He doesn't, at all see the personal side of life and especially where it is required in this relationship with his son. It is ridiculous how impersonal this relationship is. In Mr Birling's eyes, his son was going to be his heir, take up the head of the business and lead the family on. These aspirations are blown away by the gust or wind which is the confessions of Eric.
Eric himself doesn't see this as even a possible future and while being torn between running his own life and following the yellow brick road set up by his father, he condemns himself to a life sentence of misery. There is this looming air of expectancy around Eric, THE son. A lot is expected from Eric by his father but it is not these expectations alone that lead to his dismay. I think that there is an underling feeling of debt being felt by Eric. I think he feels as if he is indebted to his father, for the fancy clothes on his back, scrumptious food on his plate, coved roof over his head, the excellent education and the general higher living standards he has felt all his short life. And his life has been short; he is only twenty and yet expected to be much the man his father is. It would be very interesting to see Arthur as a twenty year old.
All of the aforementioned, leads to the two having complete and utter different patterns of thought. I do not feel that a father n son must think in the complete identical way. However, as your parents are meant to be a source of morality, I expected them to at least share the same view on certain moral ideas. But that is not at all what happens; they both have different approaches to life. Eric may not accept his father's approach to life, but his father does not even think about his son having a different approach. It is all laid out to him, and his to duly follow. Mr Birling does not listen to his son and leads his son to feel inadequacy, which I would not even wish upon my worst of enemies. I can only imagine how the feeling of inadequacy affects the brain. What happens to Eric in the story gives me a little insight however, he becomes aimless and sex and drink become his life's focal points.
If only they could share their pros then Eric and his father would have not only had a good father son relationship, they would have themselves been very good people. A young compassionate man with a business mind of some sort and his father a well educated in business man with a heart. Maybe if this was true a life would have been spared in this so cruel world we live in.
In my opinion it is Mr Birling, with his capitalist approach to life who starts off a rollercoaster through hell for Eva Smith. When she is made redundant by Birling, she goes through hurdle after hurdle and I would like to say she leaped over them, but alas she didn't and the consequences are dire. She commits suicide. Not only is this a breach of religion, but what mental state does one have to be in to want to do that, I can only pray that no one ever feels this. When Eva took her life, she took another life. This life had been made by Eva and none other than our Eric. The halo that his mother had always pictured above her sons head was erased as she broke down upon hearing this. He is in no way capable of having a child and maybe Eva saved a life by taking it. He was a young drunkard, who deserved nothing, but not all the blame is to be passed on Eric, we must look at the source, Mr Birling.
If in fact the relationship between Eric and his father, Mr Birling was satisfactory I doubt any of this would have occurred instead there family could have lived in harmony, and Eva lived a life that little bit wealthier and in good spirit.
I personally grew to like Eric through the story; he gets stronger and stronger and eventually is able to stand up against not only his parents but the dark conscience like Inspector. If only this new found strength blossomed earlier, trouble again could've been avoided. It is amazing how even after everything the family go through only the children believe honesty is important and accept responsibility for what happened to Eva. Mr and Mrs Birling still try and stand firm that they did nothing wrong. When Gerald comes back to the house with a good story for why they should all take the weight of their guilt off their shoulders, the parents lap it up and start agreeing profusely. Eric n Sheila, accepting its possible still admit to their wrongdoing and still dwell, which I cannot say is wrong. Mr B also still refrains from looking at the personal side of things and looks upon the entire ordeal as being a hindrance to him achieving his knighthood. This again just shows how dissatisfactory this relationship is. It is not only dissatisfactory, but unhealthy and fatal in this case but not to them, they are lucky, the repercussions of their actions take a beautiful creature off our earth.
I feel that in this story Priestleys's message is more than a message and more of a sermon. His words hit my ear drums with a strange feeling of acceptance, maybe because what he is 'teaching' us is right. He teaches us that people thinking and acting selfish and generally being capitalists will lead to the destruction of society. More and more Eva Smiths and 'John Smiths' will come along and more will of course suffer the same dreadful fate, unless our terrible and life compromising ways are dissolve and more socialistic views are adopted.
Everyone is intertwined with one another and this example just shows us that it happens to the very top members of our society. Where a family may look pristine, may actually be torn apart and going through hell. Behind every lavish coating of wallpaper, we found the same in each house, mortar and bricks. Under our clothes and beyond our plump bellies we all have a heart some weaker than others but we still are all susceptible to hurt and pain.
Money CANNOT buy happiness, no one, not one single soul is happy at the end if this tale. Where the children seek changes in their lives and lifestyles, their parents stand petrified to the ways of before.