Educating Rita By Willy Russell.

  Rita is 26 and is a hair dresser for most of the play till she quits. Rita changed her name from Susan to Rita as Rita is the name of the author of ‘Ruby Fruit Jungle’. She lives with her husband Denny, till she leaves him after an argument that they have. She then moves in with Trish who is her new flatmate, from then on Trish becomes a strong influence in Rita’s life. Rita is very different from Frank as she usually ‘flounces’ into the study, this shows that she has a lively personality. When Rita moves in with Trish, frank becomes jealous as Trish is now also an influence in Rita’s education. This causes him to be jealous as he used to be the only educational influence in Rita’s life.

  In act one scene one Rita misunderstands Frank for most of the scene because when he asks her ‘and you are?’ she replies ‘I’m a what?’ thinking that he means she is something different, when in fact he is asking what her name is. Rita is very inquisitive about Frank’s life and everything in his study. She also misunderstands the names of some of the authors of the books in Frank’s study because when she picks up ‘Howard’s End’ and asks what it’s like, she thinks it’s a ‘filthy’ book and she gets the authors name wrong as well because she says ‘E.M Foster’ because she is thinking of the drink ‘Fosters’ but Frank corrects her. Rita tells Frank a lot about herself because when he asks why she is on the course she replies with ‘I wanna know’ Franks asks her what she wants to know and she says ‘everything’. They seem to get on well with each other once they have introduced themselves properly. In the first scene Rita doesn’t move about much compared to all the other scenes. Frank jokes around in this scene because when Rita asks him if he likes the window in his room he says that he gets the urge to throw something through it, then Rita asks him what and he says ‘ a student usually’. When Rita asks Frank ‘what’s your name’ Frank replies ‘Frank’ Rita thinks that his parents named him after the quality then says ‘ y’ know Frank, Frank Ness Elliot’s brother’  Frank thinks she is talking about T.S Elliot when in fact she is talking about the brother of the policeman that caught Al Capone. This is another clear misunderstanding between the two characters which shows how different they are. Rita leaves the scene with a sarcastic comment aimed at Frank’s haircut.

  In act two scene two it starts with Franks sitting at his desk, but he has a bottle of whisky on the desk and a mug in his hand. When Rita walks in Frank is surprised to see her, this is clear as he asks’ what the hell are you doing here? I’m not seeing you till next week’ then Rita asks if he is still sober, Frank replies sarcastically ‘ if you mean am I still this side of comprehension , then yes.’ Rita is pleased to hear this as she wants to tell him when he is sober how great his poems are, and that he should start writing again. When Frank hears this he is happy and so he stops drinking for a while till Rita tells him ‘they are Frank. It isn’t only me who thinks so. Me an’ Trish sat up last night and read them.’ This makes Frank annoyed as he gave the poems to Rita for hr to read by herself; also when Rita is talking about the poems she uses words that Trish has said ‘…what did Trish say-?’ after this both characters get involved in an argument and so Frank says ‘I think I shall change my name; form now on I insist on being called Mary, Mary Shelley- do you understand that allusion Rita?’ Frank says this because he feels he has created a monster, and now it has been unleashed upon the world. Then a little later Rita tells him that he is the only person who still calls her Rita, so Frank says sarcastically ‘what is it now then? Virginia? Or Charlotte? Or Jane? Or Emily?’ he says this as these are all names of authors like Rita Mae Brown who is the author that Rita changed name to first, except these writers are ‘great’ writers. Rita exits the scene in a bad mood with Frank because of this argument that they have just had.

  Willy Russell shows many changes through the play of the relationship between Frank and Rita. Their relationship starts off weak but gets stronger as the play unfolds, even though they have a massive argument they still remain friends at the end of the play.