Rita has replaced the ‘ou’ in ‘do’ ‘you’ sound and combined the ‘D’ and ‘Y’, this is something, which lower class society and youth use, due to laziness and it shows with Rita that she has been brought up in this society.
Even though Rita and Frank are from different backgrounds, Frank appears to be fascinated by Rita and her approach to things. At the beginning of the play Rita appears to be abrupt, common and rude.
Even though Frank and Rita are juxtaposed in the play, as the play progresses Rita shows similarity with Frank. Both Rita and Frank are tired of their partners. Rita is annoyed by Denny, her partner, because he won’t allow to be educated. He expects her to have a baby like any other women would do.
“Denny found out I was on the pill,
He’s burnt all me books.”
Rita is really upset by this prospect, that she is forced to have a baby and can’t become educated.
At the beginning of the play Rita enters Frank’s office; she faces difficulty entering the office. The door symbolises the class divide between Rita and Frank.
Rita’s name is not really Rita, it is Susan, however she feels that ‘Susan’ is not really formal and therefore she wants to go by the Rita. She is really pretentious and shy, so she feels the need to pretend in order to be seen as more formal.
However her language gives away that she is truly not formal. She uses dialect and crude humour with her tutor, whereas a typical student would not use this sense of humour at first sight. When entering she looks at a painting. She refers to it as ‘erotic’ and mentions ‘tits’ rather than breasts. On the other hand Frank refers to the painting as ‘beautiful’. This shows the simplicity of Rita’s mind, therefore relating to her lack of education.
Frank invites Rita over for dinner, as he finds her superb and fascinating. However Rita realises that she doesn't fit and therefore leaves a note and returns to the pub where Rita's mum is crying, because she has been singing the same metaphorical song. By this she means that her life has been mono-toned and stereotypical, she had a baby and then stayed a housewife. This was the story for many women all over the country during this period.
“There must be better songs to sing than those.”
Both Rita and her mum in a pub, listening to a merry song, yet they both wish for a change, it is also visible that if Rita’s mum had the chance to change, she would have and Rita then truly knows that the reason she is going to university, is for a change.
Frank tries to get Rita to read ‘Howards End’ by E.M Forster. Rita’s response is:
“Yeh. It sounds filthy, doesn’t it?”
Rita’s response to everything appears to be comical, although slowly this changes, especially after she returns from summer school.
Rita returning from summer school appears to be the pivoting point, where she shows drastic changes. Frank asks Rita, if she has studied Ferlinghetti, and surprisingly she has. Russell has included Ferlinghetti, because he also discussed the subject of poverty and inequality: Two scavengers in a truck, two beautiful people in a Mercedes. Rita tells Frank, that she was tempted to talk about pasta, however she didn’t. If this was Rita beforehand she most definitely would have. She doesn’t smoke any more. Also Frank asks Rita to read a poem, instead of Rita reading it, she recites it from memory.
'Recites poem from memory'
This leaves Frank shocked. Because at the start of the play Rita had a negative attitude towards literature and poetry. This is one of the main changes in Rita her attitude towards education, even though Rita wanted to learn and change, she didn't have patience to do something 'boring'. Russell intended to do this to highlight the fact that, common women from Liverpool who has not been properly educated can change her attitude with the right guidance.
Even though Rita is changing Frank appears to remain the same. However this changes when his partner Julia splits up with him.
Frank is an alcoholic, which is noticed at the beginning of the play when he claims he would rather go to the pub if he had a choice.
“They expect me to teach when the pubs are open”
Russell intended to make such an educated man an alcoholic, to show the public that being educated doesn't make you happy. This is shown because Frank appears to drink when something stressful happens.
When Frank notices the change in Rita, he stops seeing the point in life and the point in teaching Rita, because she has learned everything she needed to learn to pass an exam.
Frank therefore starts drinking heavily, more than usual, he drinks so much, that he gets thrown out of a pub. He turns up drunk at a lecture and recites every answer which Rita has given to him previously such as:
“Do it on the radio”
This on one hand is comical as it makes his students laugh, however it shows Frank’s admiration towards Rita and her ways. Rita in addition is appalled by Frank's behaviour and tells him to think about the students.
As Rita is going up hill with her education and her attitude, whereas Frank is going down hill due to depression and stress. So at one point Rita and Frank meet half way, where they are equal.
Frank can't accept the change in Rita and Rita can't accept the change in Frank. However the change in Rita is positive and the change in Frank is not.
Frank is really annoyed by Rita, because she has become like every other student.
Another pivoting point in the play is when Rita meets Trish, an eccentric middle-class who uses Received Pronunciation. Rita is influenced by her and changes her Liverpudlian accent to a formal one, this also one of the main changes, which change her whole identity. She claims that
“As Trish says there is not a lot of point in discussing beautiful literature with an ugly voice”
Frank completely disagrees with this, he thinks that Rita is losing her identity, yet Rita fails to see this until Trish tries to kill herself. Rita realises that Trish has been living two lives, as has Rita. Rita has undertaken the role of 'Susan' and 'Rita' and she has now found out that living two lives isn't ideal.
Frank already realized this and questions her:
“Found a better song to sing? No”
“You found a different song to sing”
Even though Rita keeps her head raised high and answers with confidence and abruptly, she does start to think, however this occurs later in the play, she then knows that she is singing a different song, Trish’s, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a better song.
Instead her answer is:
“Nobody calls me Rita”
This shows truly how pretentious she is and she knows it. Now she has more knowledge she realises that 'Susan' sounds more formal than 'Rita', it sounds formal like his ex-partners name 'Julia'. She changes continuously throughout the play, Russell intended to do this to show the journey a simple and common person has to go through to find themselves, and that sometimes it's better to stay yourself.
Frank is being sarcastic due to his anger and he shows this by saying:
“What is it now, then, eh?
Emily or Charlotte or Jane or Virginia?”
Rita later realises that Frank is right and changes her accent back to the Liverpudlian accent and also allows Frank to call her Rita. She finally decides that she has changed everything that she wanted to change, and that it’s enough.
Even though Frank and Rita had an argument, they remained close; because they both helped each other discover themselves. Rita has become an educated woman, who now knows where she belongs, and she also increased her social status.
Frank has remained his drinking problems, however he loosened his character. He still remains his high class standing, however in some ways he has fallen, after falling from the stage drunk.
In conclusion I found that Rita is continuously changing throughout the play, as this is the journey one needs to take to discover themselves without primary guidance. Rita is initially a common woman, who just has the urge to become educated no matter what someone says. She is one of the few women, who realize that she has the right to become educated and that it’s alright if she doesn’t want a baby. Russell wrote this play to make women aware of the prospect and also to encourage them that there is nothing to be afraid of.
The character of Rita is perfect to convey this message, as Rita is a feisty woman who knows what she wants and she is brave enough to stand up for what she wants. With a character like Frank, it puts Rita’s mind at peace, because he is relaxed and doesn’t mind someone like Rita; in fact he finds it a challenge, which is exactly what he needed something different. Russell intended to do this, to show the public that there are people out there, who will help you. Also this period is when England suffered from the financial crisis, so it appeared to be ideal to come out educated, therefore he wrote this play ‘Educating Rita’.
By Shenin Anowar
