Sheila Birling Flashcards
(5 cards)
Sheila Birling quote 1
‘Sheila is a pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited’,
here use of the rather superficial adjectives , ‘pretty’, ‘pleased’, and ‘excited’, establishes Sheila’s privileged upbringing, oblivious to the hardship of Edwardian society; the deliberate use of the noun, ‘girl’ accentuates Sheila’s immaturity at the start of the play.
Sheila Birling quote 2
“(half serious, half playful) Yes- except for all last summer, when you never came near me, and I wandered what had happened to you’
the stage direction establish Sheila as a conflicted character between trusting her fiancé and suspicion regarding his whereabouts, Priestley hints at Sheila’s perceptive nature early on in the play, she challenges the gender expectations of a passive woman in the era
Sheila Birling quote 3
“I feel now I can never go there again. Oh – why had this to happen?”
the rhetorical question demonstrates she feels remorseful for what she did, however she is still preoccupied with humiliation after what happened, Priestley demonstrates Sheila is starting to acknowledge the inspector teachings, however, still has some way to go.
Sheila Birling quote 4
“[rather widely, with laugh] he’s giving us the rope-so that well hang ourselves”
here the metaphor of the rope shows Sheila’s appreciation of the Inspector power to make each of the characters confess to their immoral and criminal behaviour towards Eva.
Sheila Birling quote 5
“I behaved badly too, I know I did. I’m ashamed of it”
here the repetition of personal pronoun “I” showing she has embraced the socialist idea of social responsibility. Priestley uses Sheila as a representative of the younger generation of upper-class Edwardians to demonstrate that they have the ability to change in sharp contrast to the conservative older generation in his aim to promote socialist values of justice and social equality that embodied in Sheila Birling.
