Educating Rita

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Anish Sethi

Educating Rita

Examine Frank’s growing sense of unease as Rita becomes more educated.

Educating Rita is a play written by Willy Russell. The play is set in Liverpool during the 1980’s. It is written to highlight the difference in class, between a middle class lecturer and a working class student. During the 80’s period women were to have less challenging and rewarding jobs. Contrary to this men were expected to gain an education and become the income earner. Women no longer sought this role and wanted to lead the same life as men.  This was a major issue in the 1980’s.

At the beginning of the play Rita is simply a twenty-six year old hairdresser who is tired of her plain, mundane and repetitive lifestyle and is in need of a voyage of self discovery and pursues an education to broaden her horizons. She believes that the only way to break free from this rather boring way of life is to get an education. She wishes to attend an Open University course in order to obtain a degree in English Literature. Rita reflects a working class desire to escape from her own culture and background in order to lead a more fulfilling life in the type of society represented by her tutor Frank and other students. In the first act, Rita is presented as a working class woman, brought up in a working class environment; she has a strong sense of humour, emphasising her working class existence. Rita and Frank contrast greatly, Frank is a well educated, upper class lecturer, who is also very well spoken.

The main theme of this play is personal relationships. The audience watching the play see how Frank and Rita interact with each other and how they influence each other. Bored with teaching undergraduates English Literature, Frank miserably reflects through a whisky glass on his failed marriage and his attempt at becoming a poet. His world is turned upside down by the arrival of Rita. At the start of the play Rita needs Frank to teach her as she looks up to him and idolises him, however as time progresses and Rita develops we realise that this relationship changes. Rita meets new people at summer school and finds a new flatmate, Trish who she now looks up to. The relationship between Frank and Rita drifts away as near the end of the play it is Frank who yearns for Rita.

In the opening of the play, Rita crashes into Dr Frank Bryant’s life and her aggressive seriousness earns great respect of her lecturer who had previously resigned himself to a life of empty lectures and booze. Rita’s character is a “breath of fresh air that’s been in the room for years” for Frank and he begins to care about someone or something for the first time in his life since his break up of marriage. In this play Rita questions Frank on the understanding he has of his work and about himself. The play explores the relationship between the student Rita and the tutor Frank. The play shows how the two main characters transform and develop new skills and change the way they are.

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Willy Russell tells us through the play “Educating Rita” how education has an important value and how it changes a person and their life. The playwright conveys through his play that Rita searches for a meaning in her life. Throughout the play Russell shows that anyone can educate or do what they want to as long as they do not give up. He shows this by using Rita and Frank. Rita has determination and she overcomes all the barriers that prevent her success. She never gives up and ends up passing her examinations. Frank, who does not try things, ends ...

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