Sophy’s weak character shines through to the reader, this evidence is obvious as she is easily dominated by male’s decisions although this is partly due to the attitude of society towards women. Sophy's character is childish and easily led as the narrator describes to us "What a kitten like, flexuous, tender creature she was." This easily led and childish character is shown as her son Randolph takes the parent's role over his childish mother. He tells his mother that she cannot marry Sam without his consent. Although Sophy puts forward a logical argument to her son that it wouldn't affect him in his quest to be a gentlemen. " And swear that she would not wed Sam Hobson without his consent."
Whereas Rita shows a strong character to the audience in "Educating Rita" she shows determination and is a role model for the lower class and women " Mr Bleedin E. M Forster says quote " we are not concerned with the poor" unquote." This is why she is such a liked character because she stands up for what she believes in. This is as opposed to Sophy's weak and dominated character.
Sophy wants to change her life for the better but does not ever control and take charge of her life she is just a victim of other people decisions, even though she was not happy with her status. “Sam, if I could, I would marry you, some day.”
Whereas Rita is very motivated to change her life and will not let anything stand in the way of her education and finding herself and wants to learn from changes and keeps her options open. “ I dunno. I might go to France. I might go to me mothers. I might even have a baby. I dunno. I’ll make a decision. I’ll choose I dunno.”
Sophy’s character isn’t very exciting or humorous at all but this is because it is story, whereas “Educating Rita” is a play and use the writer uses the character of Rita to inject humour into the play, by using her crude language, sarcastic comments and the relationship between Rita and Frank as there is a clash is a clash of very different backgrounds and cultures. “ This Forster, honest to God he doesn’t half get on my tits….
Good. You must show me the evidence.”
Sophy doesn’t have any actual friends. This is because she married into the middle class, so she doesn't associate herself with the lower class but she doesn't fit into the middle class because of her rural lower class background, lack of education and due to her passive, shy character. This is also though because of societies attitude to women at this time being governed by the class system.
In contrast to this Rita gains friends such as Trish and frank because of her outgoing nature and her appealing humorous character helps her to fit into the middle class. This is also due though to the fact that society does not govern women in terms of education. Also she realises she can make these choices more freely than Sophy can for instance and realises her mistakes about her choice of friends. For instance Trish as she realises that Trish is false and not a genuine nice person. "Its like Trish y'know me flatmate, I thought she was so cool an' together- I came home the other night an' she'd tried to top herself."
" The Sons Veto" is written in the form of a short story. Thomas Hardy is very economical with characters, the short story involves just a small number of characters, which means that we can focus more on these characters and keep the story short and keep the readers attention held easier. Also Hardy wrote the story in an narrative prose format, this means that we don't get to know much about the characters psychology as there is not much character interaction because of the lack of dialogue, so we rely on the narrator to tell us about the character. " Though Sophy the Lady had her deficiencies". This shows us that we can not form our own opinions about Sophy and the other characters because there is no dialogue or character interaction to form our own thesis about the characters.
On the other hand "Educating Rita" is written in the form of a play and also has a small amount of characters this is so as not to the lose the focus from the main characters and point of the play and to hold the interest on "Frank" and "Rita". However Willy Russell has uses dialogue and character interaction in order to enable the audience to gain an understanding of the psychology of both characters in contrast with "The Sons Veto" when we rely on the narrative to tell us about the character and influences the reader by doing this.
Willy Russell also uses off stage events in his play in order to use other characters with out them actually being in the play. By using this dramatic device Russell is using other characters to develop the plot and hold the audience's interest, but without taking the focus off of the main characters.
In "the Sons Veto" detailed description is used throughout the story this is to keep the reader engaged in the story and to hold their interest throughout the story, as it is a sombre quite depressing story. This detailed description of rural areas is very characteristic of Hardy and he uses this in many of his short stories and novels. "Wagon after wagon, bearing green bastions nodding to their fall, yet never falling walls of baskets enclosing masses of beans and pea, pyramids of snow white turnips, swaying howdahs of mixed produce". This quote also expresses the vast use of imagery such as "bastions" and "pyramids". Hardy also uses repetition of "wagons" in order to get the feeling of the amount of vegetables, this is how the readers attention is held throughout the story and how it engages the reader.
Although in "Educating Rita" the audience has to rely on humour, romantic interest and tension and suspense of what is to happen next in Rita's ever changing life to hold the audiences interest and engage the audience. "Perhaps, perhaps your husband thinks you're having an affair with me."
In "The Sons Veto" Hardy uses archaic vocabulary and dialect to convey the rustic and rural feeling of the sombre story to the reader. "In a remote nook in North Wessex". Hardy is also very formal in his stories and doesn't use slang unless in the small amount of dialogue. Such as Sam's country dialect this is to show a contrast between the middle class characters and Sam and shows the attitude about the class system difference at this time period. "I never said I liked 'ee," " There is no time o'day for taking the air like this." This also shows a contrast between Sam and Sophy although they come from the same background Sophy has some education showing that society has not stopped her from gaining some education. Although still her son often corrects her language and grammar showing that she still hasn't gained a proper education and is governed by males and shows that she doesn't have the choice of belonging to the real middle class. "Has dear mother- not have!"
In comparison with Sophy, Rita has a strong accent and uses slang and swears "So y' switch it off an' say that’s fuckin rubbish." Russell uses Frank as a contrast to Rita as he is educated and academic and uses standard English in his speech. Rita because of the time setting can gain an education she can choose to do this so she is not governed by society to the degree that Sophy is. Also Rita can choose to try to belong to the middle class and she realises that she doesn't have to change her accent and pretend to be some one else in order to do this whereas Sophy has to and Rita changes and gains an education in the process.
In conclusion Sophy has been governed to a very large extent by societies attitude in her time period, as she didn't have the choice about education, marriage, jobs and contraception. This is due to the rights available to women of this time and the class system that was apparent in the Victorian era. Sophy was also governed due to her weak character and arguably if Rita had been in Sophy's time period she may have been able to be dominated less by males decisions such as the vicar and Randolph.
Rita on the other hand has not really been governed by society partly due to the time period she lives in as she has many more rights for women. Also this is partly due to the fact that Rita has a stronger character and is able to make her own choices and not be dominated by peoples decisions such as Denny.
The text that appeals to me more is "Educating Rita" this is because I can relate more to this story as it is set in my sort of era and I can relate with the issues brought up within the play. This text appeals to me more as it has a less serious like the sombre story and gives a more humorous appeal to it with the character of Rita injecting humour into the play. Also you get to know the psychology of the characters better than in "The Sons Veto" thus you can relate to them more. Finally "Educating Rita" appeals to me more as I prefer the play format to the short story and also in the end of "Educating Rita" it gives a positive outcome of Rita finding herself.
