Sheila Birling Flashcards
(7 cards)
Stage Directions Quotes
“pretty girl in her early twenties”
“very pleased with life and rather excited”
Act 1 Quotes (after inspector arrives)
“I can’t help thinking about this girl - destroying herself so horribly”
Sheila asking what Eva Smith was like - “Pretty?”
“I think it was a mean thing to do” (Birling firing Eva)
“It’s a rotten shame.”
“But these girls aren’t cheap labour – they’re people.”
Act 2 quotes
(Gerald taking about Sheila) “She’s had a long and tiring day”
“I know I’m to blame – and I’m desperately sorry.”
(To Mrs Birling) “I’m afraid you’ll say something that you’ll be sorry for afterwards”
(To Mrs Birling) “You mustn’t try to build up a kind of wall between us and that girl. If you do, the Inspector will just break it down.”
“he’s giving us rope - so that we’ll hang ourselves.”
“Mother, I think it was cruel and vile”
Act 3 quotes
“I know”…“I started it.”
“The point is you don’t seem to have learnt anything”
“[bitterly] I suppose we’re all nice people now”
“You’re just beginning to to pretend all over again”
“Between us we drove that girl to commit suicide.”
“Everything we said had happened really had happended”
“You’re ready to go on in the same old way”; “it frightens me the way you talk.”
“So nothing really happened. So there’s nothing to be sorry for, nothing to learn.”
“I must think”
Act 1 quotes (before inspector arrives)
In a “[half serious, half playful]” tone “Yes, thats what you say” (to Gerald about his absence last summer)
(to Eric) “You’re squiffy”
(about ring) “Look - Mummy - isn’t it a beauty?”… “I’ll never let it go out of my sight for an instant
Act 1 quotes (Sheila’s confession and after)
When shown the photograph “recognises it with a little cry, gives a half-stifled sob, and then runs out”
“[miserably] So I’m really responsible”
“It was my own fault”
When telling the Inspector what she did - “She almost breaks down, but just controls herself.”
(to Gerald) “[laughs rather hysterically] Why - you fool - he knows”
How does Sheila show maturity in Act 2?
“I’m not a child, don’t forget. I’ve a right to know.”
“[with sharp sarcasm] You were the wonderful Fairy Prince. You must have adored it, Gerald”
“I think you’d better take this with you. [She hands him the ring.]”
(To Gerald) “I rather respect you more than I’ve ever done before.”… “You and I aren’t the same people who sat down to dinner here. We’d have to start all over again,”
