and Denny, and as a result we can see the contrast in the two characters. Adding
to the comment I made on Denny’s ignorance. He burns the books in hope of
burning away Rita’s ideas and ambitions. However, he doesn’t understand that
Rita is set on becoming educated and fulfilling her dream. And so despite
Denny’s efforts, nothing will deter her. This again shows us the level of
Denny’s intelligence and allows us to match this with his social upbringing.
In this scene it’s the first time that the audience register Rita’s ever
changing character. Frank asks her if she loves Denny and she replies, “I see
him looking at me sometimes, I know what he’s thinking”, “where’s that girl he
married gone to”, here we can see that Rita is quickly changing and leaving
Denny behind. Rita is quite clearly opening up to herself now, she seems to be
coming out of her shell and gradually becoming unafraid of admitting it.
Another passage which brings to light various points of interest, comes just
after Rita has returned from her summer camp. Where she spent time learning and
getting to know other students. Rita has learnt a lot, and seems to be much more
intelligent than Frank anticipates. Where as before Rita would simply listen to
Frank as he taught, she starts to contribute and to argue different views. The
passage begins with Rita saying. “Look Frank, I don’t have to go along one
hundred percent with your views on Blake y’ know. I can have a mind of my own
can’t I?”
This passage is a prime example of Rita’s growing independence. We can clearly
see that Rita is changing into the person she once dreamt of being, and Frank
most certainly isn’t keen.
“I sincerely hope so, my dear.”
“ And what’s that supposed to mean?”
“ It means-it means be careful.”
So we can see that Frank doesn’t like this sudden change of character on Rita’s
behalf. In the beginning Frank saw someone who was different, and perhaps he
fancied her for that reason. Now Rita is turning into one of them, the regular
students. Someone that Frank sees everyday.
Further down the passage Rita says, “ I’m not an idiot now, Frank-I don’t need
you to hold my hand as much”. So we see now that Frank is relying more on Rita.
She used to be his way out, a substitute for the drink. In this scene Frank
thinks it will all be the same, although she has inevitably changed and left
Frank behind. Rita just didn’t realise how much, an for what reasons Frank
relied on her. She couldn’t comprehend why someone who seemed to have everything
could find so much stimulation in someone who thought she had nothing.
If we go back to when Frank first met Rita. We can see how incredible Rita’s
transformation of character is. Here Rita and Frank are once again alone and in
deep conversation. Rita spots an erotic picture and is quite intrigued to know
about the history of the painting. “That’s a nice picture isn’t it?” Frank then
replies non-comically. “Erm yes-I suppose it is-nice”
“It’s very erotic.”
“Actually I don’t think I’ve looked at it for about ten years, but yes, I
suppose it is.” We can see Frank quickly tries to get rid of some of the rising
tension. Rita is also speaking very bluntly and perhaps uneducated. Which again
reinforces her inability to express her feelings linguistically.
Further down the passage Rita says something which is absolutely correct and
implies she has the potential to make certain intelligent observations. “This
was the pornography of its day, wasn’t it? It’s sort of like men only isn’t it?
But in those days they had to pretend it wasn’t erotic so they made it religious
didn’t they?” Rita is absolutely right in what she’s saying. She just simply
doesn’t have the ability to speak politely, in a way Frank is used to. However
Frank actually admires her inability to express her feelings the way he does.
It’s something which he doesn’t often come across, and this scene seems to lay
the foundation for their relationship.
If we go back to the scene when Rita had just been to see Macbeth at the
theatre. We can see what first captured her interest into literature and
language. And additionally what hints the scene gives us into Rita’s ever
growing ambition .
At the beginning of the scene Rita comes racing in to Frank with bubbling
excitement. She’s just been to see Macbeth, and is overwhelmed with the drama
and excitement portrayed by Shakespeare. Her first line is very interesting and
again shows Rita’s inability to speak linguistically so. “Wasn’t his wife a cow
eh? An’ that fantastic bit where he meets Macduff an’ he thinks he’s all
invincible.” Rita has clearly digested every bit of action from the play, and is
intrigued further as to know if the play was a tragedy. “I’m going to. Macbeth’s
a tragedy isn’t it?” Here the audience can register Rita slowly becoming dragged
in to the puzzle of literacy. We can sense Rita’s growing ambition, and her
desire to break into that small proportion of people who understand the ins and
outs of literature and language.
