Why is Mr Birling happy about Sheila's engagement to Gerald?
Mr Birling makes a speech
During the speech he reveals how happy he is that Sheila is marrying Gerald because Gerald's parents are wealthy business owners. It is clear that Mr Birling feels this marriage will be to his advantage, he boasts that he is to be considered for a knighthood .
Arthur Birling even acknowledges their displeasure telling Gerald that “Lady Croft- while she does not object to [his] girl- feels [Gerald] might have done better for [himself] socially.”
Sheila's engagement to Gerald means to Arthur means that since Crofts Limited and Birling and Company have been rivals for so long, that can finally end, for Sheila and Gerald are getting engaged, their businesses are getting merged. It means it is a business deal more than a marriage.
What impression do we get of Sheila and Gerald's relationship? Their relationship appears to be affectionate and caring but overshadowed by doubts about Gerald's commitment to Sheila.
Mr Birling makes a speech congratulating the engaged couple and expressing his pleasure at the match. He hopes their marriage will lead to closer links and greater profits for the Birling and Croft companies. The family raise a toast to the couple and, to Sheila's delight, Gerald presents her with an engagement ring.
Sheila has become a more mature and changed character, aware of her responsibilities to others and to herself, however Gerald is still more concerned about re-establishing a socially advantageous alliance – Sheila defers a decision about their engagement/marriage.
Gerald is to blame because he exploited Eva (sexually) and had no intention of marrying her. It was all for his own gain. “I became at once the most important person in her life” = He used his power from his class (particularly money) to exploit Eva for his own sexual pleasure.
Why are Gerald's parents absent from the engagement party? Because they are abroad.
The engagement ring
But after Gerald reveals his affair in Act Two, Sheila returns the ring to him and says they will need to start their relationship from the beginning, after the night's events are over, to see if they can forge a life together.
As the play continues, she matures, admiring Gerald's honesty, even though he cheated on her. She shows an assertive side by standing up to her mother and father and she also shows that she is insightful and intelligent - she can see where the Inspector's investigation is going and tries to warn the others.
What reason does Gerald give Sheila for not seeing her over the summer?
Gerald and Eva Smith
He admits that he was having an affair with Daisy over the summer and that was why he didn't see Sheila.
Whilst shopping in Milwards, she uses the power of her surname to get Eva Smith sacked from her job. Once she is married to Gerald, she will climb the social ladder, because his parents are Aristocrats. Therefore, she will be even more influential in the community, because everyone will know who she is.
he tries to protect Sheila from the “unpleasant business” by getting her to leave the room. he wants to prevent the Inspector interviewing either of his children, “Now, Inspector, perhaps you and I had better go and talk this over quietly in a corner” he is concerned for Sheila when she becomes upset.
Role. Gerald Croft is manipulative and calculating, he was having an affair whilst with Sheila. He has little respect for women, he gives them promise then disposes of them when he's finished with them. He is almost a young version of Mr Birling - He is the son that Mr Birling had always wished for.
' At the start of Act Two, tensions arise between Gerald and Sheila. He thinks she wants to stay in order to see him shamed: 'You've been through it – and now you want to see somebody else put through it.
An Inspector Calls is a play in three acts, set in Brumley, an English manufacturing town, in 1912. Arthur Birling has convened a dinner for the engagement of his daughter, Sheila, to her boyfriend, Gerald Croft.
Sheila Birling is next and she represents the cardinal sin of envy- arguably a sin frequently associated with young women. In 'An Inspector Calls', however, Sheila's envy is caused due to a number of reasons.
Priestley uses Gerald to attack the upper-classes of post-war Britain. He shows that despite outward appearances, Gerald is described as an 'attractive chap' and 'well-bred'. This class of people were still capable of questionable behaviour. Gerald has an affair and initially tries to avoid telling the truth.
