The phone will then ring with his wife calling him to see what time he will be home for dinner. His speech will be slightly slurred and he speaks in an angry tone to his wife. When he speaks about the Open University student he has coming, he speaks with contempt. He tries to get the upper hand all the way through the conversation and gets the last word in when Rita knocks on the door several times. He slams the phone down and will shout at the person who is knocking, to come in. The phone call shows a rocky relationship between him and his wife. He will still be irritated when he comes off the phone.
Rita pushes hard on the door several times before she manages to enter the room, this symbolises that she finds it hard to enter from a world of relative incompetence to one of high education. Rita is wearing a short pink skirt, tights, fairly high boots and a tight fitting top. Her hair is bleached blonde and permed well, which gives the audience a clue that she is a hairdresser.
When she comes up with the idea that he should oil the door so it is easier to open, she will take a common sense approach. Frank looks at her in a kind of amazement as she walks round his room and touches things; it will be obvious to the audience that he sees her as a breath of fresh air. When she tries to look through the window to deliver her line regarding ‘proper’ students, she will clean the grime off the window, again emphasising her practical approach to life.
Frank will need to stare at her to show the audience that his view of Open University students is changing. When he talks to her he tries very hard to disguise his drunkenness because he realises he wants to impress her. When they ask each other personal questions they are both confident about doing so and Rita just cuts straight to the point. Rita is using her common dialect, which Frank has to understand while he dumbs himself down so she understands him better.
Rita will continue to walk around the room examining things as they talk, while Frank stays seated but becomes more attentive and alert. Towards the end of Rita questioning Frank he tries to get into his role as a teacher by asking her questions; he tries to assert himself and go back to his old view of Open University students being inferior. This doesn't work as Rita soon changes it round again but this time he gives funny answers as he is trying to impress her because he likes the type of woman he sees before him.
When Rita asks what assonance means he tones the answer down so she can remember it and understand it by saying,’ It means getting the rhyme wrong’. Frank then stops to look at her again. They then start to talk again and confuse what the other is saying because of their different upbringings and cultures. This leads on to Rita offering Frank a book, this shows the audience that they are on a type of par because Frank will have the books to educate Rita and she can give books to Frank to ‘educate’ him.
Frank gets smarter and neater during this scene; smoothing his hair, straightening his tie and tucking his shirt in, to show that Rita’s presence does have an effect on him. When she starts to speak about herself and her job Frank becomes more alert and looks to listen very carefully to what she is saying. Rita delivers a soliloquy, in a passionate manner, about how she wants to know everything. Frank then takes a deep breath as to prepare to say something important to Rita. He then says he is an ‘appalling teacher’ and cant give her what she wants. As he says this his expression gets upset and he withdraws because he can’t bear the thought of this amazing woman walking into his life then leaving again so soon. Rita gets very angry with this and tells him that he is going to be her teacher because she likes him and he’ll enjoy it. She storms out and slams the door. Before the curtain closes Frank smiles.
Act 2 scenes 2
The scene is set after the holidays when a lot of change has happened.
Frank is sitting at his desk with a mug to the side of him. He is sober and still looks tidier than during act 1 scene 1. Rita glides through the door dressed in new attire consisting of a long dress, blouse, shoes and her hair is now worn down and is auburn. As she speaks to Frank she will speak with a partially developed home counties’ accent. Her mannerisms will be trying all around to be sophisticated. After Frank briefly ridicules her for the way she is now we notice he doesn't like the new Rita. She begins to speak normally again and Frank relaxes a bit.
Frank is lying on the couch with his and dangling towards the floor, holding a book. He demands to know why she was late, indicating his possessive attitude towards her. Rita’s excuse, that she was correcting another student because he compared two novels together that shouldn’t have been, is delivered in a dismissive tone. This shows a vast change in her because she is speaking to the students in the first place whom she used to be cautious of and she is arguing about literature so she is confident about her knowledge as well. It also shows that she is becoming more independent of Frank and that the lessons are becoming less important. Throughout the conversation Rita is walking around the room still picking at things whilst Frank seems to get happy as she talks about arguing but then gets upset as he finds she is leaving him.
Conclusion
At the beginning of the play Rita is nervous and unsure of herself and how to act around educated people. However, having said this, she knows what she wants and has been brave enough to try and achieve it. She also has a very down to earth attitude. This has a spellbinding effect on Frank as this was not what he expected or encountered from an Open University student before. It helps him because he realises that he has some worth to this amazing person and so he neatens himself up and tries to change himself. He wants to keep her dependent on him so she will stay with him.
As her education progresses, her confidence increases. Her down to earth attitude changes as she becomes more independent and ‘up-market’. Her new personality is less attractive to Frank as he can’t dominate it as much as he used to. He realises that he is not needed as much and reverts to his old ways of drinking and swearing. His appearance diminishes and becomes dishevelled once again. As Rita becomes more learned, Frank deteriorates even further.
