This quote shows that Frank likes to flirt with Rita and shows that literary knowledge is not all that is on his mind.
Rita, however, just wants to learn and be good friends with Frank but nothing more. From Rita’s perspective frank is merely a friend but when they are in his office Rita sees him as a teacher and thinks that that it is all he should be.
One of the ways that their increasing affection for each other is shown is by the constant lending of items when they have only just met. Frank and Rita exchange books to read. This does not perhaps show that one likes each other very well but you wouldn’t lend a book to any stranger so they obviously feel comfortable with each other. Another way that their affection is shown is by both of them being so very forward. Frank wouldn’t normally tell a student that he wants to throw them through a window. Rita doesn’t come across as a very shy character but still is very chatty when around Frank.
RITA: This Forster, honest to God he doesn’t half get on my tits.
FRANK: Good. You must show me the evidence.
If this was just a typical, serious student- teacher relationship then the student would probably try and sue Frank for harassment. But, as these two are so comfortable around each other they take it only as a joke. I also think that their relationship gets off to a good start because of their ages, there may be quite a big gap between their ages but this gap is smaller than most of the students at the open university.
`Frank thinks that Rita has a certain quality in interpreting literature and he does not want Rita to lose this. Frank makes his feelings quite clear during an argument that they have:
FRANK: But if you’re going to write this sort of stuff you’re going to have to change.
RITA: All right. Tell me how to do it.
FRANK: But I don’t know if I want to tell you, Rita, I don’t know that I want to teach you. What you already have is valuable.
RITA: Valuable? What’s valuable? The only thing I value is comin’ here once a week.
FRANK: But, don’t you see, if you’re going to write this sort of stuff to pass examinations, you’re going to have to suppress, perhaps even abandon your uniqueness. I’m going to have to change you.
RITA: But don’t you realize, I want to change! Listen, is this your way of tellin’ me that I can’t do it? That I’m no good?
From this argument Frank likes what Rita has and does not want to change this. I think this is the only reason that he keeps teaching her. He restrains from teaching her fully though because he does not want her to change. Rita however, feels that she has nothing to live for until she finds herself and she believes that finding herself is by gaining an education and studying literature. The most important thing is that she wants to change but Frank doesn’t (want her to change).
In act two Rita has changed in a few ways, the main being that she is now mixing with the students to which she formerly made comments about and would refuse to talk to them.
RITA: You work for the ordinary university, don’t y’? With the real students.
By this quote it is plain to see that Rita thinks she is not as intelligent as the other students are.
RITA: A crowd of us stuck together all week. We had a great time: dead late every night, we stayed up talkin’, we went all around London, got drunk, went to the theatres, bought all sorts of second-hand gear in the markets….
This is Rita’s quote referring to the students later on in the play. She takes to them in a slightly different way in the way that she takes to Frank but from this we can see that Rita has also taken to the students very warmly and comfortably.
Rita is much more well spoken when she returns from London and against Franks determination has changed.
RITA: Well any analogy will break down eventually.
The use of the word “analogy” is one, which she most probably would not have heard of when she started this course, now she uses longer more complex words with more complex words.
One of the small changes that Rita has “participated” in is she now feels very comfortable amongst the students and now she feels she can sit on the grass with the rest of them. Also, when Rita returns from London she has bought some new, second-hand clothes. At the start of the play she said she was not going to buy another dress until she had passed or finished this course. This shows her changing as her “promises” start to change.
RITA: On the grass- come on.
FRANK: On the grass? Nobody sits out there at this time of year.
I think that Frank detests going out on the grass because he does not want her to change- he does not want Rita to mix with the other students as he believes that this will change her further. By saying that he has an “aversion to sunlight” he laughs it off. However, it is not only Rita that changes Frank also changes as he is typing poetry at the start of Act two. She notices this and says that he has changed. Later on though, Rita spots Frank taking “swigs” of alcohol and then they go on to have an argument about how Rita thought that Frank was a changed man, Frank only says that he is partially reformed.
Rita has also gained a lot of confidence due to this trip. When she is in a hall with a few other thousand students she stands up and asks a question. Before she though she was not very confident and would not have dared to ask this question.
In Act 2 scene 5 it is clear to see that Frank has been drinking a few. Rita goes to Frank and tells him that his poetry is brilliant. Frank then changes the subject slightly and goes on to tell Rita how he has changed her and that he doesn’t like the change he sees. Frank in his own words then says that he can’t bare Rita anymore.
Through the last few scenes both of them have changed considerably and Frank especially does not like the change that he sees in Rita and due to this he continues to argue with her. The most important thing is that education has given Rita choice. She now has a lot more freedom to what she wants, as she is educated, she can choose form a number of jobs, she can choose which type of people she wishes to socialise with an so on. I think that overall both of them have learned that sometimes times change and people change and In the end I think they both accept this as they get on good ground with each other. At the very end Rita gives Frank a hair cut that she has promised him since Act one scene one.
