“Yes, I probably shall go to the pub afterwards. I shall need to go to the pub afterwards. I shall need to wash away the memory of some silly woman’s attempts to get into the mind of Henry James or whoever it is we’re supposed to study on this course…Oh God, why did I take this on? …Yes I suppose I did take it on to pay for the drink”
This is a conversation that Frank has with his girlfriend over the phone, it immediately goes to prove that he doesn’t really care about his career and the only thing that is on his mind is alcohol.
Rita on the other hand is a twenty-six year old, working class woman who wants to get an education, and by doing that she believes that she is going to “discover” herself. She is in a relationship; she’s been living with her partner for six years. She also wants to learn how to speak “proper” English.
In the beginning of the play Rita and Frank are getting to know each other, and they have nothing more than a “teacher-student” relationship, although throughout the play we can see that they get to know each other better, and they gain more respect for each other. Everything starts to change when Rita goes off to summer school. When she comes back from summer school Frank is surprised by her appearance – she now looks like any other “smart” and educated woman, she has started to speak “proper” English (even though she has a strong Livepudlian accent.) He is also kind of shocked, because they used to share and tell each other stuff, and now all of a sudden she has moved out and broken up with her partner – she’s moved in with an “educated” woman who can speak “proper” English. I guess that is what made her change her image and accent at first place. Frank tries to teach her about a new poet, but it seems like has already studied him at summer school. At this point the audience can see a definite change in Rita and in her character, she trying to act “posh” and really sophisticated – which in a way hurts and offends Frank.
At this point of the play Frank stops caring about that one thing that he really cared about; educating Rita. He starts drinking even more, he goes to his lectures “as drunk as a skunk”, and to his misfortune there was an inspector in one of his lectures, so he gets punished by being sent off to teach in Australia for two years. Before leaving he asks Rita to go with him, now that his “girlfriend” left him:
“It’d be good for us to leave a place that’s just finishing for one that’s just beginning.”
By saying “……for one that’s just beginning.” he admits and in a way accepts that she is an educated woman, he is also “proud” of her achievement. After asking her that he gives her a dress, by doing that I guess he feels as though he owes her something – he’s thankful for the “relationship” they had, and as a response to that Rita gives him a haircut. This shows the audience that they both have respect for each other and for each others opinions.
Act 1 was mainly about Rita getting her education while her relationship was breaking up; Act 2 was about Frank’s relationship, career and life breaking down. Now that Rita got what she wanted; her education, Frank more less “lost” her as a friend but he definitely lost her as a student.