From Geoffrey’s and Florence’s point of view, Billy is lazy, disrespectful, good for nothing slob who is a disgrace to their family. Alice isn’t as firm with Billy and often takes his side when Geoffrey is shouting at him. She is more supportive and helpful to Billy, as it is almost certain that Geoffrey would have thrown Billy out of the house by now if it weren’t for Alice. She, however, may be partially responsible for Billy’s laziness as she has not taught him enough discipline or been tough on him, as she is extremely tolerant of his behaviour. Billy however doesn’t return the favour. He exploits his mother and constantly relies on her to back him up when he is in trouble.
He has little respect for his family, especially his grandmother as she sits around getting in the way, moaning at him, and always directs her speech towards the side cupboard, which annoys Billy. Billy is portrayed as being down right lazy by his family, and that he lies compulsively to get away with being lazy for as long as he can drag it out for. Also, another reason for him to lie is when he is trying to impress people by telling false stories about his family, for example when Billy is talking to Barbara he says that his (deceased) grandfather could speak seven languages, when this probably isn’t true. He isn’t proud of his family so he feels he has to make things up about them, to make them seem more interesting in conversation. Billy lies about his dad’s job trying to make him seem more impressive than he really is. Billy believes that he is better than the rest of his family, and he thinks he is not “ordinary folk” when really he is. His mother refers to their family as ordinary folk in a letter addressed to a radio station, however Billy objects to being ordinary folk to Arthur. He considers ordinary folk to be the kind who don’t get into grammar school and have normal boring jobs. He doesn’t believe he fits this category, even though he did get into grammar school he obviously didn’t leave with anything to prove for it in terms of exam results.
Billy’s only male friend mentioned in the book is Arthur. He works with him for a funeral furnisher called Shadrack & Duxbury’s. He tries to do as little work as possible, which seems to correspond with his attitude to work in school as well. He lies to get out of doing work; for example he took three Saturdays off and said that he had forgotten that he was meant to be working, when he really knew. He has a lack of commitment as he doesn’t want to work where he does. He wants a perfect job, but he doesn’t want to work to get to this position. He was forced to get a job by his father because he had left school and was doing nothing and making no contribution or effort towards their family. He therefore just pick the first job he found which happened to be Shadrack & Duxbury’s. As he didn’t get this job for his own accord, he does not try or show any enthusiasm what so ever. He steals petty cash and objects from his work for the sake of doing it, he has no motive. He believes that he is too good and too clever to work with the ‘ordinary folk as he believes he is above them because he went to a grammar school. When it comes to work, Billy is shown to be lazy and snobbish as well as unenthusiastic and unmotivated and possibly incompetent.
Billy is involved with three girls, Barbara, Liz and Rita. Barbara is prim and proper compared to Rita and feels that she has a serious relationship with Billy. He lies to her to make her think that this is true but really all he wants is to get her into bed and to use her, but she does not want to do this outside of marriage. Billy has no intention of marrying her. Billy talks to her about having a cottage in the countryside and having children making her feel secure. He uses this dream world to hide the suffering of the real world and his home life as he can control it himself. She is not very attractive but she meats his emotional needs. Billy can have a proper relationship with Barbara and talk to her like a proper girlfriend. She has the personality of Billy’s ideal girlfriend. Rita on the other hand meats his physical needs and Liz is more of a friend to him as they have very similar personalities. He treats everybody with little respect. He is shown to be insensitive and selfish about other people and their feelings. He is presented to use his girlfriends just as he does his mother
Arthur and Billy get along fairly well towards the beginning of the play, messing about and calling each other names jokingly with no offence. But then, Arthur gradually gets fed up with Billy and his harmless, yet pointless lies as does Rita. He is also tired of having to cover for Billy at work and so he breaks friend with Billy and goes off with Rita. However he may have been jealous of Billy going to London and so he was never a loyal friend. Billy also is not shown to be a loyal friend, but he could be if he put more effort in and showed more care and respect.
I believe that Billy is treated a little harshly. He does deserve what he gets just he irritates people and so he is punished more severely than is necessary. He doesn’t work hard enough and he doesn’t respect people enough as he shows through constant lies. He is frightened about leaving home and standing on his own two feet. He is not a very independent person, possibly due to his parents, mainly his mother, being to protective of Billy. He has the opportunity to follow his dreams of living in a big city but he does not take them. He needs to grow up and become an adult.
My reactions to Billy is that of sympathy as he is constantly lying to get out of previous lies and messes about with all of his friends and family. I feel that he has wasted a lot of chances in his life due to idleness, i.e. his grammar school education. He has ability but he doesn’t use it. He needs to have some respect for people.