Rita is driven by the need for education, having realised that life has more to offer then her ordinary existence in the hairdressing salon. Rita says to Frank that before having a baby with Denny she would need to discover herself, and have a choice, not the choice Denny speaks of: a choice of which washing powder to use, or which school or one lousy job or another but of career and what direction her life takes, not the stereotypical things that she is getting pushed into: Get married have baby and a dull job. Rita changes dramatically as the play progresses this is shown at the start of the play because she doesn’t understand Franks ‘middle class’ language, in the opening scene when you first see Frank and Rita together Frank says to Rita:
Frank: ‘You are?’
Rita: ‘What am I?’
Frank: ‘Pardon?’
Rita: ‘What?’
Frank: ‘Now you are’
Rita: ‘I’m a what?’
Rita doesn’t understand Frank. Rita’s family seems to escape their problems through alcohol but the scene in the bar when Rita’s mother starts to cry saying that they could be singing better songs than the one they were singing at the moment, this is used as a metaphor: when she talks about the song I think she means about their lives, that they could have done so much more with their lives then what they have. After summer camp Frank says that Rita hasn’t found a better song but a different one.
Her role in the play as the central character in the play is to be the other half of the duet – the black board that frank writes on. Rita wants an education; to use the brain she has to its full potential, not to follow the footsteps of those around her e.g. Get married, have babies and work in a dead end job so she sees education as the doorway out of her dull existence. At first she sees Frank as an educated man with a great life which is a result of the education, but soon comes to realise that his life is not much better then the one she wants to leave. The play ‘Educating Rita’ is her journey to better herself but also lessons about her aspirations.
Rita wants to get an education to make more of her life and as a result of that she makes the transition from ‘working class’ into the ‘middle class’ where Frank is and the ‘proper’ students will be. This begins the break down of her marriage and her family life and before summer school she sees herself as a half cast, or a freak, because she is in between the two classes, going to summer school is the result of her choice: that she doesn’t want to stop the education and fall back to the stereo typical jobs of the working class so she perseveres in search of herself and makes the transition in the process. During summer school is ware the transition from one class to the other is made as she stands in front of hundreds of people and asks the questions about Chekhov.
Dramatic devices can be used for numerous reasons: it could be to make a symbolic statement like the burning of the books by Denny or to keep the audience interested or to make direct links about the issues. The burning of Rita’s books and papers signals the beginning of the end for Rita’s marriage. Denny burns the books because Rita is still on the pill when she told him she was off it. Another dramatic device is when Rita goes to ‘Macbeth’ because it shows that Rita is serious about her longing for an education and that she is growing and progressing through the new life she wants to find. At the end of the play Rita seems to be in control of the last scene as she tells Frank that he has given her this knowledge and she has not given him anything in return. She tells Frank that there is only one thing for her to do to thank him so he sits down and the audience gets the impression of something sexual about to happen but Rita gets a pair of scissors and begins to cut Franks hair. In this scene the dramatic device used is one for humour.
Educating Rita is mainly about a character trying to find the right words to express herself, and as she becomes more educated Rita learns to adapt her language to different audiences. Rita’s increasing mastery of the language helps her to grow more confident. In the character of Rita, Willy Russell was reaching out to an audience whose daily language was not of the theatre or the university but to all the Franks and Rita’s in the audience. Rita attempts to change her language to the proper use of words, because of what Trish said: ‘you can’t discuss beautiful literature with an ugly voice.’