Presentation of Sheila in Stephen Daldary's Version of An Inspector Calls

Presentation of Sheila in Stephen Daldary's Version of An Inspector Calls

Inspector calls, the play was written by J.B. Priestly and is set in

the era of 1912 however the play it's self was written in 1945. Sheila

is the daughter of the Burling's a high-class family. In this essay I

am going to explore how Stephen Duldry presents Shelia and if I think

his interpretation of the piece is successful.

In act 1 this is when Shelia confesses, Stephen Daldry chooses to

present Sheila in various ways for instance when she begins talking

her arms are crossed up on her chest this is like she is holding

something back, but when Sheila changes and tells the truth her arms

open up this shows Sheila as a more giving character who is willing to

face and come to terms with the past .

At the start of Sheila's Milwards speech she has closed body posture

this comes across as Sheila being slightly nervous and the audience

can tell that she is holding some thing back by analysing her body

posture.

Sheila in act one can also be quite sarcastic at times during the

Milwards speech when talking about Eva smith this shows her character

as envious of her for example when talking about when she went in to

Milwards to try on the dress she emphasises on certain words like

"pretty" she is jealous of Eva Smith but tries to hide it .

In the act the actress who plays Sheila is told to act as though the

audience are her friends and that they really like her, so she starts

to come across as slightly confident and feels at ease talking to

them. However when Sheila starts telling the truth and the account of

what really happened the audience's opinion of her starts to change,

they act as if they now hate her and the way Stephen Duldry has chosen

to present Sheila here is have her come across as trying to defend

herself from what people think of her. Sheila now starts to feel