Key Quote
“"But these girls aren't cheap labour — they're people"”
Sheila Birling · Act 1
Focus: “people”
Sheila's assertion marks the moment she begins to see Eva Smith as a human being, not a disposable economic unit — the first step in her moral awakening.
Technique 1 — ANTITHESIS / SEMANTIC OPPOSITION
The antithesis (direct contrast between two opposing ideas) of 'cheap labour' and 'people' exposes the dehumanisation (stripping away human dignity) inherent in capitalist language. 'Cheap labour' reduces human beings to a commodity with a price tag; 'people' reasserts their intrinsic (belonging to something by its very nature) worth. Sheila's simple statement performs a radical act of semantic resistance — refusing to accept the language of economics as adequate for describing human lives.
The dash creates a dramatic pause that separates the two worldviews — the capitalist view (cheap labour) and the humanist view (people). This typographical caesura (a break created by punctuation) forces the reader to choose between them, making the moral choice explicit and unavoidable.
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RAD — PROGRESS
Sheila demonstrates significant moral progression: she moves from the privileged naivety of her engagement party to recognising the humanity of working-class women. Unlike her parents, Sheila allows the Inspector's revelations to change her — she represents the younger generation's capacity for empathetic growth (developing the ability to feel and understand others' suffering).
Key Words
Technique 2 — GENERATIONAL CONTRAST
Sheila's statement directly challenges her father's view of workers as expendable (replaceable and disposable) economic units. Priestley uses the generational divide between Sheila and Mr Birling to structure the play's moral argument: the older generation (Birling, Mrs Birling) cannot change; the younger generation (Sheila, Eric) can. This positions the 1945 audience to see themselves reflected in the younger characters — capable of building a better society.
Sheila's language is notably simpler than the Inspector's or her father's: 'they're people' is an unpretentious statement of basic humanity. This stylistic simplicity suggests that moral truth is not complex — it is the older generation's elaborate justifications for inequality that are complicated. Goodness, Priestley implies, is straightforward; evil requires explanation.
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Context (AO3)
WOMEN WORKERS IN 1912
Working-class women in 1912 had no union protection, no minimum wage, and could be dismissed at will. Sweated labour (exploitative work for very low pay in poor conditions) was rampant, particularly in textile and manufacturing industries. Eva Smith represents the millions of women whose labour sustained upper-class comfort while they lived in poverty.
SHEILA AS HOPE
Priestley constructs Sheila as a figure of hope: she begins as a spoiled daughter of privilege but ends the play as a morally awakened young woman who refuses to return to ignorance. For the 1945 audience, Sheila represents the possibility that the post-war generation could choose differently from their parents — rejecting class prejudice in favour of social justice.
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WOW — RECOGNITION OF THE OTHER (Levinas)
Emmanuel Levinas argued that ethics begins with the recognition of the Other — seeing another person as a genuine human being with their own experience, not as an object for our use. Sheila's statement enacts this Levinasian moment: she sees Eva Smith's face (Levinas' term for the irreducible humanity of the Other) for the first time. Before this, Eva was invisible — a 'girl' dismissed for asking for a living wage. After this, she is a person with moral claims on Sheila's conscience. Priestley dramatises the ethical insight that Levinas would later theorise: justice is not an abstract principle but begins in the concrete act of recognising another person's humanity and accepting responsibility for their welfare.
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