Not only the pronunciations of her words differ from Frank’s but also the actual words that Rita uses would never be found leaving someone like Frank’s (or like someone else of his standing or upbringing’s) lips. Words like ‘dead good’ and ‘pissed’ could never be imagined leaving someone like Frank’s lips, well not for now at least.
In the beginning Willy Russell uses many different dramatic devices to show Rita’s nervousness around Frank and the whole O.U Program. ‘Rita wanders about the room’ is a common example used on several occasions by Willy Russell. This shows that perhaps Rita is avoiding the confrontation of talking and learning with Frank, and when she ‘notices the picture’ (and other items of irrelevance) one could interpret this as Rita avoiding Frank’s eye contact as well. This does also show Rita’s curiosity, interest and enthusiasm as well, as she is not afraid to ask questions that may have a simple answer, such as her questioning about the picture.
Finally, nearer the end of the scene, another dramatic device is used: ‘Rita lights a cigarette’, showing what is entirely acceptable in Rita’s circles of friends and society. As she leaves, though, she seems to have built up her confidence enough to, once she has left the room, ‘burst’ back in again and orders Frank to, ‘ listen to me’, and tells him, ‘you are my teacher’an’ you’re gonna bleedin’ well teach me’. She even ends up making a joke, calling him a ‘geriatric hippie’ in jest, referring to his haircut. This shows that she feels comfortable enough to tell him how she feels and how relaxed that she already feels in Frank’s company.
What can be seen in Scene 1 is that Rita starts off as being nervous, but by only the end of the scene she feels confident enough in both herself and Frank to tell a joke. This confidence grows and grows until by Scenes 6 and 7 she has enough confidence to tell Frank about her inner most private life, such has the pill and why she does not want to have children to why she split up from Denny and had to move in with her mother. In a way Frank is her rock.
Throughout scene 1 Rita is a determined but disadvantaged student. She writes her essays in ‘the salon cos Denny don’t like me studyin’’. This tells us about what Rita is up against from her family, and presumably her friends. The fact that she did not attempt any work in school due to this same pressure also disadvantages her now as she has no idea how to write essays, as can be seen in the first few essays that she hands in.
What can be seen from Frank’s character in these early scenes would bring one’s self to say that Rita’s role may be to uplift Frank, as when she is around Frank laughs a lot and throughout the whole of Act 1,as he is around Rita, his drinking becomes less and less emphasized. He also asks Rita ‘why couldn’t she have walked in here twenty years ago?’ As if telling her he is attracted to her but that he is too old and that maybe she would have saved him from alcohol. He also refers to her has ‘the first breath of fresh air in here for a long time.’ Telling both her and us that he has feeling for her, and indeed there is chemistry between them.
The break between Acts 1 and 2 is supposed to be along period of time, like months or years in context with the play. In this time Rita has been off attending summer school with what she calls ‘proper students’. The fact that this is supposed to be long break is all too apparent when she exclaims ‘ Frank!’ When she first claps eyes on him again at the station. Rita’s language also changes early on in Act 2 Scene 1. For instance she recites a whole paragraph to Frank and only one apostrophe can be found to suggest unpronounced letters. Although with all of these changes retains some of her old Liverpudlian, working-class phrases, such as ‘dead good’ still remain.
Not only have the words and pronunciations of these words become more formal but also the actual subjects that she talks about seems a giant character leap from what she would have done in act 1. For example, she has moved in with another student called Trish, now she comes from a middle-class upbringing like Frank and is showing and taking her places that she (Rita) would not have gone to in the past. For instance, ‘I now work in a bistro’, she tells Frank in Scene 5 Act 2. This is a large character step for the ‘old’ Rita who now wishes to become a new woman, under much influence from her higher-class flatmate, Trish.
She (Rita) also talks about going to art exhibitions and the theatre and doing extra studies, i.e. on Blake, at summer school. All big steps forward in the life of Rita who want to become more ‘civilised’, respectable’ and who no longer wishes to ‘play the court jester’.
There is a serious example of Rita wishing to change her manner in Act 2 Scene 2 when she tries to talk ‘properly’ and not ‘ugly’. Also when she tells Frank that she has reverted back to her Christian name of Susan. This also shows a need for urgent change in Rita.
Rita (or Susan) telling Frank of her name change also tells us of another change of events in Rita’s character. For she now tells him that ‘he is the only one who still calls her Rita’, Frank is bemused by this but Rita now explains that she is now known to everyone else by her Christian name – Susan. This now shows us that she is no longer telling him everything that is happening in her life, and that she no longer confides in him. This also tells us that maybe she has outgrown Frank and no longer looks to him as the man with all the answers, as she once used to.
This obviously has a bad effect on Frank as in the next scene, after this and many other bombshells, he is found very drunk. This is another continuous factor in Act 2 [That Franks drinking problem is become more and more apparent] as he is found very drunk giving a lecture and in nearly all of the latter scenes he is found drinking his whisky again.
All of this leads to a sort of switch in roles between Frank and Rita, switching right down to the language. With Rita using some of ‘Franks words’ like ‘ preserver’ and Frank using Rita’s – ‘dead honest’.
If the book were to end at the end of Act 1 Scene 7 things would look very different: with Rita’s prospects being far worse than they are in Act 2 Scene 7. For at the end of act 1 she has just been kicked out by Denny and is not doing very well at all in her studies. Whereas, for Frank, if the book where to end at Act 1 Scene 7 rather than the true ending of Act 2 Scene 7 Frank would seem a lot more happy for in Act 1 a least he has Rita attending his lessons enthusiastically and punctually. He is also (in the beginning) the only person who teaches (and so influences) her. His drinking also seems to have gone down in volume and he seems genuinely more happy, cheerful person. He has also started writing poetry again, which Rita loves. All of this goes down hill from the start of Act 2 Scene 1.Frank seems a very unhappy and disgruntled person at the end of the play.
So, in conclusion, Act 2 is an entire contrast to Act 1 for both characters, but focusing on Rita, she has gone from being an uneducated, common -speaking, unhappy hairdresser to an educated, well- spoken and more importantly happy Bistro waiter. More significantly she is a woman with choices.
There is only one lapse in this metamorphosis when, after Trish tries to commit suicide, Rita lights up a cigarette in Scene 6 of Act 2. Which is understandable really.
BY MICHAEL ROACH 10JS
