She appears different from other students. She is much louder and outspoken. She puts her own inappropriate opinions into her essays and has a unique attitude towards literature which is like “a breath of fresh air” for Frank, although she is uneducated she has a unique sense of literature. Each student seemed to be identical to the last and then Rita came along and gave hope to Frank.
Her lack of confidence causes problems for her education, she is afraid of expressing her feelings and when she does say something it comes out the wrong way. Most of the time in a crude comment an example of this is her sense of humour about the book “Howard’s end”.
Although she was amazingly determined she didn’t expect to last the whole course. She is smart but in a unique way. She wants to learn but is being kept down by her roots. She feels and knows she is missing out on an education and this is a way of escaping her past lifestyle where she was taught to obey her husband Denny and spend hour after hour cutting people’s hair. Denny has control over her but not her life. She realises her life has no direction so she started her course at the Open University “…that’s the point when y’ have to decide whether its gonna be another change of dress or a change in yourself.”
As the play develops the audience begins to understand and sympathise with Rita’s struggle to educate herself. Part of this struggle is her husband Denny. Denny was not educated properly at school just like Rita. He feels threatened by Rita’s new found intelligence. He feels like he must compete with university for Rita’s affection thus he is not very supportive of Rita’s plans. “Denny tried to stop me comin’ tonight … He hates me comin’ here. It’s like drug addicts, isn’t it? … That’s what Denny’s frightened of.”
Rita told Denny she was off the pill, when he discovered the truth Denny took his anger out on Rita’s education by burning her books and essays. “Denny found out I was on the pill again … He burnt all me books”.
Compared with Denny, Frank treats Rita with respect and encourages her to continue with her studies. He gives her room to breath. Her relationship with Denny begins to suffer. He can’t come to terms with the fact that Rita is changing and he is becoming jealous of Rita’s intellect. Rita thinks and feels for herself now and Denny begins to feel useless and put aside. “… he’s wonderin’ where the girl he married had gone to … because she’s gone an’ I’ve taken her place”. When her relationship breaks down she leaves Denny. She thought of him as an obstacle which she needs to avoid if she is going to achieve her dream of being a student. If Denny was to stay around he would only drag her down with him. This act of independence shows the audience that Rita is becoming much more determined and has gained the courage she needs to carry on with her studies.
In act 1, scene 7 Frank invites Rita to a dinner party. He wants her to attend possibly with Denny and to be herself. She gets the impression she was asked to bethe “court jester”. A form of conversation. Somebody to make everybody laugh. She doesn’t want to go but in the end Frank persuades her. She gets dressed up in her new clothes and buys a bottle of wine “Spanish plonk” to take as a gift. When she shows up she looks into the window, she sees all the intellectual and sophisticated guests. She starts to feel like a “half-caste” as if she isn’t meant to be there. She takes her essay and writes sorry on the back and explains why she couldn’t come in and leaves it for Frank to find on his car. She felt like she was different, like a “freak” “I’d brought the wrong sort of wine”.
When Rita doesn’t arrive at the dinner Frank felt upset. He doesn’t want Rita to be like everyone else. He believes that her uniqueness is special and a quality she must keep hold of. He explains to her the next day how he only invited her to be herself and he know everybody else would like her, not as the source of entertainment but as on open minded woman. That is just as Frank sees her. “you could have come as yourself”
Rita realise she doesn’t belong in either worlds now. After missing Franks party she went down to the pub to join Denny and the rest of her family. They began to sing along with the karaoke and she knew she didn’t belong there “I wanna sing a different song, a better song” but her educated life isn’t going as well either, she doesn’t feel comfortable around Frank’s friends and other students. She is stuck between to conflicting cultures and doesn’t fit in either one. She is isolated and in a state of Limbo. “I’m a half-caste, a freak” this absence of Rita’s culture makes the audience feel sympathy towards Rita. This is because Rita is all alone and neither culture is right for her.
