Educating Rita by Willy Russell- post 1914 coursework
Educating rita is a perfect illustration of everyday life in the 1970’s. By this I refer to the way that the social class that you were born into would govern the lifestyle that you would have lived. There were few who broke out of its influence. “Educating Rita” is a potential first hand account of Willy Russell’s experiences, possibly using them to mirror himself in Rita; after all he was a hairdresser from the working class who considered himself anything but academic. In act two scene one Rita returns from summer school in order to pursue her education at the open university. This scene shows the changes that have occurred to Rita as a result of education.
From the start of this scene (p.49) we learn mainly of the confidence that Rita has acquired during summer school as she ‘bursts’ through the door and ‘twirls’. These words radiate confidence as when she first met Frank she could barely open the door and, not to mention the fact that she wants to show off her ‘new, second hand’ clothes. ‘New, second hand’ emphasises Rita’s change as she is wearing clothes that are new to her and is possibly trying to adopt someone else’s lifestyle, as the author suggests with the use of the words ‘second-hand’ when referring to the person who’s original clothes she has bought. Frank’s opinion of Rita changing appears to be different to her’s. Rita attitude is conveyed as positive about her changing, as she tries to show it off by the clothes that she wears and her confident attitude, whereas Frank expresses his opinion on the matter by laughing at her (p.50) when Rita says “…; ’cos y’know I’m dead familiar with Chekhov now.” He is poking fun at the fact that she is so eager to display her change.