‘An Inspector Calls” was written in 1945, but was set in 1912, before any of the wars. The play involves the Birling family. A family of six (Mr Arthur Birling, Mrs Sybil Birling, Sheila Birling the daughter, Eric Birley the son, Gerald Croft, of Sheila, and Edna the maid.) The play begins with them all celebrating Sheila and Gerald’s engagement. During their celebrations, an Inspector calls round because of an apparent suicide, which each and everyone of the family, in one way or another drove the girl to. The girl named Eva Smith apparently poisoned her self with disinfectant.
Sheila’s Confession Sheila’s confession comes in Act one at the very beginning of the play; it is straight after the Inspector interrogates her father, Mr Birling. It is the most dramatic of the confessions as she is very emotional, and she is the only one that actually admits to her guilt, and that she has done something wrong. She admits that she got Eva Smith fired from her job, at Millwards shop, all because she was jealous of her being prettier.
She accused Eva of deliberately laughing at her when she tried on a dress and then she got so angry she complained to the manager, and got her sacked. In Sheila’s confession she starts talking to the audience, this is strange because normally in a play, there is a fourth wall between the audience and the actors. Sheila breaks this rule because she feels she needs to gain the audience’s sympathy. She acts as if the audience are the jury and they are judging her.
Priestley’s Text The playwright introduces the confession by getting the Inspector to show Sheila a photograph of Eva Smith. “Sheila recognises it gives a little cry and a half-hearted sob, and then runs out.” This is exactly what Priestly wanted a lot of emotion. She comes back into the room crying. Priestly wanted this because it gives you the impression that she is distressed and worried but also shocked. We know she feels responsible because she asks the Inspector ‘so I’m really responsible?’ Priestly wanted the girl that played Sheila to explain what she did in a very distressed way. So she said:
‘I went to the Manager, at Millwards, and I told him that if they didn’t get rid if that girl, I’d never go near the place again and I’d persuade my Mother to close our account with them’. This confession seems very cold and jealous. The final quote is when she says ‘All right, Gerald you needn’t look at me like that. At least I’m trying to tell the truth. I expect you’ve done things you’re ashamed of too’. When Sheila says this, Priestly wants her to suddenly turn to Gerald, because she is trying to get rid of some of the blame, and get him to confess.
National Theatre Version
In the National Theatre Version, Sheila’s speech begins normally; she is very calm. But after the first sentence she starts to talk quicker and becomes more emotional, then out of no where she becomes jealous and spiteful. When she begins to ask questions like ‘How could I know what would happen afterwards?’ she is trying to convince them that it wasn’t her fault. Sheila’s family was very wealthy, her father was the Mayor and thinks he is better than anyone else. She doesn’t like to be treated as a child; because her family treat her as an adult she expects it from everyone. As she starts her speech she doesn’t feel guilty, she is just convinced that the girl shouldn’t have laughed at her. Then the Inspector starts to twist things and she then begins to blame herself.
Her tone of voice is very insecure, because she doesn’t know what to say and doesn’t want to confess anything that they don’t already know. I think this suggests that she is used to help, but this time she can’t have it and is finding it very hard to manage without her dad, or any other family. Her tone of voice of also goes from being soft to angry when she starts to talk about Eva and the dress. However her speech is very gesticular. I think this shows how insecure she feels, even though she comes over a spoilt immature little girl she is the first to admit her guilt and to realise that she has done something wrong, and she feels ashamed.
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I think Annabel Mullions performance in the National Theatre version was a lot more dramatic. It was also much more gesticular than the woman in the film. Annabel’s tone of voice goes from being very nervous, to being angry and jealous. The film goes to a flashback, so you don’t get the plea of her case, unlike the Theatre version, where she is desperately pleading her case to the audience as though they were her jury at a trial. The Inspectors in each version are very similar because they both end up talking to Sheila in an angry manner towards the end of her confession. They are almost the same because in a way they become sort of friendly towards her. By this I mean that because she has confessed and shown the audience her guilt, especially in the Theatre version, the Inspector sees this in her character and in a way he has a hidden respect for that.
Conclusion
Out of the two versions, I preferred the National Theatre version because it was acted in front of a live audience and it had a much deeper emotion and feeling to it. The theatre was much more dramatic. To create this I think they put more detail in to it. I think the actors researched who they were playing so they had a lot of understanding of him/her, this meant they could act how they thought the person would have acted.
