However, as she becomes “educated”, the audience watches Rita shifting. For example, in scene four of act one, she begins to value “good literature”, as she earnestly recounts her encounter with a lady in her hairdressing shop. She also brings along to class prepared – with a pencil case, a ruler, a copy of “Peer Gynt” and eight reference books. She also wears a coat, which shows that she is beginning to attempt to look fashionable. However, she still clings to her former attitude, and is angry with the idea of “culture”, and follows her own rules, for example, that a single line – “Do it on the radio” would suffice for an essay, because it “encapsulated” all her ideas. Another trait she still holds is her impulsiveness and refusal to conform. She attempts to drag Frank out of his office and out to see “The Seagull”. She also attacks Frank for being “an awful snob” when he declines her offer to watch “The Importance of Being Earnest” played by “amateurs”. She believes that they deserve to be given a chance, unlike Frank. When Rita leaves her husband to continue her education at the end of act two, we know she is making some serious changes, especially since not very long before, she had been considering “packing it in” and quitting. She takes control, ripping up her own essay, even when Frank tries to reassure her.
In act two, we see that Rita has fitted in with society. She buys new clothes while she is at summer school, and answers with conformity to her tutors. Another physical change in her is that she stops smoking, when at the beginning of the play, she emphasized her need to fight against life. Rita also tries to force Frank into writing poetry, when before she meekly left him to his own business. She starts to exercise control and her own ideas upon Frank, opening his windows and scolding him. We realise at this point that Rita is ahead of Frank – she has already studied all the songs of “Innocence and Experience”, and has begun to lose that purity, innocence and freshness that Frank prizes in her.
In the next scene, Rita changes her voice and accent, trying to speak like a member of the upper class. She also converses freely with students, confident that she is now on their level. However, Frank is rejected by his students, who report him to the university. We recognise the dramatic reversal of roles over the next four scenes. At the beginning, Rita was adamant that she needed Frank. Now, it is evident that Frank needs Rita to give him a fresh breath of air in the world of upper-class predictability of thought. Frank is reduced to wheedling and begging Rita to remain, while Rita shouts at Frank that she does not need him any longer. Rita thinks differently at this point – while earlier, Frank commented that Rita would not “overcomplicate” Blake, she decides that Blake’s poetry is “richer” if she looks “below the surface”. Rita is now far ahead of Frank in her beliefs, and she is unimpressed by his newfound attitude to this. She accuses him of trying to hold her back, now that she knows “what clothes to wear, what wine to buy, what plays to see, what papers and books to read”. This is the opposite of the view she had at the beginning of the play, when she believed that all changes had to come from the inside, rather than the outside. At this point, Frank’s quote, “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,” is fitting, as Rita thinks that being educated only means to conform and play the game, following what the upper class expects and wants. The “education” has only been superficial. Frank thinks it has not had any affect on her soul and heart, as Rita’s essence seems to be lost below this veneer of snobbery. She drops her pseudonym, which is a symbol that she has severed off her old self.
However, thankfully, Rita sees the wrongs of her ways, and in the final scene, she has become herself again. While she is fashionable, wearing a large winter coat, she lights up a cigarette, back to her first motto that she had to “challenge death an’ disease”. She also realises that while she no longer needs Frank, he is still worthy of respect as he has taught her everything she knows. Rita recognises that it is not so fantastic to be an educated woman – she discovered her flatmate, who appeared “calm and cool”, tried to kill herself. Rita also sees Tiger’s stupid side. In a way, she has “seen the light” – her education has given her choices to make, and she is able to make the right ones – she can choose to be educated, but she doesn’t need to lose herself. At the very end, we know for sure that Rita has reverted to herself in this way, as she impulsively cuts Frank’s hair, just as she promised to at the beginning of the play.
It is evident that, in the last part Rita has gone through many changes throughout the play. However, Frank’s comment is not finally correct, because we can clearly see that Rita has changed for the better. As she commented herself, education has “given her choices”, in contrast to Denny, who was limited to “picking one of eight kinds of lager”. Rita had a choice to follow the upper class in their predictable lives, but luckily, she chose against it. At the end, we are confident that Rita has found what she wanted – to gain an insight into the world so that she can make her own decisions, while still keeping her unique identity.
