At the beginning of Act 1 Scene 1 the reader discovers that Frank is an alcoholic, “pull out a pile of books to reveal a bottle of whisky”, which leads the audience to believe that Frank is depressed or even stressed out because as a second class professor of English Literature a person would not ruin his reputation and career by drinking, which might make other students or colleagues think that there is something wrong in his life.
When Frank and the protagonist Rita both meet in Frank’s office for the first time in Act one Scene one we the audience discover that Rita has a very strong Liverpool accent and used a great deal of slang. She is also very talkative and uses informal language (foul language). This also reveals to the reader that Rita is very uneducated since she did not do well in school as explained already.
Willy Russell the author has deliberately created this effect so that the audience suspect that there will be no hope for Rita in her education and then when Rita does become very well educated it surprises the audience and engages there them towards the play.
Rita and Frank’s language and behaviour is very different compared with each other. For example the contrast between Rita’s usage of foul language and Frank’s very negative attitude towards teaching Rita. This also causes confusion because Rita is gasping for knowledge but Frank wants to quit the ability to teach others. Despite this Frank still decides to teach Rita, this is because he likes her attitude and humour, which enlightens him. The reason why Rita wanted to be educated is because as mentioned before she wants to gain the respect of a true educated person and lives her husband ‘Denny’ who persuades her to think that all he wants is children but all Rita wants at the time is the same thing in which Frank wanted or got; knowledge, “Denny found out that I was on the pill again, it was my fault I left my prescription out. He burn’t all my books. Most of Rita’s family is uneducated and stay in pubs most of the time but Rita’s mother also realizes the same thing Rita has, when one time Rita was in a pub with her family and are singing songs, her mum says to Rita, “ There are better songs to sing than this”, which basically means that the family can do better in life, the phase could also be a metaphor.
Even though, at the beginning of the play, Rita is so hungry for seeking knowledge she still lacks confidence because she thinks that she will not fit in with the other students and might not impress Frank. There are also family problems, the fact Denny, Rita’s husband, does not agree with Rita taking tutorials because he feels that it is a complete waste of time and this effects her confidence because she has to take time of work without Denny knowing, also Rita has no family support.
At the end of Scene 6, Act 1 Rita is still lacking confidence in herself. For example, when Frank invited her to a dinner party but she did not turn up to the destination of Frank’s house. This is because she felt lonely and used in a sense because she thinks that Frank invited her over to make all the guests laugh since Frank finds Rita amusing. The next time Frank and Rita meet, they have a quarrel, which explained why Rita did not turn up, but at the end they solved their problems, which was a promising finish to the scene.
At the end of Act 1 (scene 7) the audience learns that Rita and Frank decided that Rita was to go to ‘Summer School’, where she would learn the true nature of English Literature. This brings the Act and scene to a dramatic end because the audience is left wondering what will change or even happen to Rita when she comes back from summer school.
At the beginning of Act 2, Scene 8 when Rita arrives back from summer school the audience realizes that she has changed a great deal. For example, the stage directions suggest, “she is dressed in new second hand clothes”, which basically means that she has done some shopping in London and changed her appearance, which obviously seems that she wants to ‘fit in’ with the other students. Her confidence has also risen increasingly when she stood up in front of all the students in the lecture hall and asked a question, “Honest to God, I stood up an’ everyone’s lookin’ at me”. So the summer school has played a big role in her education.
Franks attitude is changing at a fast rate because he is becoming more and more aware that Rita is less dependent on him. Rita is mixing with the students but Frank is jealous of this and he knew that this would happen.
Frank and Rita had developed a slight bond or relationship and it deteriorating slowing just in a similar way as did Denny and Rita’s because Denny did not want Rita to go to tutorials and Frank did not want Rita to be educated or go to summer school because he knew that Rita would be more responsible, have more confidence in herself and mix with other students. This also shows that there is a metamorphosis in the play, which basically means that both characters undergo a role reversal. At one point in the play Frank asks Rita to analyze a poem or story for him, which he had written himself but when Rita commented on the poem of story Frank started to quarrel with her and said that he’d might as well be called Mary Shelley because she was the famous author of ‘Frankenstein’. Not only does this rhyme with Franks name but the theme and story is symbolic to Frank’s problem with Rita because in the Novel Frankenstein, the protagonist is the person who’s name is presented on the title of Mary Shelley’s classic novel, which is Frankenstein and in the novel creates a monster whom he cannot control and Frank is comparing the monster to Rita because he cannot control her from being educated or going to summer school, “I shall insist upon being known as Mary, Mary Shelley”.
In my opinion, the play has got a slight twist to it, when the role reversal is consumed within the play, but overall the play is quiet entertaining and typical because it was set in the 1980’s which was the ere full of plays and new but twisted plays. This was the same for media when computer graphics enables films to be made more action packed and less dangerous. I also think that Rita did slightly change for the better because she was more confident in herself and passed the English Literature exam easily. From the education she learned, I think that she has more knowledge, respect, and talks formally and is a second-class citizen. The final aspect in which I shall analyze is about the affect the play shall have on the audience after they have completed reading ‘Educating Rita’ by ‘Willy Russell’. I think the play might make the audience think that education is very valuable, important, gains you respect and class in society.
