How Does Priestley Present Love In An Inspector Calls

How important do you think is the theme of love in “An Inspector Calls”?
How does Priestley presents different forms of love in the play?

At the beginning of the play, Sheila and Gerald’s relationship is unbalanced because Gerald sees himself as the dominant one, and is controlling. Sheila is naïve, quite immature for her age and impressionable. Gerald chose and bought the engagement ring for Sheila, without her having any say about it, and she just accepts that without questioning Gerald. She says ‘Is this one you wanted me to have?’ which connotes her willingness to be controlled. The audience realises how materialistic their relationship is as they value power and money above anything else. Sheila says ‘I think its prefect. Now I really feel engaged’ which seems an innocent enough statement, but suggests underneath that the relationship is quite shallow as only then when ring (a sign of wealth) was present makes Sheila feel properly engaged.

Gerald also manipulates Sheila by saying he was ‘awfully busy at the works at the time’ when he was asked about him never coming near Sheila last summer. Truthfulness of the characters are tested when Sheila responds to Gerald’s explanation with a
‘half serious”-“that’s what you say’ hinting that there might be other explanation. It suggests that she suspects that Gerald may have been having an affair and is therefore worldlier that his sheltered background might suggest. Surely they should have met if they both were so much in love with each other. This clearly portray that their love isn’t true.

We again notice Gerald urge to dominate when he attempts to send Sheila away when confessing his ‘unpleasant business’ to the Inspector. Gerald trying to send her away shows that he’s too proud and yet afraid to confess his guilt in front of Sheila. He thinks that ‘women ought to be protected from unpleasant and disturbing things’. Priestley shows that women in the Edwardian era were perceived as delicate, fragile and obedient to their husbands and fathers. Sheila represents a typical middle class girl of the time, wealthy and privileged and now engaged to affluent Gerald Croft. Gerald doesn’t treat Sheila equally and tries to keep things secret. When the filthy business is revealed, although Sheila ‘hands him [Gerald] the ring’, she rather respects him as she has never done before. She starts to appreciate that Gerald has been ‘honest’ and suggests that they can start ‘getting to know each other’ all over again but as different people. Priestley is trying to show that men and women are equal and they both should deserve equal respect. The world should change for good and no secrets should be kept among the couple.

Another relationship which shows signs of dominance and desire of lust is the relationship between Gerald and Daisy Renton. When Gerald, talks about his acquaintance with Eva Smith, we realize that he did have some genuine feeling for her. There seems to be some good in Gerald in that his first encounter with Daisy was to save her from the clutches of “one of the worst sots and rogues in Brumley”. His initial feeling for her is sympathy. He arranges for an accommodation because he feels “sorry for her”. However, what starts as pity soon turns into an affair. It is unfortunate that whilst Gerald starts following Priestley's message, that we are responsible for each other, when the decisive moment arrives and Gerald decides he wants to marry Sheila, he casts Eva off without much care. His conduct towards her insinuates that he helped her entirely because she was “young, fresh and pretty” and that there was a motive behind his help. The arrival of Eva in his life gave him an ego boost as he became “at once the most important person in her life”. He “adored” it because she was entirely dependent on him and he liked being in control. For him Eva Smith was a mistress who could be discarded at will. He too regarded lower class as cheap labour who could be used for your own pleasure and then thrown away when it’s not required anymore.

The love between Birling family is very weak especially between the parents and the children. The description of the house as ‘not cozy and homelike’ suggests a lack of family warmth and homeliness, despite the luxury, the family is uncomfortable and the relationships are strained. We see that Mr Birling and his ‘social superior’ lives revolve around money. Mr Birling regards Sheila’s engagement to Gerald as the ‘happiest night’ of his life because this will give him an opportunity to work together with Croft Limited which are ‘both older and bigger than Birling and Company’. This connotes how business minded he is because he treats marriage as a convenient way of progressing up the social and economic ladder. He cares more about the money than whether his daughter will live a happy life with Gerald. This could be why Mr and Mrs Birling knew so little about what their children get up to. Mrs Birling was curious when she realizes that Eric had ‘been steadily drinking too much for the last two years’ because she only treated him like a ‘boy’. Mr Birling is also dumbfounded when he is told that Old Joe Meggarty is ‘worst sots and rogues in Brumley’ and Sheila’s friend just about escaped Meggarty ‘with a torn blouse’. This reinforces how strained their relationships are and that they don’t communicate enough with each other. This also explains why Eric says that ‘you [Mr Birling] is not the kind of father a chap would go to when he’s in trouble’. The distance between them is great and Mr Birling devotion to business caused him to disregard his son’s right upbringing as he isn’t even aware that his son is a heavy drinker.

