An Inspector Calls - The Impact Of His Visit On Sheila

When the Inspector calls at the Birling household, all the family are affected by the revelations that were brought to light- especially the daughter Sheila. As a dutiful daughter, Sheila pays attention to everything that her parents say and accepts it quite happily. Due to her comfortable upbringing, Sheila is unfortunately rather spoilt and appears at some points in the play to be very superficial. This side of her personality is revealed to both her parents and the audience when the Inspector gradually manages to persuade her to confess her involvement with Eva Smith. Soon after these confessions, a dramatic change is seen in Sheila’s personality, she now seems a lot more sensitive and caring towards the situation and it seems that she has matured as she is brutally honest with the other characters and voices her opinions. When the audience learns of Mr and Mrs Birling’s connections with Eva Smith, Sheila finally finds the courage, for the first time in the play, to disagree with them and display her utter disappointment and disgust with their actions. This rapid change in character is all due to the Inspector’s visit and it seems to have a lasting impact on Sheila as even when he leaves, she agrees never to return to her former self.

Priestley chooses to convey Sheila’s character to the audience at the start of the play using many different linguistic features and dramatic devices, and this works extremely effectively. Sheila’s first words display her superficial nature because she says “I’d hate you to know all about port- like one of those purple-faced old men” when they are commenting upon the port which they are drinking with their meal. The descriptive and often innocently harsh language that she uses emphasises the fact that her upbringing has caused her to be easily judgemental. This shows the stereotypical upbringing and expectations of an over protected and under educated middle class girl at this time. When Sheila says that Eric is “squiffy”, she simply means he is drunk but at the time in which the play was written using this word to describe being drunk was a very young term that would have been used among her friends. This use of language displays her impressionable nature and makes the audience understand the expectations of women at the time because Mrs Birling then says ‘What an expression, Sheila!’ She seems almost shocked to hear her using such informal words at the dinner table because at this time the subjects of drink and sex were considered absolutely taboo to even consider. Priestly conveys the way in which Sheila is treated like a young girl, and to some extent shielded from reality, by Mr and Mrs Birling when Sheila says things like “I’m sorry, Daddy…I was listening” and is described to be ‘looking attentively’ at him. Mr Birling is then described to ‘hold for a moment before continuing’. These actions show the way in which women at the time, especially daughters like Sheila, were expected to listen to the men in the family. It also clearly displays the authority Mr and Mrs Birling had over Sheila and the way in which Sheila listens to their every word and respects their wishes. This is finally reinforced to the audience when the Inspector calls on the Birling household, because Sheila doesn’t speak for a while instead she stays quiet and lets Mr Birling deal with the situation.

When the Inspector arrives and has his first few words with Mr Birling, a change is seen in Sheilas character. She seems rather more persistent and curious about the situation and has courage to ask her father and the Inspector “What’s this all about?”. She then continues to ask further questions such as; “What business?” and “What’s happening?”. This conveys to the audience that perhaps Sheila is a more sensitive person than originally perceived because she hasn’t before had the courage to say anything to her parents. But now, when she is informed that the Inspector is enquiring about the death of a young girl called Eva Smith, she seems very concerned and wants to know more. Sheila is described to look very shocked and when Gerald tells her not to look like that, then she says “Sorry! Its just that I cant help thinking about this girl- destroying herself so horribly- and I’ve been so happy tonight. Oh I wish you hadn’t told me”. This then informs the audience that even though she could possibly have been a little worried, she is at this stage still quite self-absorbed but this changes quite quickly. When Sheila hears of how Eva Smith was once working at her father’s factory yet was fired due to a strike she held about low wages, her reaction is to say “But these girls aren’t cheap labour- they’re people.” Priestly chooses to use this language as Sheila’s comment because it conveys the fact that she is now becoming more and more confident and finds the courage not only to question her father, but also to disagree with him now. It makes the audience realise that perhaps she does have feelings and emotions, but points out that maybe before she was so dominated by her parents that she was unable to express herself genuinely.

Later in the play, the Inspector starts to ask Sheila about her involvement with Eva Smith and this is when her character change is displayed a lot more vividly in her actions and use of language. When she hears that Eva was then employed at Milwards, her reaction is to mention that they shop there and say “She was lucky to get taken on at Milwards!”. The way in which she immediately relates the situation to herself, along with her use of language here conveys to the reader that although her personality is starting to change, she still remains quite arrogant- perhaps this may be because she is still largely dominated by her parents at this stage. When Sheila finds out that Eva was sacked from Milwards because a customer had complained, she is described as looking very agitated and this suggests to the audience that perhaps Sheila was the customer that complained. Sheila then asks what she looks like to be sure and the Inspector shows her a photograph and she is said to let out ‘a little cry, give a half-stifled sob, and then run out’. This emotional language then makes the audience realise that she obviously recognised the girl and knew that she was the girl she had had fired. The fact that she is described to give a ‘half-stifled cry’ perhaps describes the way in which she didn’t want to cry and let the family know that she had been involved with Eva but she was so overcome with emotion that she couldn’t help herself. This may reflect the way in which women were expected to uphold a respectable image in the time the play is set.

