Educating Rita - Show how Rita has changed and developed during the course of this play.

Authors Avatar

Educating Rita Coursework.

“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.”

My intentions within this assignment are to show how Rita has changed and developed during the course of this play.  I will give my opinions and views on the choices that she made.

Before continuing I feel it is necessary to look at the text and explain the metaphor ”singing a better song”.  This is used in the play on two different occasions; Rita’s mother uses it the first time late one night in the pub after thinking that Rita had given up her university studies. Rita was having thoughts of giving up, and enters the pub to join her family and friends.  As she stands in the door way she questions herself “why don’t I just pack it in an’ stay with them, an’ join in the singin’?” She briefly joined in the singing.  Rita noticed her mother had stopped singing and was sat there crying.  Rita asked why she was crying she replies by saying “Because – because we could sing better songs than those.”  What her mother is really saying is that Rita is too good for them all and that she should go out get an education and a better life.   “A better song to sing.”

Towards the end of the play Frank uses the same metaphor but extends it by adding “No – you’ve found a different song that’s all – and on your lips it’s shrill and hollow and tuneless.”  By adding the last few words he is implying to Rita that she has found a different life but it is not necessarily any better than the old one.

I strongly feel that Frank is wrong as Rita has a choice which way her life will go.  Rita has widened her knowledge of life and her education thus leaving her with far more options and choices.  Rita could go away now and have a baby, travel or get work but whatever she does and wherever she goes Rita will always be far happier because she will be doing what she has chosen and not just making do.  I feel that Rita has definitely found a better song to sing.

Join now!

To fully understand the play I feel you need to know and understand Rita before she became educated.

At the beginning Rita was a very funny young lady without meaning to be, she spoke as she found.  When Rita first met Frank it is quite clear that they had many differences from each other the way they talked and acted and the different backgrounds they are from, Rita from uneducated working class and Frank is well educated.   Rita starts off as a very enthusiastic Open University student.  She feels trapped in her life and feels that she ...

This is a preview of the whole essay