How to write the perfect GCSE essay on Sheila Birling 🕵️

Inspector Calls is a play that Priestley wrote to force his audience to CHANGE. And if there’s any character that shows this – it’s Sheila. She arguably changes the most in the play!

If you’re sitting Inspector Calls as part of your upcoming assessments, she’s a popular character with teachers. So here are the top 3 points you should make in any Sheila Birling essay that you get:

1️⃣ Contrast Sheila at the start and end:

Start by discussing Sheila’s change and growth. At first she’s naïve, shallow, child-like. By the end, she develops a moral and social conscience – mention this!

💭Quotes:

She’s introduced as a “pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life”

She awakens when she tells her father “these girls aren’t cheap labour – they’re people.”

By the end, she is outraged her parents “don’t seem to have learnt anything”

2️⃣ She faces harsh truths:

Unlike her parents, she faces the consequences of her selfishness against Eva. Use this to contrast her integrity with the older generation’s denial.

💭Quote:

“I behaved badly too. I know I did. I’m ashamed of it.”

3️⃣ She conveys Priestley’s FEMINIST message:

This is critical – Priestley wanted to use her (and Eva!) to highlight the unfair and unequal treatment women faced. Priestley has the Inspector defend her and ultimately Sheila walks away from Gerald to demonstrate that women too can be intelligent and powerful.

💭Quote:

“Your daughter isn’t living on the moon” (Inspector Goole says this)

““You and I aren’t the same people who sat down to dinner here.”

✨PS: I am running an Inspector Calls HALF TERM class on 18 February going over TWO model answers for Inspector Calls: https://www.firstratetutors.com/february-literature