Rita also makes a grammatical error a few lines later but Frank corrects her mistake. ‘If I don’t get a move on there will be another tragedy.’ Rita should have used the word tragic instead of tragedy.
Frank’s attitude is the complete opposite of Rita’s attitude. Frank is calm laid back. Frank asks a lot of questions, ‘then why did you go?’ this means Frank is interested in why Rita went to the Shakespeare play and; ‘come on which one was it?’ in this question Frank is even more interested in the play that Rita has seen.
Frank’s choice of words is in Standard English, ‘I’m honoured that you choose me.’ This conveys to the reader that he is upper class and proves that he is more educated than Rita. He has no noticeable accent, which could be recognised by just looking at the text, but he uses complex language, ‘inevitable’ and ‘pre-ordinated.’ Whereas, Rita uses colloquial language. Her choices of words are in dialect and are slang, ‘excitin’,’ ‘dead fussy.’ Rita has an accent, which demonstrates to the reader that she and Frank are different, ‘gorra’ and ‘me dinner now.’ She uses simple language and short sentences, which make her sentences, seem short and quick. This conveys to the reader that Rita is excited about going to the theatre. A difference can be seen between Rita and Frank, because Rita is not very polite, as she says things like ‘What.’ Later on in the scene the playwright conveys to the reader that she is half a working class person and half a middle class person.
The stage direction in line forty-five indicates to the reader that Rita is in a hurry because of her customer with a perm, ‘moving towards the door.’ Rita makes a grammatical error because she was in a hurry and because she did not understand how to use the word ‘tragedy’. When Frank spotted the grammatical error and started to explain it, Rita sat down again, ‘going and sitting in the chair by the desk,’ and all of a sudden she was not in a hurry after all. Whether or not Rita had a customer it is hard to tell. Rita could have sat down because it would have been impolite of her to walk out of a room when frank was talking to her.
In line fifty-one Frank ‘throws’ Rita an ‘apple from his desk.’ in which Rita accepts. This proves to the reader that Rita is willing to accept food from Frank, because Rita wants to become like Frank. In contrast to this line fifty-nine explains that when Rita ‘offers’ Frank ‘the can of soft drink.’ Frank ‘puts the can down on the desk’ as he does not want to have an unhealthy habit of eating and drinking things that are harmful to his health. Frank wants to have a healthy diet. This also tells the reader that he does not want too take anything from her, as he only wants good quality things. This may be because he might class himself a higher class than Rita.
I can tell that Frank is highly educated because he uses a metaphor to explain the play (Macbeth) and the words ‘tragic’ and ‘tragedy’ to Rita. He uses the metaphoric sentence ‘with every step he is spinning one more piece of thread which will eventually make up a network of his own tragedy’ to explain indirectly that Macbeth is in a lot of trouble because he done one thing (killing Duncan) which led to a lot of other things (trying to kill his best friend Banquo and getting killed himself). It is also possible to tell that Frank is highly educated because he is the person explaining the words ‘tragic’ and ‘tragedy’ to Rita. This is further exemplified when he asks questions that he expects Rita to answer so that Rita understands the difference in the two words. This is evidence why Rita wants to become like Frank, because he is a professional teacher.
Frank conveys that he is a good teacher because he explained the words ‘tragic’ and ‘tragedy’ to Rita. Not only did I understand what Frank was saying but Rita did as well. This indicates that Frank is a good teacher after all. Rita uses the right word after she had been told the difference between the two words, ‘it’s fun, tragedy, isn’t it.’ Rita says that frank made her see the play from a different angle,’ this indicates that Frank has a special method of teaching.
When Frank asked the question, ‘what are you doing on Saturday?’ Rita gave a sarcastic remark, ‘I work.’ Rita wanted Frank to feel sorry for her or she just wanted Frank to remember that not everybody gets a Saturday off work. Rita gets a bit excited when frank invites her round for dinner, ‘An’ y’ want me to come?’ but a few lines later when Frank says the words ‘might like it’ Rita has second thoughts, but she doesn’t want to let Frank down so she sounds half interested, as if she could not be bothered to go, ‘if y’ want.’ A little bit later Rita is ‘puzzled’ because she does not know what to wear, but it could be because Frank asked if her husband, Denny could come. She could have been ‘puzzled’ because she wanted to know why Frank asked Denny to come. The author also conveys to the reader that Rita does not want Denny to come.
Rita is nervous at the beginning of scene seven and it is clear just by looking at the stage directions. ‘Takes out the pencil sharpener and pencils and arranges them a before.’ This proves to the reader that she is nervous because she fiddles with the pens and puts them back in the same order as they were in before and she is waiting for Frank to say something so she can retaliate by giving an excuse to why she did not turn up to dinner the last Saturday. Rita is angry as well, ‘slings her bag on the back of her chair,’
Rita didn’t go to the dinner party on Saturday for a number of reasons. One reason is because she could not think of what to wear, ‘I was thinkin’ what to wear.’ Rita did not know what to say, ‘think of things I could say.’ She could not remember who wrote which book. ‘Or who wrote Howards End. Rita ‘got the wrong bus’ to Frank’s house. It took Rita a long time to find Frank’s house. Then she brought the ‘wrong sort of wine’ so she did not want to come in. This demonstrates to the reader that Rita and Frank are two different characters, which happen to come from two different backgrounds because Frank was drinking expensive wine and Rita brought a cheaper wine.
Rita dominates the conversation towards the end of scene seven because she gets angry as Frank is pressuring her for answers and because Frank says the wrong things to her, ‘They would have seen someone who is funny.’ Rita dominates the conversation towards the end of scene seven because she tells Frank about her mother and everybody else singing. In line sixty-three Rita says she is a half-caste; this means that she is half a working class person and half of a middle class person. Rita’s education brings her to a middle class standard but she is in a working class standard because she speaks in dialect and her whole family are working class. Education does not just affect the brain it affects her class in society. When Rita says she is a half-caste she means that she cannot fit in with people like Frank but also cannot fit in with people like her husband Denny.
In Rita’s final speech her message is that it is too late for her mum to change anything but it is not too late for her too change anything. Her mum is using songs to describe her life and metaphors, ‘we could sing better songs than those.’ She actually means that they could have a better life but it is too late now.
In these two scenes the reader learns different things about Frank and Rita. Frank is very laid back and relaxed, Whereas Rita is very egger and enthusiastic. Rita is very confused as to where she stands in society. Should she be with the middle class people or should she be with the working class people. The playwright is saying that education affects everything in life including people’s status and the playwright uses Rita as an example. The message that the playwright is trying to put forward is that for some people life is too late and life is too short. People should learn while they have the chance to learn.
By
Bhavin Patel
