To What Extent Would You Agree That 'Educating Rita' Depicts a Clash of Classes and Cultures?

The use of names to show class, culture and character is particularly noticeably in act one, scene one.  ‘Maybe y’ parents named y’ after the quality [Frank]’ and ‘I’ve called meself Rita - y’ know, after Rita Mae Brown.’  Rita, originally Susan, thought that Susan was too common so changed it to Rita after the author of an ‘airport novel.’  The name Frank is used to describe Frank himself as a candid character, Russell has actually ‘named him after the quality.’

Throughout the play Rita gradually changes but, when she is half way through, she feels like ‘a half-caste.’  She is no longer working class but is not yet middle class.  She clashes with both classes because she is different.  The only place she feels ‘normal’ is at summer school where she meets other people like her, people trying to change.  ‘Frank [summer school] was fantastic… A crowd of us stuck together all week.’  Rita enjoys the feeling of belonging somewhere and being a ‘real student’ for a week.  Rita’s job move depicts the point at which she feels that she moves from one class to another.  When she worked in the hairdressers all that was talked about was ‘boring irrelevant detail…[and] irrelevant rubbish,’ but in the bistro they talk about ‘everything… what’s important… leaving out the boring details for those who want them.’  Since the start of the play Rita has wanted to know everything and now she is comfortable talking about it with the ‘real students’ she was scared to communicate with in the earlier part of the play.

Rita’s enthusiasm and Frank’s cynicism are the main aspects of their characters that clash.  Like many middle class men Frank dislikes his job and is overly cynical about it.  Frank shows his cynicism when he says, ‘[my] appalling teching is quite in order for most of my appalling students.’  In contrast Rita is a young woman enthusiastic to learn from Frank in order to find herself.  Rita’s enthusiasm comes through when she says, ‘[y’] do the perm an’ she comes out the drier with half an inch of stubble.. [so y’] try and sell them a wig.’  Rita always tries to make the best of a bad situation.  These aspects of each of their personalities clash and this is a good example of clashes between two classes and cultures.

In the earlier part of the play Rita feels surrounded by an alien environment, the university and its students, she is nervous and, as a result, comes across as very loquacious.  She sees this in herself when she says, ‘I talk too much’ in act one scene one.  However, towards the end of play her speeches are generally shorter.  In this new environment Rita also feels isolated but gradually changes and feels as though she can interact with the ‘real students’.  When she finally does this in act two, scene two it may surprise the audience because in earlier scenes she describes them as ‘real students’ as though her life and their lives cannot mix.  But, when she finally does speak to the student, the first line she tells us she said was, ‘Excuse me but I couldn’t help overhearin’ the rubbish you were spoutin’ about Lawrence.’