Compare and Contrast Essay Sample: Sheila Birling vs. Eva Smith in An Inspector Calls

During the course of the play, Sheila can be seen as the character who develops and learns the most important lessons about herself and the society, she truly lives in. She starts off the play as a childish, blind young lady who drastically impacted by the arrival and interrogation of the inspector so much so that she takes on his own role.

At the start of the play we meet Sheila as childish and blind to the society she lives in, though shows signs of a young Edwardian lady, starting to break the mould . Her blindness can be seen in Priestley’s stage directions as he states that Sheila is ‘pleased with life’ which is due to her comfortable lifestyle and upbringing. During her life Sheila has been protected by her parents from the horrors of the outside world that may live around her corner. Brumley, the town she lives in, is depicted as an industrial town meaning that the working-class lives near and around her, though their struggles don’t pass her. During this time of 1912 there were masses of social unrest in the working class so the fact that Sheila is so blind to it can be seen as an effect from her upbringing. We are also introduced to Sheila as very much childish, referring to her mother using nouns such as ‘mummy’. We also see how own parents don’t see her as an adult most likely leading to the being labelled as ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’ because of how Mr Birling acts towards Sheila. During the first act Mr Birling tells Sheila to run along as if she is a young girl who doesn’t need to be hearing such grown up conversations. This could be linking to the way women were seen in the patriarchal society that Sheila was living in where she was expected to conform to many standards that did not necessarily stand for men. On the topic of conforming to standards, though Sheila may be seen as a typical middle-class girl of her time, we see her breaking these rules that have been given to her but not as much as we see her doing later in the play. When at the table, Sheila starts questioning Gerald. Priestly gives Sheila the stage directions of ‘half serious half playful’ showing that she is not yet fully committing to questioning Gerald as it would have been seen as a horrid action to question your husband especially if he is a social superior to you, which Gerald is .Sheila can be seen breaking the mould of Edwardian ladies but doesn’t yet have full confidence to commit. Priestly, though presenting Sheila as a typical girl of her time, gives us glimpses of the lady she becomes after she has learnt many lessons about the world, she lives in.During Mr Birling and her own interrogations, we see Sheila finally leaning lessons about the lives of the working class and how her actions have resulted in the death of a young girl. We see Sheila taking responsibility and learn about how she feels about her own actions as well as her fathers. When learning about Eva’s death we hear Sheila say ‘oh-how horrible!-was it an accident?’. We can see by the use of the adjective ‘horrible’ what Sheila genuine reaction was to find out about Eva’s suicide. Priestly uses emotive language and an exclamation mark to show how shocked Sheila is. Though we can see the shock that Sheila feels, her using the adjective ‘horrible’ seems quite general. This could represent that Sheila has never been exposed to such things so has no idea how to act. This is also shown when Sheila asks ‘was it an accident?’. This implies that Sheila has little idea of why someone would kill themselves as she has been protected from the outside world her whole life. This is her first taste of what life is outside of her well off family. During Mr Birlings questioning we see Sheila standing up to her father quoting things such as ‘but these girls aren’t cheap labour- they’re people. We see now that Sheila has finally learnt how her father treats the working class and we see how her views are now matching with the inspector. This quote can be seen as a socialist view as Sheila can be seen as seeing them as more than just workers but people just like her, people such as Eva. Priestly uses both Sheila and Eva as comparisons. They are both around the same age, both very pretty young girls but because of one’s family, they lived very different lives. As well as not having opposing views to her father, we see Sheila interrupting him and cutting in which is something rarely done by a lady to her superior. This is a similar trait we see from the inspector. During her own interrogation we see Sheila distraught by her own actions. Sheila says ‘(miserably) so am I really responsible?’. Sheila’s reaction contrasts to that of her father. Mr Birling believes her is not the one to blame for her suicide and believes her did the right thing in firing her simply because she wanted higher pay. On the other hand, Sheila never once tries to deflect the blame and takes a large portion of responsibly . The fact that Sheila is asking if she is really responsible shows her disbelief in her action. Sheila needs confirmation of her responsibility because she feels extremely guilty for her actions and can’t believe she would do such a thing. Sheila learns how horrible her treatment to Eva Smith was when we see her showing her raw emotions. In the stage directions Sheila ‘almost breaks down, but just controls herself’. The fact that Sheila was about to ‘break down’ over her treatment to Eva shows how distraught she is and how she can’t bear that she could have done such a thing to her. We can also see how Sheila feels in stage directions such as the adjective ‘distressed’. Sheila’s emotional response shows us how much she cares about Eva’s death, unlike her father and how she is now learning about the lives of the working class as Priestly uses Eva as a representation of the working class and how poorly the working class is treated by their superior classes in this time.