Educating Rita is a humorous play giving out a very strong message, which is telling the reader to never give up in life and k

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Educating Rita is a humorous play giving out a very strong message, which is telling the reader to never give up in life and keep striving for what you are aiming for.  In this play we have a 26 year old woman called Rita whom is a mature woman, seeking an education, as she didn't take the opportunity to learn when she was an amateur student, because of the environment she lived in and the fact she didn't want to learn due to her popularity and her working class culture.

In reflection, Rita has come to realise how the law expectations surrounding her and her working class culture held her back from her real potential. She wants to change now and break this cycle. Frank, the other main character, is a teacher at the university where she has applied to do her course. He is around his 50's and is Rita's tutor. He is a lazy man, bored and frustrated by his life he too does not feel like he belongs anywhere. Frank does not like his job very much, he does not have any respect for himself at all.

The play is staged in one room and only 2 people are taking the major role in the play. This is quite unusual for a play this long. Throughout the play, there are only two characters: this is known as a two-hander. Other characters are only mentioned in the play, but in the film have been cast as parts. It worked well for the film, but I think it lost the closeness which plays such an important part in the theatre. Some people would find this to be tedious, but I think it adds to the intensity and intimacy between the audience and the characters.

Frank is a very important to Rita’s transformation. The relation ship between frank and Rita at the beginning of the play is not strong, Frank doesn't really want to tutor Rita because he knows she is an uneducated woman and it will be a challenge for him to educate her. “im actually an appaling teacher” “im sorry ther will be other tutors”. This shows that frank does not value himself, and he has a very low opinion of himslef.  Frank agrees to teach rita, Frank's fondness for Rita continues to grow over time and he warms to her and her witty, individualistic nature. “ I think your the first breath of fresh air that’s been in this room for years”. This shows that frank is attracted to her personality and her free spirit. Frank has shown a lot of support to Rita and he has been a positive influence on her. Frank teaches her in an enjoyable way to apply his knowledge to Rita. As we read the play we see how they change each other. This can be symbolised by the fact that at the beginning of the play Rita tells him to fix his door. This could represent how she is going to fix him.

When it was time for Rita to go to  summer school, she was very nervous, intimated and shy because she is not used to being around students, frank offered one hundred percent support , he reasured her and pursuaded her to go. Frank is always there to back Rita up. If frank didn’t persuade her to go, Rita would have still been insecure, vulnerable and most importantly she wouldn’t have gained any knowledge.

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Frank’s style of teaching is that he is not concerned how well his students do; it depends on how dedicated the students are. When frank reads the book that Rita gave him – Ruby Fruit Jungle, he teaches her that criticism is not purely objective. “It should be only approached almost as science. Criticism is never subjective and should not be confused with partisan interpretation”

        The first thing Frank introduces to Rita is E.M Forster who wrote ‘Howard’s End’. Rita thought it was “crap”. Frank tells Rita that she cannot interpret E.M Forster from a Marxist viewpoint. After meeting Frank, ...

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