Explain how the character of Sheila Birling is changed by the Inspector’s visit. (400 words)

Written in 1945, An Inspector calls was set to be in 1912 by J.B Priestly who was born in 1894. J.B Priestly wanted to show people how life was like when class divisions looked down on each other and how politics played a big role in the society.

In Act I, Sheila Birling was celebrating her engagement to Gerald Croft over a dinner with her family. She was portrayed as a young and attractive pretty lady in her early twenties who very was pleased and contented with life. Also, the attention she got from her important engagement gave her great pleasure and it somewhat puts her under the impression of being self-centered. She thus starts playing the role as someone whom may be regarded as superficial.

However, this changes in Act II after the Inspector’s visit when she finds out that Gerald had cheated on her and the possibility of her involvement in Eva Smith’s death. She is shown to be more caring and sensitive and is also remorse about the fact that it was her who caused Eva to lose her job at the shop. In this act, she also loses her faith and happiness in her family as she is very distressed about Eva Smith’s suicide and their new found potential part in it as well as how unacceptable and badly her parents are reacting to it and the Inspector. Her reaction towards the sudden news of the Inspector is also one of the very few encouraging things to come out as she gets genuinely upset over Eva Smith’s suicide and she learns from her own behavior which she never meant Eva Smith any harm at all. Contrary to the Sheila portrayed before the Inspector’s visit, Sheila is prepared to admit her faults and appears keen and anxious to change herself for the better, “ I’ll never, never do it again.”

The Inspector then tells Sheila to stay while he questions Gerald so that she doesn’t feel entirely responsible and even when she is aware of the mystery surrounding the Inspector, she still realizes the fact that there is no point in hiding anything from him as he seems to already know the questions to his answers. But either way, it doesn’t matter to Sheila as well as Eric if the Inspector was real or not. What was important to them was that they now know the truth and are willing to learn from their mistakes and change. From this we can see that Sheila has grown up and matured from before the Inspector’s visit to after the Inspector’s visit.

(432 words.)