Educating Rita - Read the opening of the play to 'D y' get a lot like me? (Rita). In what ways is this extract a good introduction to the play's main themes? Do you think that Willy Russell has made his opening dramatic and entertaining?

University Degree Education and Teaching

EDUCATING RITA

Read the opening of the play to ‘D y’ get a lot like me? (Rita). In what ways is this extract a good introduction to the play’s main themes? Do you think that Willy Russell has made his opening dramatic and entertaining?

Educating Rita what a title! Not only does it have just two characters in the entire play but it starts out in a Victorian-built university in the North of England. What could appear so boring on the outside but be so deeply intriguing between the covers? If you picked up a book entitled “Educating Rita” you would replace it to the shelves instantaneously, but if you read just the first two pages you would discover two electrifyingly, beguiling characters who are both similar and conflicting.

When we first meet Frank he is patiently looking through his bookcase for a hidden whisky bottle, this is until his partner phones. Willy Russell uses the telephone to give the audience information about Frank.

The whole of the first scene is teeming with humorous comments. A particularly strange one is when Frank says to his wife over the telephone, “Yes, that’s it, you just pop off and put your head in the oven.” This form of satirical humour is comical because the audience will be left pondering what he actually meant.

Frank makes the introduction to this play engaging, by using several techniques. The first thing, which is noticeable, is the humour when we initially meet Frank. All of his books are in perfect order, like many people view his upper class life, but then lurking like a temptress was the whisky carefully concealed behind his career; the books. It is as if Frank is cloaked by a face outmask the same as when he is cloaked when Rita is around, by her outgoing personality. The whisky gives us an immediate insight into what Frank is like. It makes the audience wonder what it is which leads him to become an alcoholic. Could it be “some silly woman’s attempts to get into the mind of Henry James?” as Frank explained to his partner over the telephone. He has to hide the alcohol because, like his life he doesn’t want to admit to his problem of being an alcoholic.

Frank’s negativity is cloaked by Rita’s spontaneity. Rita is a “breath of fresh air” as she erupts onto the scene capturing the audience’s attentiveness. When Rita comes in there is a dramatic change in tone and pace of the play, she brings the stage to life. Rita’s entrance has maximum impact on the audience because it provides an effective contrast to Frank. Rita’s scouse accent also emphasizes the fact that there is a significant culture and educational gap between them both. Rita simultaneously shows not only attitude, but also vivaciousness and confidence. She is interesting because she is not a stereotype, and it is her individuality which is fascinating.

The whole play is about what happens when two characters meet who are educationally and culturally different. There is a symbolic lack of understanding and communication between Frank and Rita. This is shown mostly at the beginning of the play before Rita changes and becomes an “educated woman”. This lack of understanding is humorous and it highlights the different backgrounds Frank and Rita have. The most noticeable part of the play where this happens is when Frank says, “You are?” and Rita replies “What am I?” which confuses Frank so he says, “Pardon?” Since Frank speaks in Standard ...

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Rita: (from the doorway) “I’m comin’ in, aren’t I? It’s that stupid beedin’ handle on the door. You wanna get it fixed!” For a new student to say this to her tutor is quite shocking considering most are eager to give a positive initial impression. This outburst stands out greatly in opposition to Frank’s cynical monologue. Her irreverent behaviour seems out of place in the academic study. It reveals Rita’s personality as being gregarious and confident.

Rita wants to learn from Frank but also at the same time Frank is learning from her. At the beginning of the play Rita says about her life: “I don’t wanna baby yet. See, I wanna discover myself first”. She feels that to not be “slightly out of step” she needs to settle down and have babies with her husband. She says that she needs to discover herself first and feels that something is missing from her life.

Being educated and having good exam results gives you an immediate advantage over the uneducated. Rita wants to be in the educated section of society. She wants the options that an educated person has. “These women, you see, they come to the hairdressers cos they wanna be changed. But if you wanna change y’ have to do it from the inside, don’t y’?” Rita thinks that by changing her life and becoming an “educated woman” she would become happier. Rita changed her name from Susan thinking it would make her different, but now she has just found something else that she feels needs modifying. Rita is unable to respond to Frank’s polite, formal questions about her name. This reflects her informal nature and her distance from Frank’s academic world.

Frank and Rita do have more in common than we first realize at the beginning of the play. It is outstanding how similar they really are. Frank loves the life that Rita has, but Rita desires what Frank has. In Rita, we see a woman who “wants to change” and is driven by a sense of incompleteness. She struggles for an education, which will take her beyond the class from which she was born into. Before committing herself to an Open University course, she had to decide, “whether it’s gunna be another change of dress or a change in yourself.” Willy Russell uses Rita, as a teaching aid to get the point across that no matter how you dress yourself up; it is still the inner person that counts and the way you feel about yourself. Frank is also dissatisfied with his life and sees his existence as hollow and sham, occasionally made more bearable by the steady flow of Scotch. Frank and Rita both use each other to learn something about life, although Frank is meant to be the teacher.

The theory that opposites attract will have the audience speculating whether anything romantic will happen between Frank and Rita. This sustains suspense. The theme is explored thoroughly and used to full advantage throughout the play. Rita is the total opposite to Frank. He is the upper class tutor and she is the lower class student. Willy Russell grabs our attention by using the initial joke and sustains it by the amusing dialogue that follows.

