Rita is trapped in her social class, she wanted to succeed in school and be happy but her friends and family say that school isn´t cool and so she doesn't learn, this happens all the way through her life until know when she decides to break a way from her social class, in the play she says this as "you´ve got to be into music, clothe an fellers…" she also talks about quick fixes, if you do something wrong you can just get a new one, "if you get it wrong you just play a different song or get a new dress an stop worrying". Rita also believes that there is something wrong with society, everyone is sad but seems to cover up for it by getting more money as unions, TV and the papers tell you to, "there's like a disease but no one mentions it, they behave as though its normal….".
Frank is also trapped and unhappy as this is shown by Frank always drinking or going to the pub, on a phone call Frank makes up excuses to go to the pub, he say "I shall need to wash away the memory of some silly woman's attempts to get into the mind of Henry James… Why did I take this on?" All Frank is doing is covering up for his unhappy life, he only works to pay for his drinks and he also drinks on the job.
Rita's main reason for trying for an education is so she can have choice, she tells Frank that everyone thinks they have choice but they all think choice is deciding what drink to have or what to wear, Rita also thought this at the very beginning of the play, now Rita knows this is not choice, choice is something that will change her life. Rita is feed up of other people making her choices for her like Denny wanting her to have a baby, "He thinks we have choice already, choice between Everton an Liverpool, choosing which washing powder… I told him id only have a baby when I have choice." Through this Frank is showing that we are trapped without choice, with no choice we can go nowhere, or at least not where we want to, he is showing that we have to make are own choices.
As Rita is changing she rows with Denny and breaks up with him, Russell does this to show that Rita is changing, in the play Denny burns Rita's books, he does this because he wants to control he, he wants to get Rita back because he feels she is slipping away and he wants her back, in a way he is jealous that´s why he burns her books, "I see him looking at me sometimes and I know what he's thinking, he's wondering where the girl he married has gone to." At this point Rita considers herself to be a half cast because she is the only one who wants an education and the only one who wants to be able to have choice.
When Rita gets back from summer school she has changed, she is more confident and she thinks she is educated. When Rita was at summer school she decided to take things more seriously so instead of telling a joke when the teacher asked a question she replied sensibly "Are you found of Ferlinghetti? It was right on the tip of my tongue to say only when served with Parmesan cheese but Frank I didn´t" and in a lecture Rita decided to start asking questions "After he'd finished he asked if any one had any questions, an I stood up". From this Rita thinks that she is educated, Frank also knows Rita is starting to become more educated and is kind of getting jealous, he tells Rita this by giving her one of his pieces of poetry. When Rita comes back she tells Frank that his poetry is great "this is brilliant, witty, profound…" but franks responds to this by saying that she has finished learning know but he is being sarcastic and he says that she has only started singing a different song not a new one "found a new song to sing have you, no you´ve found a different song to sing" So Rita has an argument with him and says "you can't bear that I'm educated now. Don't you like that the little girl has grown up". Russell is trying to show that Rita is becoming more educated and she thinks she has become educated but she is just starting to understand everything that she has been taught, Rita also wants to be more like Frank and she thinks her new friend is the female version of Frank, Rita also thinks that she is educated because she is just like Trish (the female version of Frank), she even starts to talk and act like Trish "What's wrong with your voice? Nothing I'm just talking properly… Trish says that no matter how difficult I may find it I must preserve" Because of this Rita thinks that she is singing a new song. When Trish tries to commit suicide Rita realises that she is not educated, this is because Rita thought that Trish had everything but Trish knew she didn't, Rita also realises this now.
I think that Russell wrote this play because he had a hard time and he wanted to tell people that you need to have choice or you will become trapped. I think that Frank used humour in his play because it would make people understand it more and enjoy it; the play goes better as a comedy rather than a drama, people would also understand it more as a comedy and take t in better. I enjoyed the play; I thought that it is better shown on TV than in a book. Russell did get his points across and I think that the concerns of this play have slightly changed because there is still a class system but it is not as strong and as unfair as when he wrote his play.
Educating Rita- How Does Russell Make The Opening Dramatic and Entertaining?
For the opening of educating Rita, Russell needs to entertain and interest his audience, however, he also needs to quickly introduce his characters: Frank, a university teacher in his early fifties, bored with his life and Rita, a badly educated hairdresser with a thirst for knowledge.
Russell begins "Educating Rita" with Frank searching frantically in his bookcase, muttering the names of famous authors under his breath as he searches for what the audience imagines to be a book. However, to our surprise, Frank jubilantly pulls out a bottle of Whisky and pours himself a drink. This tells us that Frank, perhaps has a drinking problem. Russell then uses the interesting medium of a one sided telephone conversation between Frank and someone we expect to be his wife or girlfriend. This entertains the audience as they are wondering what the person on the other end of the line is saying. We become more accustomed to Frank's character. The telephone conversation is also humorous : "Darling, you could incinerate ratatouille and still it wouldn't burn" and " What do you mean am I determined to go to pub? I don't need determination to get me into a pub".
Rita's entrance in the scene is a critical moment. She knocks twice on the door although Frank yells at her to come in. Eventually she bursts into the room swearing and using common language (this contrasts with Franks very upper class English)
" I'm comin' in, aren't I? It's that stupid bleedin' door. You wanna get it fixed!".
This is very dramatic as we are made to wait for Rita's entrance and she doesn't walk meekly into the room as we would expect a student, having her first meeting with a teacher, to do. She takes a commanding role and is telling Frank what to do. Frank is shocked and surprised and the audience is amused at this apparent role reversal with the student dominating the teacher. He immediately tries to regain his position of authority " You are?", this is a very upper class phrase and Rita, unused to such language takes this phrase literally, "What am I?" Frank gets confused and so it continues until Frank gives up and studies the admission papers. This confusion is funny and we see that it is useless for Frank to try to gain any authority over Rita since she is at the college because she wants to be and wants to do things in her own way.
Rita then alerts Frank to a painting and asks him if he thinks it's erotic. Frank is obviously surprised and mutters something about not having looked at it for ten years. Rita, however, does not give up. "Look at those tits" Frank, slightly embarrassed and shocked coughs and engrosses himself in looking at the admission papers again. This shows the contrast between Frank and Rita's classes and backgrounds: Frank has probably never been approached like this before and being upper class doesn't talk about anything to do with sex or nudity openly. Frank is also shocked about being asked such a question from a complete stranger.
Russell makes his opening interesting and entertaining with comedy.The audience is eager to see more and has a good idea of Frank and Rita's characters.
