Willie Russell also used education to show the two different cultures that Frank and Rita live in. Rita says that she wants to be educated because she wants to know everything as she is not happy being classed as working class. But Denny, Rita’s husband, does not want her to change and he does this by burning all of her books. Education also symbolises power as Frank has the power to change is life because he is educated, but Rita wants to become educated so she can change her way of life and culture. Education affects the audiences’ interpretations of the play as the two extremes of culture that are Frank and Rita create a very obvious comparison of character. This makes it easier for the audience to see the reversal of roles in the play. This will make them think that the two characters are growing closer together and they may think Frank and Rita will eventually fall in love, until the two characters cross over and keep growing further apart.
Another way that Willie Russell showed the two distinct cultures was by the way that people are judged if they are lower class. When Frank invited Rita to his dinner party, Rita got to the door with a bottle of wine but she didn’t go in because she saw all the people inside. She didn’t want to go in because she had the wrong sort of wine and wrong dress and was afraid that people would judge her by that. I think Willie Russell did this to get the audience emotionally involved and feel sorry for Rita. This would also show even more of a contrast between the two characters and cultures.
Rita swears a lot and she is seen to be ignorant to show the difference between her and Rita in terms of language and frame of mind. For example Rita shows some ignorance when in the first scene she looks at Franks religious painting on the wall and says “Look at those tits”, as well as her swearing a lot. I think Willie Russell did this to show that Rita is working class and uneducated as swearing is acceptable in the working class and she doesn’t know any better because she is uneducated and it’s acceptable in her society. Whereas Frank doesn’t swear because he is educated and knows better and it is not acceptable in his society. This also shows the audience the two different cultures of the two characters at the start of the play without any further information. I think that this is the reason that Frank tries to hide his drinking problem because he is secretly ashamed of it and it is not acceptable in his society.
As the play moves on and develops further, Rita begins to slowly change her culture as she becomes more and more educated, which gave her more choice and freedom in which to change her culture. This becomes more evident once Rita comes back from summer school. Now Rita has a mind of her own that can think for its self and she can make her own decisions in her life about how she wants to live. This is more obvious when she says to Frank “I’ve got a room full of books, I know what clothes to wear, what wine to buy, what plays to see, what papers and books to read.” Those are now her choices. Where before she was given the choices by Denny that didn’t mean anything in her life “picking one of eight kinds of lager, or deciding between Everton and Liverpool.” At this point in the play, I think the audience were surprised to see how the two characters that seemed to be drawing closer together in a love story type manner, did not stop in the middle and have now kept on going in the opposite direction. Frank drinking more, and no longer hiding his problem by leaving his bottles on his bookcases and desk also shows them to have crossed over and now distancing.
Willie Russell also shows that there is a distinct and obvious difference in power. Frank who is considered educated and middle class has a lot of power over Rita who is considered uneducated and lower class. The swivel chair shows the power between the two cultures because Frank has power over Rita at the start of the play because he is sitting in the swivel chair. But once Rita has returned from summer school and is more educated, while Frank has become less acceptable as upper class, so now Rita is sitting on the swivel chair. The power between the two cultures is also shown when Rita refuses to go to Franks dinner party because of all of his upper class friends who she is afraid will judge her, while she wanted to be able to talk with them and understand them. This is shown when she says “I didn’t want to come into your house and play the court jester.” Denny also has power over Rita because he believes that they should have a baby because of the cultural expectations of them. Rita also says that Denny thinks choices in life are “choice between Everton and Liverpool, choosin’ which washing powder, choosin’ between one lousy school and the next.” I think that the audience will interpret from this that the characters, especially Denny have a fear of changing between cultures and ways of life because of the new ways of life they feel they will have to adopt. For example Rita thinks she will have to fit the stereotypical view of an upper class person, this is evident when she starts to try and talk like an upper class person to Frank. It also shows us the limitations of culture. If you are uneducated then you can’t change to get a better job, house or car because you will not have the power or money. Also at Frank’s dinner party Rita didn’t want to go in because she felt ashamed of her culture and didn’t want to be judged due to her culture.
Rita’s self-esteem comes up a lot in the beginning of the play. At the start she was very self-conscious and didn’t want to mix with the other students because she was very nervous and she says this is also the reason why she swears and talks a lot. Rita’s low self-esteem is also evident when her and Frank are talking about her job as a hairdresser and she agrees with Frank when he says that she is a liability. I think that Rita has her low self-esteem because she is always being judged because she is working class and she’s beginning to believe what all the other people in the upper classes are saying about her and other people in the working classes. I think that the audience will get emotionally involved with Rita and want her to become better educated and lead a better life.
From this play the different cultures play a big part in society and peoples social lives. The people in the lower classes will find it hard to break the working class circle. This play was written about cultural expectations between the upper classes against the lower classes. It was written in 1985, so nowadays the cultural expectations are no longer as important as they were and are much more relaxed. When it was written the way you, look, dress, speak and live determine what people think of you and how bigger role you play in the running of the society. Rita sees herself as a non-educated person. I think that Willie Russell was trying to get across the image that once you are born into a working class culture; it is very hard to get out of it because all the people are looking down at you and judging you because of your culture. It also shows that just because people are in an upper class with a good house, job and car, doesn’t necessarily mean that you are happy, as Frank had all of those things yet he still wanted to change his way of life. Willie Russell has shown the audience what he thinks is important – culture and what people think of you. Although culture isn’t seen as important now, it was seen as important in the 1980’s.
