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

An Inspector Calls Discuss the character of Sheila in â€Å"An Inspector Calls† Sheila Birling is the daughter of Mr Arthur Birling and Mrs Sybil Birling. She has a younger brother called Eric Birling. Sheila is in her early twenties and is in a high social class. However they are said to be â€Å"nouveux rishe† because her father wasn’t born into a wealthy family, he made his own way through life to be were he is. This, in a way, justifies the attitude and manners his children and himself. What I mean by this is that he hasnt got the sophisted vocabulary we would expect a man in his position would have. Sheila and Eric also seem to have this lack of â€Å"manners† and sophistecated vocabulary. â€Å"Dont be an ass† Sheila says this to Eric at the table. As we can see this is quite a modern vocabulary and not proper of a rich family.This contrasts grately with the behaviour and vacabulary of her mother. Sheila shows herself as an impressionable girl. She is willing to accept new ideas and concepts. She has an honest and attractive character and shows quite a different character than that of her parents. She is not so â€Å"cold-blooded†. This makes her able to change her attitude as the play progresses. I think Sheila represents two of the deadly sins. She represents envy in the shop where she went to buy the dress. She envied the way Eva looked in the dress. She also represents wrath (great anger).. Sh represents this mostly in her behaviour at Milwards. Sheila, before the inspector comes, is very immature and quite naà ¯ve as well.. She seems to say rather immature things especially to Eric using slang phrases such as â€Å"You’re squiffy†. This shows her little consciousness towards the power Gerald has over her. She doesn’t seem to realise that she is using slang vocabulary infront of her fiancà © 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 most decisions that need to be made. Her marriage to Gerald was a marriage of businesses, as well as love. I doubt 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 she relies on others and cares little for the lower classes. I think Priestly chooses to represent her like this at first so that we can realise the big change she makes as the play progresses.