An Inspector Calls is a definitive play written by J. B Priestley. It explores the many themes that wove through society before the first world war, such lack of social responsibility, social disparity between different classes and the gap of understanding and contemplating between the two dissimilar generations – the young and the old. In this essay, I will be exploring the character Sheila Birling and how and why does she change in the play, in response to the Inspector and to her family.
At the beginning of the play, Sheila is introduced as “a pretty girl in her early twenties, rather pleased with life’. These stage directions immediately introduce a young girl, with a very naive nature to life and unaware of the reality of it. However, a slight hint of change, is present amongst the effusive naive character of Sheila. When Sheila states ‘except all last summer, when you never came near me’ there is a subtle insinuation of hurt and anger.
She of course did not know of the affair, which did subsidise to her fissure between delight and resentment, in which was a huge contrast as to how she was presented on stage; elegant in white; refined and soft-spoken – the expected etiquettes of a woman with class – yet presented as a woman with an impartial, steady hand. Such qualities at the beginning, even if they are trivial, give her the ability to transform for the better – as a woman who can establish aspects of life which are morally correct from those which slightly hinder the loss of any impartiality.
Initially the way that Sheila is presented at the beginning of the play, shadowed the lives of many young girls, during Priestley’s time. As they were the daughters of affluent businessmen who enriched the capitalist ways of life, they often led sheltered lives, unaware of the privations and suffering that people from the much poorer backgrounds and potentially those of the Lower Class had to endure.
Through Sheila’s radual change, Priestley wanted to address these matters, to bring about a cognizance to girls and young women and men of all classes, but especially those with leverage, like the Birling’s – that they have an obligation and a responsibility, to people like Eva Smith, which fathomed a heavy weight upon their shoulders. Priestley ultimately emphasises the idea that decisions need to be made and action needs to be taken or history will eventually repeat itself as it has already done so. During Act One, Sheila begins to realise her responsibility and responds to the Inspector’s message.
This is seen in two parts of Act One – when she realises that working-class girls are not cheap labour and when she accounts to her mistake. When the Inspector says ‘factories and warehouses… look for cheap labour’, Sheila replies by saying ‘These girls aren’t cheap labour – they’re people’. People is written in italics meaning that not only did she distinguish this but emphasized it to her father who was ignorant enough not to know. Even though she did not know women from working class status, Priestley created this bond between her and them, just like the bond between the Inspector and Eva Smith.
This is the pivotal changing point in the play as, she begins to realise and understand that the world outside is not as it seems. This part also has a thematic link of social inequality. The referral of these women being cheap labour is quite impersonal language. The loss of all humanity is present here – as if these women are not human beings of their own but are the possessions courtesy of ownership to the Upper Class. They are not deemed as people and are only there to serve the needs of the employers and are disposed of afterwards.
As a standing socialist, Priestley was concerned for the welfare of the Lower Class, and those whom were treated with undue prejudice, and therefore through Sheila and the Inspector could we understand this. Furthermore, we can also see that Sheila is the first person in the play to fully understand and own up to her responsibility. We can see this when she repeats ‘I’ll never, never do it again to anybody’. This repetition stresses her finality not to do the same thing to anyone ever again. It also delineates her penitence and culpability which come pouring out, when she does her monologue.
Through her monologue, we find out she’s many things: understanding, mature, candid; forbearing and sympathetic as well as responsible in which gives her the qualities to be able to develop and contemplate as a character, which therefore gives her the ability and the inclination to change, not only as a person, but a betterment and an imperative figure of hope for the future generations. Another way Priestly presents Sheila is through changes between her relationships and attitudes with her parents. At the end of the play, it is clear that Sheila has matured and take more authority from away from her parents.
When the family learns that the Inspector wasn’t isn’t real Sheila says to her parents ‘You knew it them. You began to learn something. And now you’ve stopped. Priestley’s use of tripling highlights Sheila’s strong desire for change and her determination to persuade her parents to change their ideologies and spread the Inspector’s views. Furthermore, the use of the personal pronoun ‘you’ demonstrates how Sheila evidently distances herself away from her parents, insinuating her desire for a lack of association with them.
She realises she doesn’t want to be influenced by their views as she knows they are wrong, therefore highlighting the contrast between Sheila and her parent’s attitudes as well as Priestley’s desire for the younger generation to understand what is wrong and actively change to make it right. Furthermore, the use of the three short sentences create a harsh undertone of anger from Sheila towards her parents as well as underlining how Sheila is adapting to the Inspector’s ideas and becoming similar to him in her attitudes and speech.
Therefore, along with other similar language to the Inspector, Sheila emphasising on the powerful verb? learn’ so that she is repeating the Inspector’s main purpose and as a result, she becomes a proxy for the Inspector after he leaves. Priestley’s has made Sheila a proxy for the inspector to reflect the power that the Inspector has. In addition, the fact that he failed to change Sybil and Arthur Birling perhaps suggests that the capitalists had so much power and dominance in the 1900’s that they were not at all impressionable to change.
Furthermore, Sheila anger towards her parents could symbolise Priestley’s anger towards the capitalists in British society and how he wants the audience in 1945 to realise that the capitalists are so powerful that they have brought Britain in to two world wars, trying to persuade the audience that it’s time for a chan Overall, Sheila makes the most dramatic changes during the play in contrast to the other characters as because Priestley uses Sheila as a catalyst for his main messages in the play.
Sheila is the only character who seems aware of the Inspector’s power and she is easily influenced by his attitudes and ideas for a future society. Sheila begins as a typical young ‘pretty girl however she leaves the play as an independent young woman who has adapted to socialist views and strives to makes a change to the British society by moving away from the capitalist ideologies. As an older adult in 1945, Sheila provides the audience with a sense of hope for the future and a hope for a socialist society – where we truly are “all of one body”.
