This play was written at a time where women were looking for individuality and for ways to lead a more open lifestyle. Rita is a perfect example of a woman who is trying to reach this difficult ambition. She “wants to find out about herself” and see what sort of person she is.
In her early education, Rita was at a school that was not very good, it was “borin” and there was “knives and fights. Rita wanted to learn, but that was not allowed. This is because she would have become different from all her mates, which was not right from their point of view.
In later life Rita gets married to her husband Denny who does not believe in female education. He wants Rita to be a housewife and have a baby. He says to her “come off the pill so we can have a baby”. However this is not what Rita wants. Denny is part of working class culture and enjoys going out to the pub and watching the football on television. Rita wants to be able to do different social activities like going to the opera and ballet. Denny does not understand this ambition. Rita trys to explain it to him what the working class do, “y’ sit there”, in front of the telly “watching the ballet or the opera an call it rubbish because that’s what it looks like. This is because y’ don’t understand. So y’ switch it off an’ say that’s fucking rubbish.” Rita explains this to her tutor Frank who understands.
When Rita starts her Open University course, she explains to her tutor Frank that she wants to “know everything.” Rita understands that to do this she needs to become more educated. She explains to Frank that she does not “just want to sit there in front of the telly an’” watch opera or ballet and “call it fucking rubbish.” She wants to be able to understand it.
After a few sessions at her Open University Course Rita is given some books to study on the behalf of Frank. When she goes home she finds out that her husband Denny knows that she is on the pill and decides to burn her books as a punishment. He believes that education is stopping Rita wanting to have a baby. Rita tells her tutor Frank, who finds it quite disturbing. She explains to him that she is “busy enough finding out about herself, let alone findin’ out about someone else.” She explains to him that she “don’t want anyone else” but wants to find out what is “inside” her.
Rita’s husband and family are all part of working class culture and make it difficult for Rita to get what she wants. One character in the play that understands Rita is her mother. She recognises Rita’s reasons for “wanting to lead a better life.” When Rita, her family and friends are in the local pub on a specific occasion, they are all singing to the Jukebox in the pub and having a good time, apart from one person. Rita’s mother who is crying, who says to Rita, “Surely, we could have a better song to sing than that.” This shows Rita that her mother is on her side, also not happy and believes in Rita’s passion for “leading a better life.” Rita explains to Frank how she felt in the pub when her whole family were singing and how she wants to be different from them. She believes that thjere is more than life than just getting drunk and “talkin’ the piss, comin’ on with funnies because that’s the only way” to get in to the conversation because there is nothing else to say. Rita’s tutor, Frank, try’s to help Rita develop her knowledge, help her through what she is going through, and become part of middle class culture.
Rita wants to be able to make her own decisions and make plans of her own but finds it difficult with her husband Denny trying to control her. She try’s to make clear to him that she wants a “better way of livin” her “life” and become independent. But he does not understand her because when she is finished he still starts telling her that they need to start saving up to buy a house in Formby. Maybe this is not what Rita wants. Rita try’s to explain to Frank that Denny sometimes looks at her and she “knows what he is thinking,” he is “wondering where the woman he married has gone.” She tells Frank “that the woman Denny married is gone,” and she has “taken her place.” Rita is a changed person and different from what she used to be and Denny can not accept this.
Rita is now looking at life in a different way to most of her family and friends. She is becoming a misfit in her own community. She begins to find it hard to associate with her family, especially her husband.
Denny and Rita are becoming two different people who want to lead different styles of life. Denny can no longer live with this and asks Rita to stop her university course or “get out altogether.” She decides to leave, she did not want to betray him, but there is one person she can defiantly could not betray is herself, and her own personal feelings. Rita explains to Frank what happened with Denny, how it is an ultimatum to complete her course, and be able to pass exams. Rita explains to Frank that she wants no pity or sympathy in her teaching, she just wants to know whether her work is right or wrong. If it is wrong she wants him to tell her so she can bin it, and then start over. All that is in Rita’s life now is her ambitions for the future and Open University course. Frank tells Rita that the only way she will be able to complete this course is by changing her own personnel uniqueness and how he will have to change her.