Frank is very different when they first meet; he is very quiet and hardly speaks at all. After Rita asks him questions and speaking for quiet a long time he makes short simple reply’s like ‘erm – probably’ and ‘erm – yes’. This shows he is a reserved person and is not very enthusiastic about his job. He is the complete opposite to Rita and this is why the audience get the feeling that a deep relationship between them is unlikely.
Frank and Rita’s relationship develops because Rita is different to the other students Frank has to teach. She doesn’t really have any knowledge about English literature and she doesn’t make out as if she is clever. Frank likes this as she has an individual personality and doesn’t have the stereotypical posh personality that the other students have. Rita is attracted to Frank as she thinks he has style and she wants to gain the English culture that comes with education. She also likes Frank because she feels he is not too high above her he is almost on her level as he speaks like he knows how she feels. He drinks and he has a cigarette with her, he also says how he doesn’t like the other students and this appeals to Rita as she feels out of place around the other students she refers to them as ‘them out there’, showing how she feels a barrier between herself and the students. We know he doesn’t like the students that much from this section of act 1 scene 1;
RITA The window.
FRANK I don’t often consider it actually. I sometimes get an urge to throw something through it.
RITA What?
FRANK A student usually.
Frank’s role in the relationship is almost a fatherly figure he wants Rita to pass her exams and get everything she wants. He cares about her emotions, we know this from the various times that he changes from his tutor role to talk to Rita about problems with her and Denny. This is like he is speaking on a fatherly level with Rita. Frank also doesn’t want to hurt Rita’s feelings we know this form this extract;
FRANK: Now the piece you wrote for me on-what was it called…?
RITA: Rubyfruit Jungle
FRANK: Yes, it was-erm…
RITA: Crap
FRANK: No. Erm-the thing is, it was an appreciation, a descriptive piece. What you have to learn is criticism.
In this extract frank doesn’t want to tell her that her work is rubbish because he cares about her feelings and doesn’t want to scare her off the course. He also speaks down to her and calls her ‘dear’ this is how a parent would talk to a child.
During Act 1 Frank admits that he doesn’t want Rita to change and become a common language student because he likes her as she is. Rita responds to this by telling Frank to teach her properly. This is triggered by Rita getting poor results in one of her essays and Frank says ‘in those terms its worthless’ when talking about her work in context to the exam. Rita then tells frank that she wants him to teach her about the content that she needs to write in an exam to get good grades. However, this time Frank disagrees with Rita and tells her that he wont teach her because ‘to pass examinations, you’re going to suppress, perhaps even abandon your uniqueness.’ Rita is annoyed because she thinks that Frank doesn’t believe she can do it, and she wants to change. This is how Act 1 ends.
When Rita comes back to Frank’s office in Act 2 she is a completely changed woman. She bursts in wearing new second hand clothes and is even more forward than she used to be. She tells frank about how she stood up in front of a whole lecture hall full of people and asked the lecturer a question. This shows that she is more confident around the ‘real’ students because before she would have never even talked to frank in front of other students.
Rita tells Frank how much she enjoyed summer school and how she felt comfortable with the other students. She talks about her new flatmate Trisha and how classy she is, Rita wants to be like Trish and she no longer speaks so commonly ‘what! Fall in love? With who? My God’ before her summer school she would of talked a lot differently and maybe even swore in the sentence. This shows that she is trying to change so she can become like the stereotypical educated person.
Rita also feels that she is cleverer now and feels she is more like the real students and even more like frank. However, Frank still feels she is a lot lower than him; he still calls her ‘dear’ this almost comes across in a patronising way. Because Rita feels she is moving up a class she doesn’t like how he is speaking to her so this leads to conflict. Rita is determined to show Frank that she has learnt a lot at summer school by this extract;
FRANK: So you’ve already done Blake? You covered all the songs of innocence an experience?
RITA: Of course; you don’t do Blake without doing innocence and experience, do y’?’
Frank asks the question in a patronising way, but Rita answers back like she is an expert, which would intimidate Frank.
You can tell Frank and Rita’s relationship starts to break down because they start to argue. In scenes four and five Frank asks Rita to write an essay on the on his own poetry. When Rita comes back with her essay she tells Frank it is really good and she says how her flatmate agrees with him. However, Frank dismisses her opinion and tells her that it is rubbish. This shows that he doesn’t value Rita’s opinion very much. Rita starts arguing with Frank saying how she doesn’t need frank. Frank then reply’s with ‘found a culture have you, Rita? Found a better song to sing have you? No – you’ve found a different song, that’s all – and on your lips it’s shrill and hollow and tuneless. Oh, Rita, Rita…’ in this extract he is saying how she shouldn’t try and be like him he should be herself.
However they both make back up as Frank enters Rita into the exam anyway and Rita passes. Yet they realise that they can’t keep their relationship together and they must both brake off their own separate ways.
In this play I feel both Frank and Rita have learned a lot about life. In fact despite Frank being the teacher and Rita being the student, Frank learnt just as much about life as Rita if not more. Rita learnt that being educated gives you more opportunities for life as she now has a choice what she does with her life. Frank learns that he is not as bad at teaching than he thought he was, he also leant that you cannot make anyone be your friend.