Educating Rita by Willy RussellEssay: Trace the development of Rita's character up to the end of Act 2, scene 1.

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Educating Rita

Text by Willy Russell

Essay:  Trace the development of Rita’s character up to the end of Act 2, scene 1.

    Rita has taken the crucial decision of enrolling on a literature course, even though this causes her to break away from the restrictions of her husband and the society.  This decision makes her more educated and culturally aware. She gradually becomes more absorb in Literature and by the end of Act 2 scene 1 noticeable develops in terms of Literature and manners from the beginning of her tutorials.  She discovers her own meaning of life through the cultured, middle-class living and builds up her confidence.

   From the beginning of the play Rita enters Frank’s room in an unexpected and startling manner, usually by bursting into the room.  In this way she radiates with energy and vitality and this also highlights her eagerness and enthusiasm to learn.  At the beginning of the play, she enters by oiling the door, “I was just oilin’ it for y’,” surprising both Frank and the audience.   After she returns from the summer school, he still enters in an unexpected way, by bursting, but her behaviour is more refined and her manners more gentle.  She suppresses her character, and acts more like a middle-class lady should.  She even takes off her shawl and gives it to Frank who hangs it on a hook, and does not dump her bag.  Furthermore Rita used to admire Frank’s room, which symbolizes her desire to belong to the educated middle-class.  After the summer school however, she becomes “educated”, belongs to the middle-class and therefore acting differently and more sophisticated. She finds the room restricting and suffocating and wants to open a window to air it.  Also, after the summer school she believes she is educated since she is dressed in new second-hand clothes, because earlier she says to Frank that she will buy one when she is educated, “An’ I’m not gonna get one either, not till-till I pass me first exam.  Then I’ll get the proper dress, the sort of dress you’d only see on an educated woman, on the sort of woman who knows the difference between Jane Austen an’ Tracy Austin.”  Rita previously used to smoke.  At the beginning of the play she even offers Frank a cigarette and calls the non-smokers “cowards”,   “everyone seems to have packed up these days.  They’re all afraid of getting’ cancer.”  This illustrates her ignorance towards the consequences of smoking.  However when she returns from the summer school and Frank offers her a cigarette she refuses.  This shows to the audience how her manners changed to suit more to an educated woman.

   Rita’s language is colourful and humorous as it reflects on her personality.  It additionally shows perception and intelligence, “You mean, it’s all right to go out an’ have a bit of slap an’ tickle with the lads as long as you don’t go home an tell your mum?”  This suggests that she understands what Frank is explaining to her, and expresses it in a clever way.  At the beginning of the play up she talks colloquially, “y’ know,” and has a Liverpudlian accent too, “ta.”  Moreover she talks with an incorrect grammar, “burnt all me books,” and swears a lot “fuckin’ rubbish.”  As time passes though, she becomes more aware of her behaviour and her language improves even though it is still colloquial.  She swears less and less and eventually stops.  Also she can repress her personality and can control her humour, “It was right on the tip of me tongue to say, ‘Only when it’s served with Parmesan cheese’, but, Frank I didn’t.”  She talks in a more sophisticated manner and uses analogies, “A room is like a plant.”  This illustrates the effect education has on her, which is causing her to language to evolve, and to become one of an educated woman’s’.

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   The fact that her essay, together with all the Chekhov books Frank lent her, were burnt by Denny when he realized that Rita was on the pill helps the audience to realize that Denny did not approve of her education so he resulted in that desperate action.  We can also see that there is lack of trust and sincerity between them because Rita is secretly on the pill, and Denny is jealous and thinks she is having an affair, “I wouldn’t put it past you to shack up with a foreigner.”  This demonstrates Denny’s ignorance about literature and the ...

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