Further down Frank begins to explain to her the difference between a tragedy
and something that’s tragic. “Well I better get back. I’ve left a customer with
a perm lotion. If I don’t get a move on there’ll be another tragedy.
“No. There won’t be a tragedy.”
“There will y’ know. I know this woman; she’s dead fussy. If her perm doesn’t
come out right there’ll be blood an’ guts everywhere.”
“Which might be quite tragic-but it won’t be a tragedy.” From then on Rita
answers Frank with short one or two word sentences, as if she just wants him to
carry on I.e. “What?”, “No”, “So-so Macbeth brings it on himself?” Rita’s short
sentences show her growing intrigue, but also reinforce her ignorance due to her
social upbringing.
All the way through prior to Frank speaking, he seems to be extremely hesitant
when he’s about to speak to Rita. Almost as if he doesn’t want to patronise her
with the technical language he uses, I.e. “ Well-erm look;”
Towards the end of the scene, Rita realises her own ignorance towards these
certain aspects of language. Frank says, “It’s quite easy really, Rita.” And
Rita replies, “It is for you. I just thought it was just a dead exciting’ story.
But the way you tell it, you make me see all sorts of things in it. It’s fun,
tragedy isn’t it? All them out there, they know all about this sort of thing
don’t they?”. Rita thinking tragedy is “fun” is most certainly unintentionally
ironic. In addition I think Rita is impressed with Frank’s knowledge, although
Frank is more in admiration for Rita, as he rarely comes across people that
equal her calibre of intelligence. What he doesn’t realise is that whilst he’s
happy teaching Rita now, he is slowly changing Rita in to the person she dreams
of being. Frank likes Rita as she is, and admires her because she’s different,
So if Frank had the benefit of hindsight, perhaps he wouldn’t of put so much
effort into teaching Rita.
Shortly after the above scene, Rita and Frank are again alone and in one of
their lessons. Rita is daydreaming, she likes the idea of being a “proper
student”. She looks down onto the lawn below Frank’s office as she says, “I love
that lawn down there. In the summer do they sit on it?” Here we can see Rita is
becoming very envious of the students. She admires their lifestyle and her need
to become one of them is slowly becoming clearer.
Frank however sees the students as nothing but mislead inhabitants of a rich
snobbish culture, and he barely shows any respect for them. But as the scene
unfolds, Rita starts to describe her school life to Frank, and we can he that he
starts to realise that not many people have access to an education, for many
different reasons.
“Nah, just normal, y’ know; borin’, ripped up books, broken glass everywhere.
Knives an’ fights. An’ that was just the staff room. Nah, they tried their best
I suppose, always telling’ us we stood a better chance if we studied. But
studying’ was for the wimps, wasn’t it? See if I’d started takin’ school
seriously I’d a been different from my mates, and that’s not allowed.”
Here the audience get a vivid picture of what Rita’s school life was actually
like. The peer pressure was obviously immense, and so now is the only time in
Rita’s life, she has had the chance to admit her true feelings and ambitions.
She is again using humour as a vehicle for serious issues, always trying to make
light of her dismal past. There was clearly no work ethos in Rita’s school, and
so now she desperately wants to regain that opportunity of having an education.
In Rita’s last speech of the scene, she reveals that despite her poor and
uneducated background, she would always question life. She says that “there was
always something’ tappin’ away, telling’ me I might have got it all wrong.” So
in other words Rita would think philosophically about life. She was reluctant to
be in the position and lifestyle she was in. Therefore we understand that she
had the definite potential to become what she wanted, to find her play in life.
Despite these rattling questions inside her head, she didn’t believe she was
capable of breaking out of her current situation. And so she’d hide away her
feeling by “telling herself life’s great” or by going out shopping to take her
mind off things. It was these things that kept Rita going, they stopped her
putting life into perspective.