Priestley suggests that Shelia and Gerald's relationship has more dept to it that what is shown. Also, by beginining the play with them he is suggesting that they are what brings all the characters together, therefore their relationship means lots to other characters. P. Sheila and Gerald seem happy.
Gerald's mother, Mrs Croft, disapproves of the marriage therefore Mr Birling attempts to compensatefor his lower social status by suggesting that there's a “very good chance of a knighthood”.
How is Sheila presented at the end of the play?
By the end of the play she has grown up and has realised that her actions can have grave consequences. At the opening of the play she appears to be a little immature and easily led. Her behaviour is childish and she very much does what her parents tell her. "I'm sorry Daddy actually I was listening."
Birling as the Most Responsible for the Suicide in J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls. leaves, 'each of you helped to kill her'.
He tells them how a girl called Eva Smith has killed herself by drinking disinfectant - he wants to ask them some questions. The Inspector reveals that the girl used to work in Arthur Birling's factory and he had her sacked for going on strike. Mr Birling refuses to accept any responsibility for her death.
Sheila admits she was that customer and the reason she got Eva fired was because a dress that Sheila tried on did not suit her and when Eva tried it on, it did. Sheila also believes she caught Eva lau ghing at her.
Mr Birling is extremely fond of Gerald, who unlike his own son is strong, manly and can hold his drink. He represents the selfish and narrow-minded ideals of time, and also is initially extremely unpleasant about the working classes and about women and their place in society.
Priestley shows Mrs Birling to be 'cold' and uncaring, even for her own children. She is more concerned with the way in which Eric and Sheila behaveas upper class citizens, than with their own personal wellbeing.
What was the relationship like between Sheila and Gerald the summer before the play begins? They had an, almost, distant relationship because Gerald said that he had to work all summer, and so the two never really saw each other. Really, Gerald was having an affair with Daisy Renton (a.k.a. Eva Smith).
'I'll never let it out of my sight for an instant. ' – Sheila's engagement ring, and more specifically the line she says when she receives it, foreshadows the dark events that are to come. The deep divisions that lurk beneath the surface have not yet been revealed, yet Sheila will feel them keenly when they are.
' At the start of Act Two, tensions arise between Gerald and Sheila. He thinks she wants to stay in order to see him shamed: 'You've been through it – and now you want to see somebody else put through it.
Sheila Birling is next and she represents the cardinal sin of envy- arguably a sin frequently associated with young women. In 'An Inspector Calls', however, Sheila's envy is caused due to a number of reasons.
What reason does Gerald give Sheila for not seeing her over the summer?
Gerald and Eva Smith
He admits that he was having an affair with Daisy over the summer and that was why he didn't see Sheila.
○ The stage directionsdictate that “Sheila gives a short hysterical laugh” in response to her mother's use of the “silly word” “impertinent”. Sheila's laugh is symbolicof her rejection of Mrs Birling's treatment of Eva.
By the end of the play she has grown up and has realised that her actions can have grave consequences. At the opening of the play she appears to be a little immature and easily led. Her behaviour is childish and she very much does what her parents tell her. "I'm sorry Daddy actually I was listening."
Throughout dinner she tells Sheila and Eric off for things that she considers impolite whilst ignorantly turning a blind eye to her son drinking too much. It is clear that despite Eric being old enough to drink and Sheila getting married, she sees them both as children, not as a young man and woman.
His mother is described as coming from 'an old country family – landed people'. It seems that his mother is disapproving of Gerald's choice to marry someone of a lower social standing, hence her absence at the engagement meal.
Gerald excuses himself from the Birling household. He explains, that he is really upset and needs to go for a walk. Before he exits, Sheila gives him back the engagement ring. She respects him for telling the truth but feels that these revelations have made a difference to their future relationship.
Sheila Birling is mostly concerned about her appearance and her social status in the community. Whilst shopping in Milwards, she uses the power of her surname to get Eva Smith sacked from her job. Once she is married to Gerald, she will climb the social ladder, because his parents are Aristocrats.