The audience gets hints that Eric is a drunk from the off, Shelia says “you’re squiffy” he denies straight away with an aggressive tone, which what a drunk person would do. The audience could be wondering why Eric is a drinker, they could assume it’s because he’s done something bad, and he wants to forget about it by drinking his problems away. Mrs Birling shouts at Shelia “What an expression Shelia!” for saying such a thing although it is true, because it would be an embarrassment for a wealthy, high social ranked family to have a twenty year old drunk.
Eric’s seems to have distant relationships with his family; the audience get hints about this as he is very quiet at the dinner table. Eric’s parents treat him like a child they don’t respect or trust him. Even though he is an adult his mother is still telling him what to do “now stop it you two”. This reiterates how they do not respect him. However once the Inspector arrives and question Mr Birling, and Mr Birling is in the wrong Eric suddenly goes against his father “Why shouldn’t they try for higher wages”. Eric has never gone against his parent’s view, so this is a big step for him. The audience could be interpreting this in another way, that as now that he has something against his father, the thing he had done, would not be so bad.
Eric leaves the set in the middle of act 2, the effect of this on the audience is that It makes them suspicious of where he could have gone, which reminds themselves of the beginning where they thought something was wrong and unusual. Eric returns back onto the set at the penultimate time, right at the beginning of act 3. Eric is just stading the, this makes the audience reliase that he is the father of the baby.
Eric feels guilt and frustration over his relationship with Daisy “Oh-my god- how stupid it Is all!” as he tells the story. Eric is horrified that his thoughtless actions had such consequences. From his relationship with Daisy the audience can connect all the dots of his unusual behaviour, and also that he is a considerate person, as he tried to provide for her.
Eric does develop during the play, he admits that his action were wrong “we all helped to kill her”, he is also aware of his social responsibility, he now knows that everyone should be given a fair chance. The most how Eric has changed during the play is his attitudes towards his parents. In the beginning of the play he does not reply to his mother’s sniggering remarks towards, him however now he appalled by his parents inability to admit their own responsibility. He forcefully tells them “I am ashamed of you”, Eric now has no respect for his parents and knows that they are bad people, who only care about their social class and appearance to the rest of Brumley.
Eric learns that everyone should be equal and that his parents and Gerald are in the wrong, and that class is not the only thing that is important. He also learns that you need to take responsibility for the actions you have committed “You may be letting yourselves of nicely, but I can’t”. As well as sticking up for yourself if someone is disrespecting you.
In conclusion Eric is presented as a considerate and social aware man. He is more suites in the younger generation, with Shelia who believes in socialism and that you should take responsibly for your actions.