When she left Denny she knew it was her fault. Her ambitions got in the way of her lifestyle and it was her lifestyle that forced her to get an education. She knows she is responsible for the break up “it was an ultimatum. He said I betrayed him” This “betrayal” was the only way she could change. If Denny was threatened by her new found intelligence then maybe she would have to continue without him. Now she is more determined top reach her goal.
Frank feels she is not putting enough effort into her work and he reminds her it will not be easy if she wants to pass, “but if your going to write this sort of thing your going to have to change” so she goes to summer school and comes back a new person.
The major turning point in the play is when Rita goes to summer school, it was the kick she needed to get started. She became much more confident towards classes “two thousand people had seen me stand up, so I did it, I asked him the question” now she has gained independence around other pupils and has found a new identity. She started making new friends who are her idea of the “real” educated student, she found a new job at a bistro and stops talking to Frank about personal matters. She becomes more familiar with Blake, which is a poet Frank had been saving for her. She returns home a completely different person.
In the final part of the play the audience sees a complete change in Rita’s character and her relationship with Frank. In act 2 Rita shows off her intelligence, Frank becomes jealous and starts telling Rita she has changed for the worse not for the good. She back chats Frank by telling him that she is independent now and she likes it “I can do things on me own more now … Just don’t keep treatin’ me as though I’m the same person I was when I first walked in here.”
Her new life meant more than an education so she left her mothers house and moved into a flat with an eccentric room mate, Trish. She also quit the hairdressers and got a new job with Trish at a small bistro. This change gives Rita more chances to fit in such as her new circle of friends. Frank feels jealous that Rita got the life he always wanted. Although he doesn’t show it and he thinks students just follow the crowd. Rita is still unique to him but she refuses to express it. She is treating Frank as another typical tutor and not a friend “it struck me that there was a time when you told me everything” He feels that Rita doesn’t want to be at the tutorials and that she is only going out of pity. “you don’t have to put in the odd appearance out of sentimentality”
When Rita visits him to praise his poetry he compares himself to the writer Mary Shelley who wrote the book Frankenstein, He tells her she has become a monster and as the creator he regrets it and can’t escape her “I shall insist upon know as Mary, Mary Shelley” he also uses this comparison as an insult because Rita changed her name back to Susan. Rita becomes angry and over confidant and says some harsh things. Ashe is now independent but also selfish and irritated by Franks self pity. “I don’t need you”
After her argument with Frank she goes home to find Trish. She has attempted suicide. This is a wake up call for Rita. No longer does she believe students have the perfect life. She thought Trish was getting along well but the attempt changed her view of life. Trish explains to her that everything wasn’t good. A student’s life is full of stress and gossip. Rita still had the chance to get out. For the first time she had a choice.
She sits her exam. She was given the same question Frank had given her on her first tutorial. She could have written the answer she had to begin with but she didn’t. She passes her exams with flying colours.
Frank gets in trouble for drinking during lessons and he is told he needs a vacation. The university offers him a new post in Australia. He invites Rita to go with him but she refuses. Now she can do whatever she wants and moving to Australia would mean she would be running away from all of her opportunities at home.
Frank gives Rita a dress for an educated woman in the end scene. As a thank you Rita gives Frank a present that she promised him in the beginning, a haircut. Rita has a new life and is full of determination. Now she has an education, independence and can decide what her next move is. “I dunno I might go to France, I might go to me mothers, I might even have a baby. I dunno, I’ll make a decision, I’ll choose.”
To summarise Rita was fed up with her life but with the right push she got the confidence she needed. Through thick and thin Rita was going to get what she wanted, an education and a chance to prove herself. After taking a course at the Open University, She meets Frank, a former poet. He guides her through this and attempts to help her fit in but she refuses to associate with Frank’s friends. She went to summer school and came back a changed woman, she was independent but a bit overconfident. Frank dislikes Rita’s new attitude, she has become selfish and cheeky but once her room mate attempts suicide she realises that being a student isn’t all that great. She apologises to Frank and has that chance to do whatever she wants now. From this we are told along with many other lessons that you can do anything if you put your mind to it.
