Act One In Act One, Sheila and her family are celebrating her engagement to Gerald Croft. Although Sheila is excited and full of joy, she can’t help but wonder why Gerald spent all of last summer avoiding her and blaming it on work, as it says on page 3, “(half serious, half playfully) Yes - except all last summer when you never came near me, and I wondered what had happened to you.Sheila’s tone with Gerald is quite serious sometimes, even when she is trying to be playful. The Inspector arrives, he tells Mr. Birling about Eva Smith and Mr. Birling states his connection with her.
He calls the girls ‘cheap labour’, Sheila hears this and says, “But these girls aren’t cheap labour, they’re people. ” This shows that Sheila isn’t a typical snob like her Father, she is a girl who sees everyone as equal and has her own strong views, and no one is going to change that. When Sheila realises that Eva Smith was the young girl she got fired from her job, she runs out of the room sobbing.Sheila then returns, all miserable and full of guilt, and asks ’So I’m really responsible? ’ She immediately takes the blame and doesn’t try to get herself out of it.
Sheila feels horrible and admits being jealous of Eva Smith. She quotes, ‘She was the right type, just as I was the wrong’ and, ‘She was a very pretty girl, too - with big dark eyes - and that didn’t make it any better. ’ At the very end of Act One, Gerald gives it away that he knew Eva Smith, but known to him as Daisy Renton, Sheila quickly puts it together and questions Gerald when the Inspector goes to the next room.He acts like he knows nothing, but she doesn’t fall for it she says bitterly to him ‘No, that’s no use. You not only knew her, but you knew her very well. ’ Gerald gives in and admits to it but asks her not to tell the Inspector.
“(laughs rather hysterically) Why - you fool - he knows. Of course he knows. And I hate to know how much he knows that we don’t know yet. You’ll see. You’ll see.
” Sheila warns him, it is almost like she is observing the Inspector and learning his techniques. Act Two At the beginning of Act Two, Sheila is determined to stay and know more about the affair.Gerald accuses Sheila of being a selfish girl, and says that she only wants to stay because she wants to watch someone else be put through what she has been through. Sheila’s response is, “(Bitterly) So that’s what you think I’m like. I’m glad I realised in time, Gerald.
” This shows that her mood is changing about her relationship and she is becoming quiet negative about it. After the whole truth about Gerald and Daisy, Sheila’s negativity towards Gerald calms down and she tells him she has more respect for him because he told the truth, but she gives back the ring to Gerald.By now, the Inspector has influenced Sheila and she knows his techniques, yet she is still curious of him. When Mrs. Birling is about to be questioned Sheila warns her of how it is easy to build up a wall between them and the Inspector, but how it is unbearable when he knocks it down as easily. On page 32, she says “… It isn’t the time to pretend that Eric is used to drink.
He’s been steadily drinking too much for the past two years. ” It is almost like she is fed up of her Mother acting so oblivious and she feels like she has to be the one to make them open their eyes a bit more.On page 49, Sheila tells her Mother so by saying “Mother - I begged you and begged you to stop -” Sheila sees more of what is going to happen next and feels the impact of the Inspector ‘knocking down the wall’. Act 3 Act 3 is where Sheila and her brother, Eric, get fed up of how childish their parents are acting and argues with them along side her brother; Which both of them still feel guilty and responsible. On page 59, Sheila says, “… You turned the girl out of one job, and I had turned her out of another. Gerald kept her - at the time he was suppose to be too busy to see me.
Eric - well, we know what Eric did. And mother hardened her heart and gave her the final push that finished her…” Here she is reminding her family’s involvement of Eva’s suicide as they were trying to push the blame off themselves. Sheila, on the other hand, does not like this and sums up the chain events in order. You can tell she feels rotten about the whole thing and she will not forget it. Sheila quotes on page 71, “No, because I remember what he said, how he looked and how he made me feel.
Fire, blood and anguish.And it frightens me the way you talk, and I can’t listen to any of it. ” Sheila is telling them off and showing how she is disgusted by her parent’s behaviour, and because of that, she doesn’t want to be in the conversation with them. I think Sheila has developed a lot throughout the play and has definitely become more mature than her parents; She has also become a lot more wiser as well. Priestly has made Sheila out to be the character people thought would be snobby and spoilt into this person who stands firmly by what she believe and sees everyone as equal no matter what class.
