“I’m coming in aren’t I? It’s the stupid bleedin handle on the door. You wanna get it fixed!”
Rita here has straight away started a complaint upon not even meeting Frank this shows Rita is insecure and lower in intelligence and social class by talking with an informal language register. She doesn't walk meekly into the room, as we would expect a student, having her first meeting with a teacher, to do. She takes a commanding role and is telling Frank what to do. Frank is shocked and surprised at this apparent role reversal with the student dominating the teacher. Rita is also using this to higher her status, as she could be trying to find confidence in herself, as she isn’t use to a formal student teacher relationship since she has had quite a poor schooling beforehand.
Rita’s language in Act 2 sc1 has changed and it is easily seen, as her sentences are much more complex and missing her trademark slang. In the act before in sc1 she could hardly say a sentence without having slang in it.
“Everything in the flat is dead unpretentious just books an’ plants everywhere”
The above quote shows her much more complex sentence that she never would have used in act 1 sc 1. Also the actual meaning of the quote shows that she is fed up with her life as it is and wants more.
The dramatic devices in Act 1 sc 1 show an immature and uneducated Rita the following shows what Rita does in one of her entrances. Rita goes to the chair and dumps her bag. This stage direction shows Rita’s lack of respect and again this comes down to her poor schooling, as she doesn’t know how to act to the situation. In her first entrance she walks in and goes and stands by the desk. Nervousness also comes across here but yet once more she doesn’t know how to react in this situation, but this could then suggest she was a naughty child as in her school days she might have been by the teacher’s desk when told off a lot.
In act 2 sc 1 straight away her entrance has enlightened the fact that she has changed. The author Willy Russell writes the door swings open revealing Rita, immediately this lets the reader know that Rita is now more appealing and attractive. In this scene she also brings some oil with her to fix the door herself that she had complained about. The door from the act before was almost a barrier that Rita had to go past to get into the classroom now the barrier isn’t their this signifies the fact that she has nearly completed her journey from uneducated to educated which she thinks she needs to achieve more from her life.
I conclude that I have learnt that Rita has change from act 1 sc1 into a person with a higher social class in act sc 2 with a strong determination that she didn’t knew she had in Act 1 but has now accomplished what she was striving for.
I believe that the best effect from language was that of an informal language register into a formal language register because it clearly shows that Rita changed her social class that is most commonly shown by the way that people speak. The most effective aspect of dramatic devices was the actions of Rita’s that signified her change clearly. This was by either when Rita entered by dumping her bag or handing her shawl to Frank to hang on the hook.
From the play I myself have realised that two characters like that of Frank’s and Rita’s can mix without they being too much of a clash between social backgrounds.
