Then we learn how Frank is isolated. When Rita arrives for her tutorial. The door to Franks office is damaged and makes it very hard for anyone to get in, hence isolated
Rita's entrance in the scene is a critical moment. She knocks twice on the door although Frank yells at her to come in. Eventually she bursts into the room swearing and using common language (this contrasts with Franks very upper class English)
" I'm comin' in, aren't I? It's that stupid bleedin' door. You wanna get it fixed!".
The stage directions at this point in the scene give us an impression of Rita,(going to the chair and dumping her bag on the desk)suggests that Rita treats everywhere as if its her own home,(she is not shy). Rita is not phased by anything, as the stage directions state (walks in places her bag straight down).
Frank however, is very polite and well educated. He would never waltz in to a room and start commenting on it “that’s a nice picture isn’t it” She is quite happy to express her feelings. Frank was quite shocked by the fact that Rita brought the painting up “ Erm yes I suppose it is nice” the erm shows Frank is quite hesitant and can’t quite believe she’s commenting on this painting.
This is very dramatic as we are made to wait for Rita's entrance and she doesn't walk meekly into the room as we would expect a student, having her first meeting with a teacher, to do. She takes a commanding role and is telling Frank what to do. Frank is shocked and surprised and the audience is amused at this apparent role reversal with the student dominating the teacher. He immediately tries to regain his position of authority " You are?", this is a very upper class phrase and Rita, unused to such language takes this phrase literally, "What am I?" Frank gets confused and so it continues until Frank gives up and studies the admission papers. This confusion is funny and we see that it is useless for Frank to try to gain any authority over Rita since she is at the college because she wants to be and wants to do things in her own way.
There is a lot of this kind of humour all through the play, which really confuses Frank. She is also humorous because she makes a lot of mistakes.
Rita is a ladies' hairdresser from a working class area of Liverpool. She is very quick and witty. This makes her very likeable as a character and as she has had a hard life she is very determined. At the start of the play, Rita bursts onto the stage. This is to make it seem as though she is bursting into Frank's life. It is also to make her character seem lively from the start. Rita also has a strange sense of humour. She tries to make a joke of everyday things. Frank doesn't understand most of her jokes:-
Rita Y'know Frank, Frank Ness, Elliot's Brother.
Frank What?
There is a lot of this kind of humour all through the play, which really confuses Frank. She is also humorous because she makes a lot of mistakes.
Rita is bemused by the room and brings up the painting quite happy to express her feelings. Frank was quite shocked by the fact that Rita brought the painting up “ Erm yes I suppose it is nice” the erm shows Frank is quite hesitant and can’t quite believe she’s commenting on this painting. The stage directions(Rita: studying the picture) shows that Rita is somewhat bemused by the painting.
Rita then alerts Frank to a painting and asks him if he thinks it's erotic. Frank is obviously surprised and mutters something about not having looked at it for ten years. Rita, however, does not give up. "Look at those tits" Frank, slightly embarrassed and shocked coughs and engrosses himself in looking at the admission papers again. This shows the contrast between Frank and Rita classes and backgrounds: Frank has probably never been approached like this before and being upper class doesn't talk about anything to do with sex or nudity openly. Frank is also shocked about being asked such a question from a complete stranger.
Rita goes on to say, “D’ya get a lot like me?”(She is not really sure on whether she is University material) Frank then says “not exactly no” shows that Frank is not being polite now, he is just fine to let Rita know she is unusual. Rita uses “D’Y” (do you), this causes a lot of confusion between the 2 characters, for example Frank say’s “pardon” a lot as he can’t always grasp just exactly what Rita means. The confusion between the two characters is amusing.
Frank and Rita learn a lot from each other. Franks example of assonance is “the Wild swans at Coole”(poem) in that the poet rhymes the word swan with stone. Rita refers to this as getting the rhyme wrong. Frank shows Rita the educational side of assonance and Rita shows Frank what it realistically means to the uneducated. Frank talks about “Yeats” the poet, Rita believes Frank is talking about “Yates “ the wine lodge (again showing the difference in classes between the two characters. Rita does know about some literature and poetry but she hasn’t indulged into it enough to know names etc. Rita says “ J Arthur Pruffrock” Frank interrupts her and corrects her “J Alfred”. Many people would find this offensive and feel that Frank was questioning there knowledge, but Rita wants to learn and is happy for Frank to correct her.
Frank is exceptionally clever. But he has a very low opinion of himself. The viewer learns this by “I’m actually an appalling teacher” This is very strange, most people may think, or even know that they are not particularly good at something but usually keep it to themselves. Frank however is very open about it. To Rita this seems absurd. She would love to be as intelligent as Frank whereas Frank would like to have a simple life just like Rita. Towards the end of the scene Frank threatens to find Rita another tutor. “I’m sorry there are other tutors, I’ll sort it for you”. Rita clearly likes Frank and tries to convince him otherwise, “ Wait a minute, listen to me. I’m on this course, you are my teacher and you are going to “bleedin” well teach me”(She uses the slang term bleedin, again showing the difference in classes between the two. She is very adamant then Frank say’s
“For Gods sake woman I’ve told you” (He becomes very aggravated).
Frank getting aggravated as he did shoes he has a short temper which is quite funny for someone of his “upper class” nature. The stereotyping of higher class people is that they are respectable and never lose their temper, this gets the point across that Frank isn’t like other educated and upper class people.
To write a play with two main characters such as Educating Rita is a very hard challenge, in my opinion Russel pulled it of extremely well!
Russell makes his opening interesting and entertaining with comedy. The audience is eager to see more and has a good idea of Frank and Rita's characters. Straight away you know about Frank and Rita, the use of the phone call, the broken door, and Franks alcoholism all help to make the scene incredibly entertaining and dramatic. The scene sets the tempo for the rest of the play.