How Does Willy Russell Dramatically Present Rita's Change In Educating Rita?

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Educating Rita Coursework

How Does Willy Russell Dramatically Present Rita's Change In Educating Rita?

Educating Rita was written by Willy Russell and first appeared on stage in 1980. It tells the story of a twenty six year old hairdresser from Liverpool, "Rita" White, who wants to break away from her stereotype, and to "discover" herself. She thinks that by going on an English literature course at the Open University, she will be able to achieve this. However, during her course at the university she unknowingly teaches her tutor as much about life as he teaches her about literature.

In this essay I will attempt to show the way in which Willy Russell uses several different dramatic devices to present the change in "Rita" dramatically.

Firstly, the playwright, Willy Russell, has partly based the character of Rita upon himself by giving her the kind of background that he had, the fact that it is semi-autobiographical makes it dramatic because it makes the storyline more realistic and relevant. We know that it is semi-autobiographical by examining his "personal essay" at the beginning of the play. Here he tells us that at his school "there