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In the play, Inspector Calls, Priestley presents Sheila as a reflection of the younger generation and their more impressionable views, causing them to develop into acting as the hope for the future.
Priestley does this by portraying Sheila as immediately guilty and is shown through her sudden effort to take responsibility for her actions. "I'm to blame and I'm desperately sorry" which emphasises Priestley's optimism for a better society and demonstrates her increasing maturity that is the reflection of the society's positive development. The adverb 'desperately' also creates that sense of compassion and the informality of it creates a begging image and the plosive 'd' exaggerates her regret and deepens the audiences knowledge about her character as they see this remorseful, emotional person for the first time in the play which softens the audience's tough feelings about her. It also clashes against the typical capitalist's reputation to always have to be right and their selfishness as Sheila avoids that with the use of the emotive language to really portray her sympathy towards Eva.
Furthermore, as a character, we see her develop through her use of language to indicate her maturing from an infantile capitalist to a passionate socialist. The use of 'Mummy' transforming to later in the play, 'Mother' symbolises an act of confidence which we don't see at the beginning of the play because her childlike, naive behaviour shows her materialistic views. It's as if the character has had a revelation of reality from her little bubble of ignorance. The revelation is shown through the stage directions in the play, of the lighting. The lighting changes from 'pink and intimate' to 'harsher and brighter' to indicate the revelation of truth but can also reveal the harsh reality that the younger generation is pressured to ignore by the older generation. It is also viewed as her coming into conflict with her parents because of their capitalist views that contrast with her newfound socialist views therefore Priestley is creating controversial views from the audience as some might view as a sign of disrespect and dishonourable as she challenges her parents however alternatively some would see this as her standing up to her beliefs which a 21st century audience would see that as a sign of personal freedom and morally guiding.
At the beginning of the play, the audience sees her as uneasing because all they see at first is her stereotypical presentation of a materialistic woman which immediately forces the audience to feel wary about her as her image is reflected as preppy. The importance of her ring is highlighted in the play as we see her talk all about her ring rather than her engagement to Gerald. "Now I really feel engaged" conveys her as a superficial character and the adverb "now" reflects that importance of the ring to her and how she suggests that her feelings for Gerald are rooted by her love for money. However, this contrasts with her actions later in the play as she rejects Gerald's ring after finding out about his indiscretion. This shows her reluctance to embrace the submissive role and avoids the representation of a typical Edwardian woman because of her ability to establish right and wrong which gives her the perfect role to highlight Priestley's intentions to create her as a mouthpiece to address the social responsibility the upper class.
Overall, Priestley intended to create Sheila as a moral compass towards the younger generation, whom at the time would watch this and give society a hopeful perspective to changing the segregation of classes and ignorance of the rich.