How are the differences between Rita and Frank emphasised in the opening of Educating Rita

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Joe Hill 11r3                               Educating Rita                                   22/02/2009

How are the differences between Rita and Frank emphasised in the opening of Educating Rita?

          Educating Rita is a 1970’s play, which tells the story of a young woman, who pursues her dream of getting an education and moving up in the world. She embarks on an Open University course, and is tutored by a University professor, named Frank.

          The differences between Frank and Rita are emphasised straight from the opening of the play, and the first recognisable difference to the audience is the accent and dialect of the two characters. Frank is a well spoken, RP speaker, which would be almost essential for a man of his profession in the 1970’s. He uses no slang words and speaks ‘proper English’. Rita on the other hand is an eccentric scouser who speaks with her broad, regional accent and speaks almost completely in regional slang.

          The other major difference in the play is the difference in ‘class’ of the two characters. As mentioned, Rita is a young working-class woman and Frank is an older Middle-Class man. Frank has the highly respected profession of a university professor whereas Rita is a local hairdresser.  

          Today, anyone watches any television they feel like, conversely, in the 1970’s there were only two television channels available to the minority of the public who owned a television. These were BBC and ITV. BBC was, and still is, a government run television channel, which was designed to educate the public. It was aimed at middle-class people who felt the need to learn prioritised over the need to be entertained, as was the view of the BBC. This is the channel that Frank will have watched.

           ITV however, was designed purely for entertainment purposes, it was, and still is regarded as an entertainment channel. It was created to entertain families on Saturday nights and in the evenings. This was Rita’s preferred television channel. We learn of the characters television preferences when Rita says to Frank “It’s all BBC with you isn’t it?”

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          Frank is seemingly taken aback by Rita on her arrival, unsure of how to respond to her. This is clearly expressed by his first words to her “Erm – yes, I Suppose I always mean to…”. This will be because Frank will have spent his life around middle-class people and the majority of students at university in the 1970’s will have been middle-class.  

           Rita however has not had such an upbringing and has a very different lifestyle to that of a typical 1970’s student. She is wildly eccentric and ...

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