Rita, a Liverpudlian hairdresser, is going to an open university to study English literature under the watchful eye of her tutor Frank. Although Rita has only just met Frank she is very outspoken and questions him frequently. We see this on page 19 when Rita questions frank saying “You’re bleeding mad aren’t ya?” This shows that Rita has a strong character and isn’t afraid to ask questions. She also says it in a casual style which shows how relaxed she feels with frank and throughout both scenes she asks questions getting slightly more risky throughout the book. We know they get more intellectual and thought provoking because on page 32 (scene 2) Rita talks about what she is doing now being “the absolute maximum she can expect from this living lark” This shows a more intellectual understanding of life and how Rita has matured and is thinking more about her life and what she can pursue from it.
Rita, although seeming very outgoing, is very doubting. She is unsure and uncertain as to whether she belongs in education. Rita says “It’ll probably have a job findin’ my brain” which shows she doesn’t really think she has much of a brain to find. I interpret this as the reader showing self pity and doubt in Rita when things get too tough. Rita we know is very deep in self pity because of the pessimistic things she says. She isn’t the happiest of people but wants to be happy and improve her life by getting a qualification and do something with her life.
Rita is trying to free herself and have the life she dreamed of. She is jealous of frank and aspires to be a good as him and to make him proud. She shows her worries mainly in Act 1 Scene 1 by saying things like “God what’s its like to be free?” to Frank. She knows she wants to be free and do better things with her life but she doesn’t know how to do so. She turns to Frank, her tutor, for help in becoming free and having a life. She wants to be aware of the real world and see places she has only ever seen in her mind. Rita, although didn’t do well in her childhood schooling, wants to learn and wants to know and experience the world. She aims to do this through learning English Literature and going to Open University.
In scene 2 we see Rita use more intellectual language and think about her life some more. She thinks about why she is really doing this course and how people see you. When she says “Like cos they don’t want y’ to change.” I see a mixed up girl who worries about why she is doing the course and who wants to change but is unsure the real reason why she is. Rita wants to change but other people think if she goes to Open University she will change so much they won’t recognise her. She wants to be the same person she always has been and yet learn something that will help her in her lifetime.
Rita is a young girl who aims to change her life for the better through learning more, catching up on what she lost and learning what life is really like when you are clever and know the real world. She wants to see life and live hers to the full. However as she has the calamity of not being able to enter franks room to learn we see her want to learn as she waits and keeps trying. The door is a doorway to learning and a doorway to freedom and she attempts to get in but it is a blocked door. This is the first hurdle in the new start to her life and she wants to go further.
