We get the impression that Rita didn’t go to a very good school and she says she would always dream about going to boarding school. “I told me mother once she said I was off me cake”. This tells us that Rita’s mum didn’t take her very seriously. Rita tells Frank about the school she went to and she thinks that it was normal to have knives and fights in the playground. Even though were not told we suspect that Franks schooldays were the same because when Rita tells him about her schooldays he doesn’t sound shocked.
Rita and frank both have different approaches to essay writing. “I didn’t have much time this week so I sort of y’know encapsulated all me ideas in one line” “But its not enough”
These two quotes show us that Rita thinks one line is enough whereas Frank doesn’t. “One line of exquisite poetry says more than a thousand pages of second rate prose” “but your not writing poetry”. These two quotes show us that Rita thinks you can compare writing an essay to writing poetry.
Page 38 also illustrates their differing approaches. “All right but I just don’t like Howard’s bleedin end”. Rita thinks she can pick what she wants to study but Frank tries to explain to her that if she wants to learn it will mean a lot of hard work.
When Denny burns all of Rita's books it has a positive effect on her she realises that she is starting to find herself this is shown when she says “I’ve begun to find me an its great y’know, it is Frank”. She also realises hat there’s a better person inside of her and that the old Rita has gone. This is shown when she says, “but she cant, because she’s gone, an I’ve taken her place.
When Rita goes to the theatre for the first time she realises that going to the theatre isn’t boring, instead it is exciting and she really enjoys herself, this is shown when Rita says “it wasn’t borin, it was bleedin great, honest, ogh, it done me in, it was fantastic. I'm gonna do an essay on it.” Rita also starts to realise the difference between a tragedy in real life and a tragedy in literature. This is shown when frank explains it to her “if he’d been warned of the consequences of standing beneath that particular tree he wouldn’t have done it would he?
Both of the above events show us that Rita is changing from the women she once was. For example Rita now realises that Denny is holding her back from achieving her dreams and ambitions. Whereas the old Rita didn’t realise that she was capable of achieving them so instead she would always believe Denny when he put her down. Also the old Rita wouldn’t have even given the idea of going to the theatre a second thought, never mind actually go to the theatre and enjoy it. These two events play a big part in changing Rita in a positive way and in helping her believe that she can fulfil her dream of becoming more educated.
When Rita declares to Frank “ because I’m a freak” and “I’m a half-caste” she means she doesn’t fit in with her family anymore and she doesn’t fit in with Frank and his friends because she can’t learn the language. The events leading up to this are Frank inviting Rita to a dinner party and when she arrives she backs out because she doesn’t feel like she fits in then when she goes to her local pub she feels exactly the same. These events are what makes Rita believe she’s a freak and a half-caste
When Rita says on page 69 “he said I’d betrayed him” she is talking about her husband Denny. This shows us that she has permently changed because the old Rita would probably have given in to Denny’s ultimatum and quit her course at the university. We also know she has permantley changed because Denny realise that its not just a temporary change and that he is never going to get the old Rita back, that’s why he throws her out.
At the start of act 2, Rita has been to summer school and it seems to have changed her lifestyle. For example when Frank offers Rita cigarette she says, “no, ta, I’ve packed it in.” also Rita says “so I did it, I asked him the question”. This is another example of how she has changed because before she went to summer school she wouldn’t of had the confidence to stand up in front of thousands of people and ask a question.
Page 77 shows us that Rita’s way of thinking has changed because she now uses analogy and it shows us that she has more confidence and has learnt a lot from summer school.
Frank first begins to realise Rita is changing when she arrives back from summer school, but I don’t think it fully hits him until they are talking about Blake. I think Frank says the line “no of course” sarcastically. I think he says it his way because he is upset that Rita is changing and he is worried that she will disappear out of his life.
In act 2 scenes 2 and 3 seem to be a turning point in Frank and Rita’s relationship. When Rita tells frank about Tiger and the other students she has met, while correcting them on a comment she has overheard, Frank starts to get angry and jealous. This event is Willy Russell’s way of making it clear to us that their relationship will never be the same again because Rita never used to have the confidence to talk to what she called ‘proper students’ as she used to think they where better than her but now she has realised that there more alike than she actually thinks and that’s when Frank realises she doesn’t need him anymore. One of the other key events that make it clear to us that there relationship will never be the same again is Rita’s interpretation of the poem ‘The blossom’ because Frank is upset that there isn’t even a trace of the Rita’s old views in her essay about ‘The blossom’ and when Frank tries to tell Rita this she gets defensive.
The last line on page 90 “oh go way Frank. Of its type its quite interesting but its hardly excellence.” This proves just how much she has changed up until this point because at the beginning of the play she says the book ‘Ruby Fruit Jungle” is fantastic but now she doesn’t think it is.
Act 2 scenes 5 and 6 represent a breakdown in Frank and Rita’s relationship. Scene 5 starts off with Rita telling Frank how good his poetry is but Frank doesn’t agree with her and tells her that she has changed. Rita doesn’t understand though why he isn’t pleased for her and so they end up having an argument. “Found a culture have you. Rita? Found a better song to sing have you? No- you’ve found a different song that’s all” “Rita? Nobody calls me Rita but you I dropped that pretentious crap as soon as I saw it for what it was”. These two quotes illustrate how there is now a gulf between them because it shows how much Rita has changed and how upset and angry Frank is, as he liked the old Rita.”
In scene 6 Frank rings Rita up to tell her the details of her exam and finds out she has changed her name back to Susan. This scene tells us that Frank and Rita must not have spoke since there argument.
I think scene 7 is a satisfactory way to end the play because at the beginning of the play you see a 26 year old, working class hairdresser who wants to achieve more out of life. Then at the end you see a 26 year old educated woman who has tried her very best to achieve what she wants to achieve out of her life and along the way I think she has learnt that people are not always what they seem to be. I think Willy Russell ended it this way because Rita believed that ‘proper students’ where better than her but then at the end of the play I think she has realised there not that great after all. She realises this by getting to know Tiger “ I don’t know he’s a bit of a winker really” this shows us how she now feels about Tiger. By the end of the play Rita has also changed her opinion of Trish her flatmate as she always thought she was “so cool an together” but then she found out Trish had tried to top herself.
It is important that Rita admits to Frank that she has learned a lot from him rather than take it for granted because it shows us what a great relationship they had and it also shows us the real side to her. At the end of the play we feel happy and proud of Rita for not letting people such as Denny hold her back from achieving what she wants out of life.
I feel that Willy Russell wanted to write a play about a working class woman because he wanted the readers to understand how hard it was for a working class woman to get an education and gain respect.
Willy Russell included Denny in the play because he wants to show us that in order to achieve her dreams of becoming more educated, she would have to break away from the restrictions Denny imposed on her. Willy Russell thinks its important to show us that he didn’t support Rita because it shows us that Rita didn’t need him in order to succeed. She was capable of achieving it by her self all along it just took Rita a while to realise it.
Willy Russell shows us that working class people think that everyone else is better than them and that they are not worthy of an education. They also think everyone else is looking down at them. He makes Rita explain this on page 68 when she says, “ just because you pass a pub doorway an’ hear the singin’ you think we’re all OK”.
I think Willy Russell takes education so seriously because he wants people to understand how important it is. I also think he is trying to let us know that education can do so much for us, its not just for getting us a good job but it lifts our self esteem and makes us believe in ourselves.