How does Priestley presents the change in Sheila?
How do you think this change reflects some of Priestley’s ideas?

Sheila Birling is the character who changes most in the play. She begins as an apparently naïve, self-centered and privileged young woman but soon develops into a perceptive and an increasingly mature and wise character, who embodies the attitudes of responsibility that form J. B. Priestley’s message in the play.

Our first impressions of the character of Sheila Birling are presented in the stage directions at the beginning of the play where she is described as “pretty”, “excited” and “very pleased with life”. At the beginning of the play, Sheila represents a typical middle-class girl of the time. Her life has been one of ease and pleasure with little concern for the world outside her immediate social circle. In addition she is engaged to be married to Gerald Croft which means a step up the social ladder as he is the son of Lord and Lady Croft. Her background therefore is privileged and it appears that she has had little to trouble her to this point.

However, under the surface lies a being that for twenty years has been indoctrinated with capitalism and brought up to be materialistic, just like her father who values money and power above everything else, hence the ring. She says, "I think it's perfect. Now I really feel engaged," which seems an innocent enough statement, but suggests underneath that she is quite shallow it takes a ring (a sign of wealth) for her to feel properly engaged. All Sheila's features at the beginning of the play are stereotypical of young ladies' in 1912, and Priestley uses this, along with her slightly careless attitude to life to hold up a mirror to society at the time. Through her character at this point, Priestley seems to show how shallow and superficial girls were in the Edwardian era - they were perceived as delicate, fragile and obedient to their husbands and fathers. They were subservient to men; all a respectable and wealthy woman could do was to marry well, a poor woman was seen as cheap labour.

Nevertheless, we learn quickly that she is not naïve as she may at first appear. When Gerald reminds her he has been trying to get her to marry him for some time she reveals that she suspects this is not quite true as he “never came near” her the previous summer, which is strange if the couple were so much in love. Doubts are raised about their love, and about how truthful the characters are, when Sheila responds to Gerald’s explanation with a “half serious” - “that’s what you say”, hinting that there might be another explanation. It suggests she suspects that he may have been having an affair and is therefore worldlier than her sheltered background might suggest.

Our early impressions of Sheila, however, begin to change as we realize she is capable of compassion.
When she first hears of Eva Smith’s suicide her reaction is ‘Oh - how horrible!’ This is an immediate and genuine response to the suffering of another human being and from this we see she can be sympathetic towards those less fortunate than herself. This also emphasizes her innocence as she fails to understand how someone could drink a fatal disinfectant “by accident”, and shows she can’t imagine someone not having a lot to live for. She is also the first person to show a sense of responsibility as she understands that girls like Eva Smith “aren’t cheap labour - they’re people”. She responds to the girl as a person, not as “cheap labour” and criticizes her
father.

The turning point for Sheila occurs when she realizes that her own jealousy and bad temper led to the girl losing her job. She is not only horrified by her actions but also takes responsibility for them; she accepts that “it was her fault”. She admits she used her power and social status to have Eva sacked without really thinking of the consequences; her description of the girl as pretty and looking “as if she could take care of herself” shows her superficial judgment. However, her vows that she would “never do it again to anybody” shows that she is really very sorry for what she has done and we see a new Sheila, echoing the socialism of the Inspector. She confesses to her crimes, rather than denying them like the others, and the split in the family begins the split of socialism and capitalism.

As the Inspector leaves, he passes on his role to Sheila, dragging her into womanhood at last. No longer is she a slightly shallow and silly Edwardian girl, she now seems independent and freethinking; a post war woman who mocks the stupidity of her parents with her sarcastic remark of “I suppose we’re all nice people now” as the family finds out that the Inspector was a hoaxer. She is unable to understand how her parents cannot have learnt from the evening in the same way that she has. She is seeing her parents in a new, unfavorable light.

Through Sheila, Priestly expresses the urgency with which change is needed. Her transformation from a shallow and materialistic Edwardian girl to one who is independent and more importantly, a socialist, reflects Priestley’s belief that we all can change for good. His message seems to be that if society is to accept that ‘we are all one body’ it will be future generations that will implement change and not the vested interests of the current one.