Rita seems keen to acquire middle class culture, she says that studying literature provides her with life and she looks forward to going to the tutorial each week. Franks’ office in Rita’s eyes represents middle class and educated people, she says “I’m gonna have a room like this one day…Everything is in its right place” the room therefore can be seen as Rita’s ambition.
Denny, Rita’s husband doesn’t want Rita to study and in her view she believes that he feels he is losing her. She says in act one scene five that she can see him looking at her and she knows that he is wondering where the girl he married has gone she also says in the previous scene that educating herself makes her stronger – that’s what Denny’s frightened of. This makes us wonder what Rita’s domestic life is like especially we see in act one scene five that in rage Denny burns Rita’s books. The anger which arises from Denny, as Rita continues to study seems to create a separation between her and her family, as the play continues this separation represents the division of her from her culture. This division is eventually completed when Rita finally breaks away completely, leaves Denny and goes to summer school.
In the first few scenes comedy seems to arise through misunderstandings, misinterpretations from both parties and sarcasm. For example when Rita first comes into the tutorial in act one scene one Frank asks “you are” Rita doesn’t understand and replies “what am I?” this misunderstanding is humorous and its exactly similar events to these that create comedy in the play.
As the play continues comedy is introduced by the language used. Rita speaks with common slang terminology she uses words such as “blindin” and “testin”. The use of language has a great comic influence – people are not familiar with swear words and slang being used in literature, the comedy which people see could also be viewed as shock from seeing this unfamiliar way of writing.
Willy Russell manages to strike a balance of the amount of comedy and drama in the play, despite the fact that it appears unbalanced in some places; scenes which have a more dramatic effect have less comedy in them. This is because scenes such as act one scene five where Denny finds out that Rita is taking the pill again in secret and so burns all of her books and her essays. This is not a comic moment in the play and so by scripting comedy into this scene would undermine the drama.
Throughout the play we see how Rita and Franks relationship develops. In the beginning Rita looks up to Frank and doesn’t question anything he says, her knowledge is only fragmented and so she lacks confidence in what she writes and says. In act one scene two Frank begins to discuss her essay and straight away she herself condemn her work and says it was “crap”. Their relationship begins to develop, turning away from this student – teacher relationship and changing into a friendship, we see this especially when Frank invites Rita to his house for a dinner party. This isn’t how we would expect a teacher to act towards a student, in a way this shocks the audience and raises the question that is their relationship becoming inappropriate?
When Rita returns from summer school her whole attitude has changed. She has become less sarcastic, more ready to learn and even more confident, for example she talks about how she stood up in front of the entire lecturing hall to ask a question – something that she admits is unlike her.
Her transition away from working class attitudes has occurred dramatically over the summer period. She has moved out of her house and split up with her husband. These changes have a bad effect on Frank and Rita’s relationship, we see this especially in a tutorial she has with Frank shortly after the summer is over – she puts on a false accent, a ‘posh one’, one that would be spoken by someone from middle class. Franks tutorials used to Rita’s number one priority – she even says that it gets her through the week knowing that she has the tutorial to go to but now towards the end of the play she even fails to turn up.
This change in attitude alienates Frank, as the dependent apprehensive Rita he knew seems to drift further away from him. He says that he had tried to call her at the hairdressers where she told him she worked in act one scene one little did he no she had changed jobs to a Bistro he seems upset by this and says “there was a time where you told me everything”. She questions him and says “Don't you like that the little girl has grown up" Frank and Rita’s relationship deteriorates from here onwards.
To me both comedy and drama are important to make the play effective, the comedy makes it more light hearted, for example the tutorials taken at face value are funny, when Frank discusses Chekhov in the theatre Rita replies with a witty comment asking “does he (as in Chekhov) go” to the theatre often. Whereas dramatic scenes allow the more serious aspects to carry more weight, for example when Rita has to choose between her husband and her studies and eventually moves out of the house. This is a serious moment in the play if Willy Russell would have scripted jokes and sarcasm into these scenes they would not be appreciated the way they were intended.
