Sheila Birling is the spoiled daughter of Arthur and Sybil in J.B. Priestly’s “An Inspector Calls”. She does however have a conscience which her father tries to rid her of. She is perhaps the most affected by the death of the girl, this is ironic since she neither started nor finished the process, her acts were critical, but not the most important.
Sheila is in her early twenties, betrothed to Gerald and presumably good looking, also presumably different to Eva Smith, this means that she is probably blond and possibly a fairly large build. She is a little silly and giggly and there is the feeling that she is often hysterical over very small matters. She is vain and has a short temper, but does, as I said before, she does have a conscience and is truly sorry for her actions. The inspector technique makes a large impression on her.
Sheila had Eva Smith fired from her job at Milwards (a large clothes shop) because she was jealous of her good looks, and the fact that a particular dress suited Eva better than her. Eva was never told why she was fired, but Milwards never acted the same way towards Sheila again.
In the short experimental piece, “Birling”, Sheila has dumped Gerald and is happily married to a teacher named Ted. She is modest and conscientious, the Inspector had taken it’s toll on her and radically changed her character.