You also notice how she appears to be on a different level to Frank by the way they speak, and when they misunderstand each other.
“Frank: And you are?
Rita: What am I?
Frank: Now you are?
Rita: I’m a what?”.
Many aspects of Rita are liked by the audience such as her humour and how she doesn’t hold back at all in what she says. She also has a lack of knowledge about Literature, for example, when Frank says
Frank: Do you know Yeats?
Rita: The wine Lodge?
Frank: No, Yeats the poet”.
Another thing that strikes you about Rita is that on the outside she appears to be confident, but on the inside feels unworthy and not intelligent enough to study literature. When she arrives in Franks study she often paces around the room, and asks questions about his personal life, trying to keep him off the subject of literature. She also feels uncomfortable in her life and feels their must be something better out there which she can find by becoming educated. However, it causes Rita to feel as if she is isolated and can no longer relate to her friends and family. Further on in the play, she refers to herself as ‘half caste’ meaning that she feels as if she can no longer fit in with lower or middle class.
Throughout the play, the development of Rita’s change is slow. Rita has a very naïve approach to literature for example the first few times when asked to write an essay, she instead produced a sentence.
“In response to the question, ‘suggest how you would resolve the staging difficulties inherent in a production of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt’, you have written quote, ‘Do it on the radio’, unquote.”
She then began to read more books and go to the theatre, which inspired her enormously. It caused her to become interested in literature and become somebody she felt more comfortable with. The turning point of the play, I feel is when Rita leaves her husband. I think this is an important part because it is when Rita is no longer dominated by her lower class life. It is as if she has left that social class behind, and is ready to move on and be accepted as middle class. Rita’s husband Denny, did not approve of Rita becoming educated he wanted her to be a ‘stay at home’ wife and have a baby. Denny couldn’t understand why she hated her life so much and why she wanted to be part of something else. He, like Frank didn’t want Rita to change but to keep her as she was. His way of thinking is mirrored earlier on in the play by Rita when she calls the course “degrees for dishwashers”. When Rita leaves her husband, she has her freedom back and can now concentrate fully on her university course. She no longer has to feel guilty or have second thoughts, as she now has nothing to go back to which reminds her of her working class life, especially when she also changes her job.
Another important part is when Rita goes to summer school where she meets a lot of different people who she respects and admires. She feels more confident now around these people, and it is at this point where you can see she has changed. She says to Frank when telling him about her time at summer school,
Rita: An he said ‘Ah, are you fond of Ferlinghetti?’ It was right on the tip of me tongue to say ‘Only when it’s served with parmesan cheese’, but Frank I didn’t. I held it back an’ I heard myself saying’, ‘actually, I’m not too familiar with the American poets’.”
This shows that she has learnt how to act in formal situations and no longer needs to hide behind her jokes when confronted in a situation like this. She even stood up in a university lecture and asked a question, because she felt confident that her question mattered.
This change she feels is for the better, but at times Rita appears as pretentious to the audience. At the beginning of the play Rita is cautious of the students, but towards the end she feels equal to them and confident in her own intelligence to approach them and have conversations. The audience and Frank do not like this part of Rita’s change in character. Frank feels as if he is losing her, he wants her to stay as she was, he doesn’t want her to end up like him, living in a life he no longer enjoys and feels is pointless. He feels that Rita’s life before was much more valuable than the one she desires, He wants Rita to realise that living in a middle class life does not mean you are free from problems.
When Rita see’s her friend Trish, who she admired greatly experiencing problems she is shown that being academically together does not always mean you are secure as a person. Rita is shown this also, when Frank collapses after drinking heavily, in a university lecture. Rita looked up to frank seeing him as superior and academically together and she did not expect to see Frank acting in this way in front of pupils, she learns that learning education won’t make you happy however it gives you choices,
Rita: “But I had a choice. I chose me. Because of what you’d given me I had a choice”.
Rita changes in both positive and negative ways throughout the play. I think her change overall, is most positive as although she loses her husband, her job and a part of herself what she gains she feels is much more valuable. She has gained an education and a new found confidence in herself. I think Rita does appear as more confident at the end of the play but with this change, she has become less original. The audience preferred the old Rita who made people laugh and wasn’t scared to say what she thought, rather than the new person she has become.
However Rita feels much more comfortable with her new self, and through this change has provided herself with much more choices, and opportunities.