When Rita first tries to get into Frank’s study she cannot. She is the lower class and she is trying to get into the upper class; the door not opening shows how hard it is going to be for her throughout the play to change to being an “educated women”. The door also signifies a gap culturally, because it is as if Frank is in one world, Rita is in another, and the door is the space between them.

Frank’s study is very old, as he’s looked at the same painting on the wall for “10 years”. Things don’t seem to change much for him. The door is broken, stopping him from changing and walking through it. It is broken therefore keeping him in his study and stopping him from breaking free of bad habits like alcoholism and changing his life around.

After Frank and Rita have spoken a few words Rita offers Frank a cigarette. This is like a breaking of the ice as he accepts. If Frank did not like Rita then he would not have taken a cigarette from her; this is part of the transaction of Rita moving into the upper class world. At the beginning of scene 2, after Rita and Frank have got to know each other better, she oils the door. This is Rita making a transaction from her world to his. She is helping him mend the door, mend his bad habits so that he can move onto the future, and he can walk through the door.

Springing from Rita and Frank’s relationship is a range from dry intellectual wit to downright coarse humour; there is also the attraction of two very different cultures and backgrounds. A plain example includes:

Rita: God, I’ve had enough of this. It’s borin’. That’s, bloody borin’. This Forster, honest to god he doesn’t half get on my tits

Frank: Good. You must show me the evidence

Rita: Y’dirty sod

Frank: (Wagging his finger at her) true, true…it’s cutting down on the booze that’s done it…

This is funny because of Rita’s potentially shocking comment but also Frank’s dry response. Bearing in mind that opposites attract they appear a good match for each other. Rita and Frank despite numerous verbal battles, still have the capacity to demonstrate warmth and affection to one another.

Rita is a confident character. She suprises Frank when she refers to the painting on the wall as erotic, She is very upfront and confrontational. Her comment, “Is it supposed to be erotic? I mean when he painted it do y’ think he wanted to turn people on?” is so different from Frank’s speech that because he doesn’t know how to handle such a conversation. He is not as forward as Rita and doesn’t expect this from a new student. The fact that Rita says this alone is amusing and gives us an immediate insight into her character. We also learn from Frank that in a way he is relatively shy, he cannot reply directly to Rita’s observation; in a shocked manner all he can say is “erm…probably.” Rita’s observation about the picture foreshadows the way she will make Frank appreciate things that he has grown bored of and taken for granted. She has very original ideas but Frank fears that by becoming “educated” she will lose the innocence and freshness and change for the worse.

Educating Rita was written with intent to be performed. Rita moves around the study rather than sitting down. She is very observant of the things around her. She prepares us for her restlessness and inability to concentrate, but also her quickness of mind and curiosity. The way that Rita walks around the study will keep all eyes constantly focused on her and what she is doing.

As an audience to the play, it is interesting watching the characters and how they develop throughout the performance. Because the play only has two characters it is fascinating because each and every part of their personality is explored.

The opening scene is made dramatic because of contrast. Both Rita and Frank are total opposites educationally, culturally, socially and emotionally. They have totally different opinions about everything, which provides humour. The play is also dramatic because of how the theme of “opposites attract” is sustained throughout the entire play and used to full advantage. The dialogue is also flirtatious with numerous sexual references, which suggests that romance is always on the cards.

When staging the play such things as costumes and scenery would need to be considered. Rita would be dressed in such a way as to reflect her outgoing ‘wacky’ personality and Frank would wear something shabby and formal. In this way the contrast would be highlighted.

Willy Russell poses two questions to the audience throughout the play: How do you achieve freedom of choice? In addition, what is the difference between education and knowledge? These questions can only be answered as a matter of opinion. They make the audience ponder for a while after seeing the play about life and what they want from it. Is there a broken door in their life, which needs fixing before they can walk through it? Willy Russell successfully uses a range of techniques to make the opening to his play dramatic and entertaining.

Mercifully the final impression we are left with is not of Rita’s and Frank’s mutual contempt. More intriguingly, the end leaves us with question marks. Willy Russell explains by saying, “Life goes on but there has to be uncertainty. It may be that it will be happy, but you can’t make life be happy”. The play ends on an uncertain note, Frank’s and Rita’s future is uncertain, but each of them has learned something. Both of them can claim to be “educated”, but education isn’t everything, as Rita discovered.

At the end of the play it is apparent that Frank and Rita are equal educationally and socially. In the middle of the play Rita could not give Frank a haircut but the end concludes with Rita “taking 10 years off you.” She has changed Frank, not just by giving him a haircut but by teaching him something about life itself. Frank has given Rita the education she desired, and Rita has helped Frank to ‘walk through the door’.

The play is comic because Willy Russell used to have a career as a hairdresser. Could he be using Rita as a substitute for himself? The main theme of the play is that you can get an education, you can write your English essays and get A’s, but it cannot make you happy. Happiness has to come from the inside. Everyone can “sing a better song,” but how do you know when to be satisfied with your current one? Rita says, “Till, one day, y’own up to yourself an’y’say, is this it? Is this the absolute maximum I can expect from this living lark?” Rita begins to change because “I haven’t had a new dress in twelve months. You cannot buy new dresses and change your name; you have to change your outlook on life. You have to change from the inside. It is not what you have or what you want; it is whether you are satisfied with what you have.