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Essay On Sheila's Change In An Inspector Calls

1041 Words5 Pages

In An Inspector Calls the character Sheila changes and matures significantly throughout the play. Priestly aims to encourage and persuade the 1912 audience to consider the negative power of capitalists and that socialism is a better way forward. Sheila contributes to Priestly’s moral message about socialism and capitalism by emphasising the possibility for change which is up to the younger generation. At the start of the play, Sheila is portrayed as a spoiled daughter who has been taught to be submissive to her parents. The stage directions describe her as a “pretty girl” rather than a woman which could be due to her unmarried status but implies that she is child-like and immature as a person. This unsophisticated image of Sheila is shown …show more content…

She says after they find out that the Inspector was nothing but a hoax, “but now you’re all beginning all over again to pretend that nothing much has happened.” Sheila being the most intelligent out of the characters is aware that even though the Inspector wasn’t a real one, they still did break moral values and acted callously towards a person. The pronoun and repetition of “all” suggests Sheila is removing herself from her family of capitalists and is becoming her own person. Sheila towards the end of the play says, “And it frightens me the way you talk, and I can’t listen to any more of it.” The adjective “frightened” shows to the audience that she is shocked at how her parents seem to think of it all as a joke rather than events that have actually taken place, this is the process as role reversal as Sheila (and Eric) are admitting to their faults whereas her parents’ morality has not changed. Here, there is a visible separation between the old and young characters because the old, Mr and Mrs Birling are still sticking to their arrogant and capitalistic views, however, the young, Sheila and Eric understands they have been immoral. Priestly had purposefully done this to highlight how corrupt capitalistic views were. As Priestly was a socialist he wanted to spread a message portrayed by the Inspector and the younger

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