How does Russell reveal to the audience the change in Rita's character? 'Educating Rita' by Willy Russell.

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Eva Patel 10v

How does Russell reveal to the audience the change in Rita’s character?

‘Educating Rita’ by Willy Russell tells the story of ‘Rita’ White, a twenty-six year old working class hairdresser, who has realised there is more to life than new clothes, hairstyle and babies. She wants to get an education to improve both herself and her quality of life. Rita begins an Open University course and gets a tutor, Frank, who helps her in her quest for educational development. The play shows us Rita’s development and how this changes her as a person. We also see a relationship develop between her and Frank and how this affects both their lives. In this essay I will trace the ways in which she develops and changes as a character, and the significant ways Russell portrays this change to the audience.

Some of the themes in the play are class, culture, change, gender, stereotypes, education, innocence vs experience, discovery, misunderstanding and mismatch. Themes convey many important ideas in this play. This essay title examines the important theme throughout the play of change, as Rita develops and changes into an independent and confident person. How Russell represents the theme change in the character Rita is the relative importance of it in this essay.

A dramatic technique that Russell uses when revealing Rita’s change in character to the audience is her entrances, and how they have an effect on the audience represents how her character is changing. When Rita first enters she struggles with the door, symbolic perhaps of the obstacles placed on her road to enlightenment and the door is also symbolic of a barrier, between working class and middle class. She is frustrated in life and the main theme of the play class struggle is portrayed, in her struggling to open the door. She bursts in swearing showing that she is the main character and has a big personality with an element of humour.

“The door swings open revealing Rita.”                                                                       Rita: “I’m comin’ in aren’t I? It’s that stupid bleedin’ handle on the door. You wanna get it fixed!”   (Act 1, Scene 1)

In Act 1 Scene 2, ”Rita is standing in the doorway holding a small can of oil.” She is now breaking the barrier, which is the door, as she has enrolled into the course, which is symbolic to her struggle to enter the middle class world. As the play continues her entrances become less abrupt and she quietens down showing her changing, “Rita enters and shuts the door.” In Act 1 Scene 8, “Rita enters slowly carrying a suitcase”, showing to the audience how she is changing by entering another class and another way of life. Her carrying a suitcase shows that she wants the sort of life and education that Frank has, and trys to act like him holding a suitcase, but the irony of this is that he is disillusioned and sees his successful career taking the place of meaningful life just as beer and clothes to do with Rita’s working class.

Frank: “I don’t need determination to get me into a pub.”     (Act 1 Scene 1)

In Act 2 Scene 5, “There is a knock at the door,” as she knocks before she comes in showing she’s changing by again wanting to be and act like the middle class with manners, instead of just abruptly rushing in.

Rita’s working-class identity is shown to the audience, effectively through her strong Scouse accent. Russell integrated this colloquial language to create comedy, but most importantly to show how this later changes to Standard English showing the development and change of her character to the audience. She comments perceptively on the painting, and uses words that are not appropriate to use when meeting someone for the first time.

Rita: (studying the picture) “It’s very erotic.”                                                              Frank: (looking up) “Actually I don’t think I’ve looked at it for about ten years, but, yes, I suppose it is.”                                                                                                             Rita: “There’s no suppose about it. Look at those tits.”   (Act 1, Scene 1)

Russell uses this rudeness as a deliberate shock and surprise tactic to show the audience her extreme personality and how this changes towards the end. Her comments become a lot less outrageous and less direct. This shows how Russell is trying to implicate her change from working class to middle class.  It also reveals how nervous she is to be talking to an educated man, Frank, as she is trying to divert attention away from herself by talking about pornography, “This was the pornography of its day.”  (Act 1, Scene 1)                    

 In the beginning of the play Rita is very nervous and anxious about getting a conversation right, because she really wants to be middle class and doesn’t want to ruin it by saying something inappropriate, as well the fact that she wants to talk like the middle class. This is why sometimes she wouldn’t initiate conversation.

Rita: “An’ all the time I’m trying to think of things I can say, what I can talk about. An’ I can’t remember anythin’. It’s all jumbled up in me head. I can’t remember if it’s Wilde who’s witty an Shaw who was Shavian or who hell wrote Howard’s End.”   (Act 1 Scene, 7)

When Rita is entering this new class she creates an interaction with the students and is now able to lead the conversation and have ‘educated’ talks;

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 “…tryin’ to compare Chatterley and Sons and Lovers is like tryin to compare sparkling wine with champagne.”  (Act 2, Scene 2)

The audience can now see her newfound enthusiasm and self-esteem. She is proud of her achievement to sit with students that she aspired to be. She has broken that barrier between her and the educated class, which was the window that she frequently looked out of, showing how hard she found it to change classes. She is welcomed into this new class by the other students on the lawn. The old Rita did not have the confidence to mix with ...

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