Explore how J.B. Priestley presents change in Sheila during the course of the play, ‘An Inspector Calls.’
In An Inspector calls Priestley initially presents Sheila as an immature girl who abides to the expectations set upon her by society. However the Inspectors introduction starts a change in her where she is presented by Priestley as more mature and responsible as shown when she takes responsibility for Eva’s death. Priestley uses Sheila to reflect his own ideas of socialism to the audience and thus showing them that they can change in order to prevent following the mistakes of older generations. In the beginning of the play Priestley uses a variety of techniques and devices to present the change in Sheila. Initially Sheila is presented …show more content…
This is shown when she contradicts her mother by saying ‘Stop it, please.’ She is now more outwardly showing her views and she is very aware of the power that the inspector holds over them so much that she is ‘urgently’ trying to make her mother understand too and tell the truth. Similarly, Sheila’s awareness to the inspector’s power is emphasised when she replies to her father, saying that ‘he’s giving us rope so that we’ll hang ourselves.’ The repetition of rope is a linguistic device used by Priestley to show that the Inspector’s purpose is to force the Birlings into acknowledging their mistakes and not to arrest them as they have not committed a legal crime more of a moral one. As Shelia is more amenable to the Inspector’s message, it shows that she’s accepted social responsibility and wants her family to do so as …show more content…
This is demonstrated when she says that she doesn 't ‘dislike [Gerald] as [she] did half an hour ago.’ She holds his honesty in high regard, but she feels that in order for their relationship to go on, they would have to ‘start all over again.’ Sheila has accepted responsibility and therefore she isn 't prepared to blindly follow what both Gerald and her father want of her as she was in the beginning of the play.
To conclude, initially in the play Sheila was presented as a spoilt child who had no sense of social responsibility and did not know how her actions affected others. After the Inspector is introduced the audience can see an immense change in Sheila whereby she becomes wiser, more mature and independent. Her change represents how the younger generation will learn from their mistakes unlike their parents and she realises that it didn 't matter whether Eva Smith really existed, what did matter was that she acted immorally towards someone and her actions had
In An Inspector calls Priestley initially presents Sheila as an immature girl who abides to the expectations set upon her by society. However the Inspectors introduction starts a change in her where she is presented by Priestley as more mature and responsible as shown when she takes responsibility for Eva’s death. Priestley uses Sheila to reflect his own ideas of socialism to the audience and thus showing them that they can change in order to prevent following the mistakes of older generations. In the beginning of the play Priestley uses a variety of techniques and devices to present the change in Sheila. Initially Sheila is presented …show more content…
This is shown when she contradicts her mother by saying ‘Stop it, please.’ She is now more outwardly showing her views and she is very aware of the power that the inspector holds over them so much that she is ‘urgently’ trying to make her mother understand too and tell the truth. Similarly, Sheila’s awareness to the inspector’s power is emphasised when she replies to her father, saying that ‘he’s giving us rope so that we’ll hang ourselves.’ The repetition of rope is a linguistic device used by Priestley to show that the Inspector’s purpose is to force the Birlings into acknowledging their mistakes and not to arrest them as they have not committed a legal crime more of a moral one. As Shelia is more amenable to the Inspector’s message, it shows that she’s accepted social responsibility and wants her family to do so as …show more content…
This is demonstrated when she says that she doesn 't ‘dislike [Gerald] as [she] did half an hour ago.’ She holds his honesty in high regard, but she feels that in order for their relationship to go on, they would have to ‘start all over again.’ Sheila has accepted responsibility and therefore she isn 't prepared to blindly follow what both Gerald and her father want of her as she was in the beginning of the play.
To conclude, initially in the play Sheila was presented as a spoilt child who had no sense of social responsibility and did not know how her actions affected others. After the Inspector is introduced the audience can see an immense change in Sheila whereby she becomes wiser, more mature and independent. Her change represents how the younger generation will learn from their mistakes unlike their parents and she realises that it didn 't matter whether Eva Smith really existed, what did matter was that she acted immorally towards someone and her actions had