Sheila's Change In An Inspector Calls

Upon the introduction of the play. Priestley clearly demonstrates the division between the older and younger generations as they conflict numerous amounts of time throughout the play. The younger generation are represented by Sheila and Eric. They are more accepting of the socialist ideologies and are receptive, but this change had only happened throughout the whole play as their parents have forced these ideas of capitalism onto them which then portrayed them as arrogant and isolated from the outside world of the middle class which made it easy for Mr birling to manipulate his capitalists views onto them. The older generation, Mr and Mrs Birling, both do not have a character development and their views on society do not change and they stay

She provides an age and morals contrast with her mother as they often clash a lot. Mrs Birling refuses repeatedly to take any responsibility in Eva Smith's death, which Sheila clearly shows much sympathy and sorry for, she immediately owns up to it when saying, “So am really responsible?”. We first see this transformation where Sheila says “But these girls aren't cheap labour they're people” on page 19, where she expresses her sympathy for the strikers, which Mr Birling adds that he couldn't care less and only cares about the business and costs of the issue rather than the humane perspective of issues. Sheila and Eva resemble each other, this is one of the reasons Sheila empathises with Eva the most because she would be in her shoes if it was not for Sheila's status or wealth. Preistley uses Sheila as a divide as she is open minded to the socialists ideas. Priestleys idea here is to show that the younger generations have the power to change. Another step in Sheila's transformation is when she maturely accepts what Gerald has done, which also shows she is not naive as she had suspected

The play was set before the first world war and then performed to the post second war audience. Priestley uses this to attack the people who had the same capitalistic views as the society back then and Mrs and Mr Birling . He intends for both the Birling parents to be hated by the current audience because the audience watching in 1945 have evolved their ideologies and matured more as a society, who are the Birlings and now are seen as arrogant and now despised with the current people. The quote “Pretending all over again” in act 3 from this Priestley suggests that they have not learnt and history will have to repeat itself till people learn and mature from their capitalist mindset. He uses that to attack the current society, because they have not corrected their previous mistakes. Near the end of Act 3 in the performance the stage begins the rise and goes back up to where it previously was. This use of stage directions and the end of the play signifies to the audience that nothing has