Frank says to Rita “...To pass exams, you’re going to have to suppress perhaps even abandon your uniqueness. I’m going to have to change you.” How does Rita change during the course of the play?

          When Rita first starts to go to her Open University course, she doesn’t settle straight down to work, Frank asks her “ Don’t you ever just enter a room and sit down?” She asks him a lot of questions, and she is fascinated with his office. She says “There’s nothing phoney about it, everything is in the right place, it’s a mess, but it’s a perfect mess.”  Her first book she was given was a book, by E.M Forster, and she kept on referring to him as “Foster.”  Frank asked Rita what she thought of it, and she simply told him that it was “Crap.” She didn’t like the book because in it, it had the line “We are not concerned with the poor.” She saw it as not caring less. They were still arguing about the book, and Rita just changed the subject around onto Frank’s life. We can see there that again she is not interested in the work. She still wants an education, and wants to break away and get out of her routine. All the time she is asking the questions, she is developing the relationship between, Frank and herself. She was trying to help him, by oiling his door. Frank is patronising towards Rita, but at the same time, he is showing that he is open-minded. Rita doesn’t want to do any work, but she still wants to learn, this makes it hard for Frank to teach her.

Ritas transformation really begins in this part of the play. Denny found out that Rita was still on the pill, and thought it was a result of her studying at the Open University. Denny gets very angry, and burns all of Ritas books and essays. Rita thinks that Denny thinks that she is having an affair with Frank. Franks tries to comfort her, and suggests they go down the pub. There, is a role reversal between Frank and Rita. Rita in the early stages would have been up for this, as she would not have wanted to learn, but she said “No.” He says that they could talk about her and Denny, and Rita says, “ I’ve got to do this. He can burn me books an’ me papers but if its all in me head he cant touch it.” In a way Denny has moved her on. She realises that she would be stuck with him, but he has made her want to learn more. Even though she feels she wants to learn more since the burning event, she still pries into Frank’s business, and asks him why he stopped being a poet, so again she is trying to find more information on him, as she finds him so interesting. Rita went to see the play of Macbeth, and she thought it was fantastic. She thought she was going to find it really boring, but she surprised herself, and absolutely loved it. She liked it so much that she even memorised a piece of the play, which she recited to Frank. A reason for her liking the play so much could be that she understood it, and as she did, she may have related to it.

        When Rita refers to herself as a “Half caste” she means that she is no longer working class, but she is not middle class either. Half way through the play she feels as though she is being pulled in different directions. She wants to break out of her lower class, and she wants to break out of her hollowness. When her mother says how they could do so much better, and about how they could “ Sing a different song.” This really changes Ritas view on things, and encourages her. When Rita has her problems, she tries to overcome them by getting on with her learning. It really hits home to her, when she sees that even her mother thinks she can do better. Rita and her family were in the pub, singing along to the jukebox. Rita mum starts crying, Rita asks her why she is crying, and her mother says “Because, because we could sing better songs than those.” Rita mother had even realised she could lead a better life.

        When Rita came back from summer school, she had changed a lot. She felt excited and proud of herself for doing so much work while she was there. She matured while she was away, and when a professor asked her a question, which she would usually reply to with a joke or a smart comment, but she didn’t, she replied with a mature student answer, and a more middle class answer. The question was asked, while she was in a library looking at books. A Professor asked her “ Are you fond of Ferlinghetti?”  The old Rita would have replied with a smart comment, Such as “ Only when it’s served with Parmesan cheese.” But she didn’t. She held it back and said, “ Actually I’m not too familiar with American Poets.”  She also surprised herself by asking questions during the lectures. At summer school Rita did lots of essays and attended lots of lectures, and even studied extra literature that wasn’t on the syllabus, for an Open University course. Frank seems lost, by how Rita has changed; he doesn’t know how to take her anymore. Also when Rita came back from summer school, she started to speak in a more posh, more mature and middle class voice, as if she was trying to hide her background. Frank doesn’t like this, and he tells her to stop it. Rita is becoming more like the other middle class students, and she is losing her individuality.

        The relationship between the pair of them has gone from flirting, to the pair of them shouting at each other. They could be doing this because they care for each other. As Rita gains more knowledge, she feels more independent, and feels she does not need Frank anymore. She also doesn’t tell Frank everything like she used to; she never told him that she had moved in with Trisha, until a while after she had done so. Now Rita is more educated, it seems as though she doesn’t have time for him anymore. It is as though, now she has got what she wanted off Frank, she has dumped him, as he is no good to her anymore. She has a life of her own, and that doesn’t seem right to Frank, as he is used to her depending on him. Frank annoys Rita as she feels he does not treat her as an equal. She sees him as a self-pitying person and she sees him in a different light.

        Even though Rita is now totally educated, she had changed yet again. She is no longer using her posh voice, she has gone back to using slang, and has started smoking again. Rita realised that she could never totally fit in with the middle class, and she is who she wants to be. She thinks Frank is a good character, and she now realises that she cannot be taught everything. The most important thing she has found out is that, she has found herself, and she now feels as though she has more of a choice. Even though the last time she saw Frank, they were arguing, she now feels more positive towards him. Frank remembers the little details of their relationship, and some of the things they did at their first lesson. Rita is overall more confidant with herself, and doesn’t feel she has to talk, to hide her nervousness.

        Through her education, Rita has gained options in her life; she now has choice, which she never had before. She has lost her individuality, and her uniqueness. Rita has a lot more freedom in her life now, and can do a lot more then she could when she did not have an education. She is no longer only able to work as a Hairdresser. She again compares to Shirley as they both escaped their working class lives, but there is still working class in them deep down. They had both tasted the better life, Shirley in Greece, and Rita in the middle class, they both had what they wanted, choice, to do what they wanted. Rita has changed from being very nervous, and talking a lot to cover that, to a more sophisticated woman. When she first started taking lessons, She was Below Frank in education and class. When she had finished her Open University course, she had moved up a class, and had gained a lot more knowledge. She has become and educated and independent woman.