The point when Sheila returns and reflects upon her actions and displays her feelings, is when the audience is made to notice the dramatic impact that the situation has had upon her personality. When the Inspector asks Sheila if she used her power as a upper-class girl to punish Eva for laughing at Sheila in a dress at Milwards, she says “Yes, but it didn’t seem anything terrible at the time…and if I could help her now, I would.” This acts as distinct proof in her change of character as it explains that at the time she didn’t see anything wrong with complaining but now she understand that what she did was wrong and she is deeply and truly sorry, for probably one of the first times in her life. Priestly chooses for Sheila to use repetition in order to convey the fact that she is extremely worried about the situation. For example; the Inspector has already informed Sheila that she was partly to blame for the death of Eva Smith because her actions led to a longer chain of events that all became too much for her, when she asks “So I’m really responsible?”. This indicates clearly to the audience that she is very sorry and can’t believe that she had acted so thoughtlessly.

Truths about Gerald’s past with Eva are then revealed and it becomes clear to the reader that the Inspectors visit has had an enormously positive effect on Sheila. When Gerald admits to what he knows about Eva, she shows her gratitude and respect for him even though she is upset and hurt by what he says. This not only shows her new maturity but gives the reader hope that after the Inspector has left and all the families issues have been dealt with, perhaps Gerald and Sheila will be able to resume their relationship on new terms. Because at this point it seems as if Sheila has almost broken free from the Edwardian stereotype of women and the fact that they were considered children until they were married.

After this, she is sure in the knowledge that however hard the family tries to hide things from the Inspector it definitely will not work. So, when the Inspector starts to question Mrs Birling about the incident, Sheila has already become an awful lot more confident and is almost siding with the Inspector as she knows her mother has something to hide. This is reflected in her language greatly when she says persuasively “Go on mother. You might as well admit it!” and “We’ve no excuse for putting on airs and if we’ve any sense we won’t try.” Priestly conveys the great confidence that Sheila has gained during the Inspector’s visit and the mature, sensitive and honest attitude that she now has.

After each character has admitted to their guilty involvements with Eva Smith, the Inspector exits and the family are left to discuss what has just happened and each character has their own attitude towards it. The family come to the conclusion that the Inspector may not have been real and Sheila firstly reacts by saying “Don’t you see, if all that’s come out tonight is true, then it doesn’t much matter who it was who made us confess. And it was true, wasn’t it?…That’s what’s important- and not whether a man is a police Inspector or not.” This allows the audience to see, from the language that she uses, that Sheila hasn’t reverted back to her old personality like the other characters (except Eric), but is still just as confident and honest as she was towards the end of the Inspector’s visit. The other characters seem to think that because the Inspector may not have been real then they are off the hook and can completely forget about the revelations that came to light- Sheila is very different to this as she knows that even though he may not have been real, she can’t forget what happened. The Inspector’s visit has permanently changed her. The language which she uses becomes extremely emotive and aggressive at some points, as she becomes frustrated with the fact that the family think they can now just forget that anything ever happened. For example; “I tell you- whoever that Inspector was, it was anything but a joke. You knew it then. You began to learn something. And now you’ve stopped. You’re ready to go on the same old way!” As you can see, Priestly has given Sheila short snappy sentences and this conveys her sheer disappointment and annoyance with them. In this extract she is also trying to make them remember how they felt when they thought that they were responsible, and is hoping that they will understand that it cannot be forgotten.

In conclusion, throughout the play Sheila’s character develops and changes gradually from a dutiful, spoilt daughter to a caring, mature, respectable young woman and these changes are all due to the Inspectors visit and the impact it has on Sheila. The changes are also made evident by the writer J.B. Priestly by way of linguistic devices and structural effects. The nature of the Inspector was very unprofessional and straightforward, which may have been reason as to why the changes in her personality occurred-perhaps because for the first time, she felt able to express her opinions and beliefs. At the end of the play, the audience are left wondering about whether Sheila had always had this personality but because of the expectations of women at the time and the controlling nature of her parents, never had the chance to reveal it until the Inspector’s visit. If this is true, was the Inspector’s visit simply due to the characters’ guilty conscience or an act of God?