J.B.Priestley’s play, An Inspector Calls :: English Literature

An Inspector CallsDiscuss the quotation of Sheila in An Inspector CallsSheila Birling is the daughter of Mr Arthur Birling and Mrs SybilBirling. She has a younger buddy called Eric Birling. Sheila is inher early twenties and is in a high brotherly class. However they aresaid to be nouveux rishe because her father wasnt born(p) into awealthy family, he made his own way through and through life to be were he is.This, in a way, nearifies the attitude and discretion his children andhimself. What I mean by this is that he hasnt got the sophistedvocabulary we would expect a man in his position would have. Sheilaand Eric also go throughm to have this wishing of manners and sophistecatedvocabulary.Dont be an assSheila says this to Eric at the table. As we can see this is quite amodern vocabulary and not proper of a rich family.This contrastsgrately with the behaviour and vacabulary of her mother.Sheila shows herself as an impressionable girl. She is willing toaccept in the altogethe r ideas and concepts. She has an honest and attractivecharacter and shows quite a different character than that of herparents. She is not so cold-blooded. This makes her able to changeher attitude as the play progresses.I think Sheila represents two of the deadly sins. She represents envyin the shop where she went to buy the dress. She envied the way Evalooked in the dress. She also represents wrath (great anger).. Shrepresents this in general in her behaviour at Milwards.Sheila, before the inspector comes, is very boyish and quitenave as swell up.. She seems to say rather immature things curiously toEric employ slang phrases such as Youre squiffy. This shows her small-minded consciousness towards the power Gerald has over her. Shedoesnt seem to realise that she is using slang vocabulary infront ofher fianc which belongs to a high status family.Early in the play she shows herself to be a very dependent girl,looking to her parents for virtually decisions that need to be made. H ermarriage to Gerald was a marriage of businesses, as well as love. Idoubt Sheila saw this at the time, or just ignored this fact.Sheila is also quite a spoilt girl since she has everything she wants.This is shown in her attitude in Milwards. Here she shows that sherelies on others and cares little for the lower classes. I thinkPriestly chooses to represent her like this at first so that we canrealise the big change she makes as the play progresses.