Up until now employment as a hairdresser has been acceptable enough for Rita. Lately however she has yearned for something more mentally challenging and stimulating. Also she is now desperate for: “a better way of life”. This does not only associate with her material possessions or an improved standard of living but also to her lost schooling. Rita wants to compensate for the years she spent in school not working by enrolling on an Open University course. For those who do not know the basics of the course, then here they are. The O.U. was set up to offer higher education to those who did not receive it the first time round. You do not attend the university every day but weekly or monthly. During your visit you are given work to complete for example homework, and the work which was handed in the previous time is returned to you marked. You then continue with the work that has just given to you for the next time you return. This process is continued for up to two years per course. Then, if one wishes, another course may be undertaken.
Frank is assigned as Rita’s lecturer, a man in his late forties with an addiction to whisky and cigarettes. In my opinion someone without the qualities of Frank would not change Rita’s life as much as he does. This could be for the simple reason that Frank is a teacher and Rita his student, however I think this is due to their personalities that Rita and Frank get on so well straight away. Within the first forty minutes Frank asks Rita to change tutors as he thinks he is not good enough for her. Her reply to this is: “I’m on this course, you are my teacher an’ you’re gonna bleedin’ well teach me!”. There is a special quality which both of them posses, their opposing personalities. You can tell this just by listening to them.
This quality ensures they compliment each other incredibly well. Furthermore, it is also a dramatic device thought of by the author which also brings out the best in each of them. Frank quits drinking and even manages to stop smoking! In the same way we see the side of Rita which is incredibly curious, and the side of her which is hungry, at the point of starvation, to learn.
On the other hand, opposites can clash and Frank and Rita do. For example…
The result of this dramatic device is that their relationship has no polite in-between, no medium state. They are either getting on ‘like a hose no fire’ or at the opposite spectrum ‘they are almost at fisticuffs’. This is always a volatile mixture.
I feel one of the main turning points in the play, and the greatest moment in the play is when the ‘true’ Rita is shown after her return from summer school. The first sentence she utters is: “Frank it was fantastic!”. There are other phrases which reflect Rita’s hunger and desire for learning, such as: “Work? We never stopped. Lashin’ us with it they were; another essay, lash do it again, lash. Another lecture, smack. It was dead good though”. She enjoyed being challenged, one of the first times in her life.
Another factor which contributes to them coping so well with each other is partly down to Franks middle class background, whereas Rita is from a working class family. Frank would have received education which would bee un-comparable to Rita’s. This would be because his parents were quite wealthy people, so most probably they would have had a good education themselves. Because of this frank and Rita are quite curious about each other, as a result of which Rita begins to see from Frank’s perspective on life. Frank delves deeper into issues, looking for less obvious meanings to them. In return, she teaches him to think a in a more straight forward way. An example of bluntness or straightforwardness is when she is asked to solve the staging difficulties Ibsen’s Peer Gynt her reply is: “do it on the radio”. This answer is spot on, as Ibsen himself states that he “wrote the play as a play for voices, never intending it to go in the theatre.”
Whatever attempts are made by Denny or Rita’s parents to deter her from attending Open University prove futile. For Denny’s part, even burning Rita’s books does nothing to change her mind. Rita is most probably ignoring Denny and her parents either because they have deeply upset Rita or she is exasperated with their blinkered way of life. My personal opinion is that: “after what you gave me I had a choice and I chose me.” is the reason why Rita ignores the ones who are closest to her. This does not mean she was abused or mistreated, but simply that she wants the ‘real’ her to emerge: the educated, confident and cultured Rita. The “me” she chooses is the potential Rita.