What Form Does Priestley Present The Character Of Sheila Birling

How does Priestley use language, form, and structure to present the character of Sheila Birling?

Priestly, in consideration of his views on capitalism, presents Sheila Birling as having a common trait found typical in middle-class girls of the early twentieth century- materialism. “Now I really feel engaged”, the use of the adverb “really” is used to imply Sheila needs tangible items to have affirmation in her engagement despite, this being evident that she has been in a relationship for at least a year, as seen in “last summer”. This may suggest that her relationship is not based on emotions, but rather transactional. Instead, based on the physical items her partner can provide. This is a criticism of capitalism, as Sheila is presented as

The use of the adverb “half” in the stage directions “half serious”, half playful” implies that Sheila is half the person she wants to be, this could be because she isn’t allowed to express her opinion**. The switch in word order, swapping “half-serious” to “half-playful” from the front on Page 2 may show 1910s women were not permitted to be emotional. This is shown in a piece of literature of a similar time period, Jane Eyre: “women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel”. **This could be due to the infantilisation of the older generations who represent Victorian-gendered ideals.**. Initially, when Sheila releases what she has done, she cannot even express her sadness “half-stifled sob”, just like how a child cannot their emotions properly, this further indicates that Sheila does not have bodily autonomy. The antonyms “right type” and “wrong type” create a comparison, which is used to create a sense of competition between the two young women, Sheila, and Eva. This could be the indoctrination of Sheila by a patriarchal society. The patriarchy consists of men holding the utmost power in government where women have been excluded. Women have been viewed as sexual objects therefore if women only find their value in men, then our only other threat and competition are other women. This is further ` exasperated in the conditional phrase “If [..]plain little creature”. The concrete noun creature is used to dehumanise those who do not adhere to strict societal beauty