Notesale: Turn your study into money

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Sheila Birling

Sheila is described as ‘rather excited’ and ‘pleased with life
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This changes throughout the play, as Sheila’s character
develops into one of the wisest and most selfless characters
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One of the first things that Sheila is described as is
‘pretty
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Once again, this changes in the eyes
of the audience as the play progresses, but most of the other characters remain blinded by the fact
that she is a woman and pretty, and therefore shouldn’t have opinions on subjects such as the
suicide of a girl and capitalism
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For example, she is not allowed to listen to
the details of the suicide because she is a girl and still considered a child, even though she is twenty
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At the
beginning of the play, she has a very close relationship with both her mother and her father, acting
like a very small child whilst they both treated her as such
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Mr Birling begins the investigation being very protective of Sheila, and
ends it being very much of the opinion that Sheila is young and therefore has no valid opinions
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Sybil carries on treating Sheila like a naïve child all of the way through
the investigations, but Sheila starts to resent her mother because of this
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At the beginning of the play there is a lot of sibling rivalry evident, but during the
investigation, Eric is the only person that wholly supports and stands by Sheila
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Sheila’s relationship with Gerald changes dramatically
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However, as Sheila gets more confident in her independence and opinions,
she realises that Gerald is everything that she dislikes in her father: greedy, self-orientated and with
no respect for women
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Themes explored through Sheila
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Responsibility- 'I know I’m to blame – and I’m desperately sorry'
Truth- ‘Why – you fool – he knows
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Women- 'What was she like? Quite young?' ‘Pretty?’
Social class- 'But these girls aren’t cheap labour – they’re people

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