How well do the opening scenes of Educating Rita introduce the characters of Frank and Rita to the audience?
I believe that the opening scenes of Educating Rita are extremely effective in introducing the characters of Frank and Rita to the audience, not only through the speech but also by the setting and the props. The opening scenes establish the two characters of Frank and Rita firmly in the spectator’s mind. However one has to decide whether it is better to show the characters fully to the audience in the first few scenes than it is to introduce the audience to the characters in the beginning scenes and allow those characters to grow and develop throughout the entirety of the play. Therefore allowing the audience to learn and discover new things instead of the same few characteristics being repeatedly confirmed.
The opening scene begins with a large description of the area and setting of the play. The audience learns that it is set somewhere in the North of England, which is a region associated with the working classes as it is an extremely industrial area. The setting of the entire play is in Frank’s university room is described, as is Frank before the end of the first page. From this first, speech including, paragraph the viewer establishes Frank as an English professor for an open university in the North of England, an alcoholic as the play opens with Frank searching for his hidden alcohol which is hidden behind his novels. Frank drinks the alcohol form a mug, showing that his actions are not accepted in society and are therefore concealed. He is shown as though he is slightly eccentric from his behaviour as he mutters to himself when alone in his room, in search of his bottle of whisky. “Where the hell…? Eliot? …No… ‘E’ … ‘E’, ‘e’ ‘e’ …Dickens.” The introductory scene also shows Frank as a jaded and miserable fellow. He is disillusioned about his job, has problems in his personal relationships, shown in his telephone conversation with a woman believed to be his partner, “Yes? … Of course I’m still here. …What do you mean am I determined to go to the pub? I don’t need determination to get me into a pub…” He seems frustrated with this woman’s nagging and seems as though he doesn’t wish to be involved in this relationship with his ex-student any longer. His words, “appalling teaching,” tell the viewer that Frank dislikes himself and feels inner depression and shows this outwardly by putting himself down. Rita’s comment, “like a geriatric hippie,” tells the spectator that Frank doesn’t take care of himself and wears clothes from previous decades and allows his hair to grow freely. The viewer discovers that Frank I trying to escape the self that he loathes so greatly. This first scene solidly describes Frank’s character and personality.
