However in scene 7 her mannerisms change almost completely. ‘I came to tell you you’re a good teacher. Thanks for enterin me in the exam’ the reason I say almost completely changed is because she still uses ‘enterin’ which is slight slang. Also she moves out of her suburb house with a violent partner into a nice flat, with a flatmate into arts and healthy lifestyle. ‘Everything in the flats dead unpretentious, just book and plants everywhere.’
I think the writer wants the audience to have a positive reaction on Rita as she gets better throughout the play. ‘Another lecture, smack. It was dead good though’ this can only be portrayed as a positive reaction from how she used to be. ‘Studyin was for wimps.’ It is not just shown by her speech either .Also her image and mannerisms change. E.g. she wears smarter clothes and stops smoking for a period of time at least.
The language also changes throughout the play from Rita. She goes from suburban talking girl to upper class lady. In scenes 1 and 2 she talks a lot of slang and shortened words. For example. ‘Y should get on wit it’ and ‘poor sod’
Her speech improves over the scenes as the events and themes progress such as Rita’s social life. She moves away from her thuggish boyfriend to a well educated women’s flat in a not so rough area. Her accent and speech change ‘I know Tigers asked me to go down to France with his mob’ If this was said 5 scenes ago it would be more like. ‘Y’know Tigers asked me ta go down France wit his mob.
Rita’s social background changes as he character progresses. As when she didn’t go to university she lived in a run down district in Liverpool, and as she becomes smarter she grows up socially and moves to a place where she can stay and the people have the same attitude as she adapted to. ‘She’s great y’know dead classy. The flats unpretentious, just book and flowers everywhere’
To a modern audience Rita would be classed as a strong willed girl because in today’s society what Rita done is basically impossible. ‘He burnt ma books’ referring to her boyfriend. If a teenager from a run down place such as Brixton who had been brought up to fight and no manners told his mates he wanted to go to university he would be laughed at, punched and neglected yet Rita seems to push on past all these factors.
So back to the question, I think Rita’s education has changed her for the better and I think Willy Russell intended the audience to think that as well. Rita throughout from a Liverpudlian slum girl to a well educated women.
BY Charlie Clark
