How does Russell present the metamorphosis of his character Rita in Educating Rita? Discuss the dramatic impact of the change on you, the audience.

Russell spells Rita's language as it is said to portray her strong accent.

From Rita's entrance it surprised us. It is Rita's first day at the Open University and she barges in dressed like a tart. That is not the right way to make a good first impression. The audience sympathises with her because they realise she doesn't know how to fit in. This soon changes as after the summer break she starts to wear different clothes like those of the other students. Russel uses the device of her clothes to show that she has changed.

The struggle of opening the door is a metaphor, for her struggle to be educated. The first image of a brash, bold overconfident Liverpudlian (as Rita later admits) is just to compensate for her nervousness at starting the Open University Course, as she always asks lots of questions when she is nervous. When Rita first meets Frank she almost straightaway likes him. Rita thinks Frank as an educated man. Her liking for him is increased by the fact that he seems to share the same sense of humour.

The relationship between Frank and Rita gets off to a flying start. They are very chatty and tell jokes to each other. Even though she is very eager to learn (shows her intelligence) Rita paces round the room, asks Frank about his personal life, commenting on pictures etc. By act 2 Rita is more attentive and is more willing to learn, yet again the time period between acc 1 and 2 is used by Russell to show how much Rita has changed. In the beginning of Act one as she is nervous she smokes, swears and asks about Frank's personal life etc. She looks at things like the window. Frank says that it hasn't been opened for years. The window is a metaphor used by Russell for Rita's desire for freedom. She can see it but the glass is stopping her. Later in Act two she opens the window showing that she is freeing herself.

Rita is prepared to do anything to reach her goal to improve her social status from working class to middle class. She has changed her name from Susan to Rita in an effort to be different person and to be likened to her idol, Rita Mae Brown. This shows that she is determined to change herself. Her love for Rita Mae Brown makes her read the books of her favourite author, Rubyfruit Jungle is one of them mentioned in the play several times.

By act 2 Rita has resisted to not swearing as much and starts to use much better vocabulary. Russell does this to show how she has changed which the audience notices and feels happy for her.

At the beginning the audience warms to Rita due to her amusing slang and sympathises with her, as they want her to succeed in her quest of being educated. The first scene is probably the most important in the play. It has to draw in the audience 's attention, so they look forward see what happens in the later scenes. It also gives us our first look at the only characters we see namely Rita and Frank. They must seem believable and attention grabbing to ensure the audience wants to see what happens later. In the first scene you get the first impressions of Rita, then see her develop in the later scenes as a character.

Rita's first essays are very one-sided and she refers to works of irrelevant books to the Course, like Ruby fruit Jungle (A pornographic book). When Rita reads Howard's End, she dislikes it because the author isn't concerned about the poor and she sees it yet again a biased-view. She takes Frank's advice on essays exactly, at first referring to other authors. In her Peer Gynt essay Rita learns the accepted essay style, and goes to see her first play with Frank. She enjoys the play and this inspires her to go and see another play "Macbeth". Frank invites Rita to dinner but she feels she will fit into the middle class although she doesn't fit in with the working class at the pub. She begins to feel. the course is a waste of time but a talk with her crying mum gives her a new hunger.

Frank is surprised when he tries to introduce Rita to Blake, as Rita has already studied his work. Russell is using this as an indication of how she is changing. Her Macbeth essay is "wonderful and worthless". As she changes herself, Frank is pleased. Rita explains how she wants to change, which is why she did the course. The audience can see that she is changing by the progress in her essays and are increasingly pleased.

The use of Summer School is very clever by Russell. As it has been such a long time since you have seen her. The change will be very obvious whereas if there wasn't any Summer school you would only see Rita change very gradually not seeing it at all. Rita is back with new clothes and now living with Trish, which is used by Russell to show that Rita is changing. The audience is pleased for Rita as she is has changed a lot and is near to succeeding in being educated.