Towards the end of the play Frank seems to have had enough. With himself, with
Rita’s ever growing education, and with his routine life. His drinking habit has
reached its climax, and Rita can’t bear him any longer.
Rita appreciates what he’s done for her, although she doesn’t like his constant
self pitying and the way he seems to exploit his god given gift.
At the beginning he liked Rita because she was fresh, now she’s educated like
all his other students and he doesn’t like that.
Rita accuses Frank of taking for granted the things in which she has worked so
hard for. “It’s little to you who squanders every opportunity and mocks and
takes for granted.” But of course for Frank every lesson was simply an escape,
and now Rita has changed into the very person she destined to be. And Frank has
been stripped of that luxury weekly lesson. What seems more interesting is that
Frank has come away with nothing and Rita has come away with an education. The
irony here is that Rita is the only one who really understands and has insight
into Frank’s character. He is just unaware of how he “squanders every
opportunity” and “mocks and takes for granted”.
All the way through this scene Frank is drunk, and so we assume the insults
which toll of his tongue are spontaneous and perhaps a little rash. I think he’s
just annoyed that she is such a changed character. He was so found of the fresh
an innocent woman who first walked through his door. She stimulated him, made
him look forward to the next lesson. His life was definitely much better when
Rita was around, and he depended on her for company and perhaps arousal.
At this point in the play Rita just doesn’t understand why Frank is acting the
way he is. She doesn’t know how he relied on her for certain things, those
things which he couldn’t find anywhere else.
Another speech by Frank which is so cleverly written by Willy Russell and is
most certainly for me a very moving part of the play. Comes after the accusation
by Rita when Frank says. “Found a culture have you, Rita? Found a better song to
sing have you? No-you’ve found a different song, that’s all-and on your lips
it’s shrill and hollow and tuneless.” Frank is absolutely right in what he’s
saying. The fact that Rita is now educated doesn’t mean she has “found a better
song to sing” at all. She has just most definitely “found a different song”. For
some people, like Rita, who are brought up on a poor inner city estate. The life
which Frank is living will most certainly be seen as better. But for people like
Frank, well off intelligent people, who come from the same descriptive
background, they may well, as Frank is, be in admiration for the lifestyle in
which Rita came from.
The final point in which I am going to talk about, brings us to the lesson
after Rita has been to Frank’s party, but couldn’t bring herself round to going
inside.
She walks into Frank’s office and we get the impression she’s very fed up with
herself. She feels as though she’s the odd one out. “Well you wouldn’t take
sweet sparkling wine, would y’?” She starts to make excuses and tells him that
she brought the wrong wine. We can sense very clearly Rita’s frustration.
Additionally we know that Rita felt very uncomfortable around Frank’s other
guests, the well educated guests wearing the correct attire. She clearly feels
she can’t fit in and we again see the contrast in social background.
She says, “But I don’t want to be myself. Me? What’s me? Some stupid little
woman who gives us all a laugh because she thinks she can learn, because she
thinks that one day she’ll be like the rest of them, talking seriously,
confidently, with knowledge, livin’ a civilized life.”
The above quote reveals many things about Rita, fairly early on in the play.
Rita is feeling down after seeing the contrast in characters between her and
Franks other guests. She perhaps feels as though she’s fighting a lost cause in
life. Frank tells her to be herself although this is the exact opposite person
Rita wants to be. She’s becoming educated in order to change who she is. However
this reinforces how Frank just wants Rita as she is, and can’t understand the
need for her to change.
This point of Frank being perhaps unaware of how Rita is changing, is brought
up many times throughout the play. Which tells us that perhaps there’s a hint of
dramatic irony in that he just doesn’t catch on. And towards the end Rita
changes and leaves Frank behind. To dwell on where it all changed so suddenly
without him realising.
So we can finally appreciate the both sides of a very cleverly and wittily
written play. Willy Russell tells almost two stories in unison, and the audience
can digest both of them, with utter intrigue and admiration.
By Christian Cooke
