Frank thinks Rita’s life is a lot more gratifying, he wants to be free and have a life like Rita’s. Since Rita burst into his life there had been a breath of fresh air in the room “Is that all you wanted. Have you come all this way for so very, very little?” The fact that Frank uses terms like “darling” or goes to parties wearing formal clothing is little to him. However, Rita thinks otherwise. She believes having a life like Franks is called “freedom” Going to fancy parties, wearing fancy clothing and to talk without using any vulgar terms is freedom, a new life full of excitement.
Everyday as Rita comes in; into Frank’s room she dumps her bag, smokes a cigarette, talks in a playful matter and swears a lot. Rita enters into Frank’s room which metaphorically means she enters into his life. The sloppy, vulgar character that she represents affects Frank in so many ways because he has never met anyone or has not in a while met anyone who could be as free spirited as Rita. Frank comes is with in great shock as he experiences her uniqueness. Frank is always so very serious and up tight, he has a girlfriend who can not support him with his depressive attitude towards life and the only thing that can suppress his depression is alcohol which he drinks regularly. Frank goes through an everyday ritual which is lifeless and dull ‘He takes the sandwiches and apples from his briefcase and puts them on his desk and then goes to the window and dumps the essays and briefcase…’ where as Rita ‘bursts through the door out of breath’ everyday she experiences something new. Frank wants to experience that ‘something’ and through out the script Frank’s character changes into some what like Rita’s. He adopts vulgar language “You would have thrown it across the room and dismissed is as a heap of shit, wouldn’t you?”, he stops drinking and starts smoking.
Rita bursts through Frank’s room knowing that she’ll learn something new and brilliant, something that will make her different from everybody else in her neighborhood. She wants to change “I said, ‘Why are y’ cryin’, Mother?’ She said, ‘Because-because we could sing better songs than those.” What Rita points out is that what her mum really means is they could have a better life. Denny, her husband, wants children but Rita does not want children just yet because she wants to sort out her life first. She wants to be educated like Frank.
In conclusion there is a role reversal. Their paths cross, Rita found what she was looking for; intellect and her ‘freedom’. Frank stopped drinking or is a lot more sober than he used to be. Although, Rita’s influence on Frank changed him a lot but now that Rita developed a character like his, he regrets ever teaching her “But I’ve told you-I don’t want to do it. Why come to me?” The fact that in the end there is a role reversal affects Frank in a positive and negative manner. He managed to change a woman completely but by doing so lost a friend who he could connect with.