Sheila’s reasons. Where as Mr Birling doesn’t agree because he thinks it's normal for young men to have a fling, once in a while. From what’s been said between Sheila and Gerald, their relationship should grow stronger and they should now both have more respect for each other, for telling the truth, and realising they should be open to each other because then neither of them have skeletons in their closet.
When Gerald finds out that the Inspector was a phoney, he is the first one to try and forget all that’s happened that night. Between him and Sheila and everything that happened between the whole family. But, Sheila points out that it’s not that easy just to forgive and forget. A real person might have died and we still all did them bad things to someone. Mr Birling and Mrs Birling just want to forget like Gerald because they are the bad people that aren’t family orientated and aren’t good parents to Sheila and Eric. And only care about number one and no one else. Whilst Sheila is trying to point out, that everyone still has done wrong. Her Dad just says that she hysterical and doesn’t know what she says, but in fact she’s speaking more sense than anyone. From everything the Inspector said Gerald has learnt nothing he is still the same tunnel vision person that he always will be. Only thinking of him. Just to confirm to Sheila that he hasn’t learnt anything, He rings the infirmary to see if an Eva Smith has died, when he finds out that an Eva smith hasn’t died he treats everything as a joke which Sheila is horrified to see. After all his commotion he offers her the ring but she says, “ It’s to quick I need to think.” Which I think means no, because of how he reacted to the fact someone hadn’t died and that everything he said must be alright because no one died. Which shows that he as a person hasn’t changed in the course of the play.
Throughout the play Sheila and Gerald’s relationship has changed, for the worse and in some cases for the better. Because Sheila was open and admits the wrong she did. On the other hand Gerald is trying to keep everything hidden so he can get away with it, but at the start he is very open and Sheila respects him for it. They start as a happy couple and end up as two completely different people for the better and for the worse. I think that Gerald is foolish and doesn’t realise the consequences of his actions and his responsibilities as a man. If Sheila has any sense she will either try and change Gerald for the better or leave him and keep looking for a truthful man. Either way I think the play shows that woman are just as equal as men and that people who are socially superior are no better people than any other class.
