Rita: Yeh. Was that a joke?’
And:
‘Rita: You wouldn’t watch ITV would y’? Its all BBC with you, isn’t it?
Frank: Well I must confess…
Rita: It’s all right, I know. Soon as I walked I here I said to meself, ‘Y’ can tell he’s a Flora man.
Frank: A what?
Rita: A Flora man.
Frank: Flora? Flowers?’
In these two passages in scene one, it is possible to see the stereotypes that both Rita and Frank have of each other. Frank thinks that Rita might want to smoke cannabis, and Rita initially thinks that Frank doesn’t watch ITV and thinks that he is ashamed of actually watching (Although he never admits to anything). These passages further show the misunderstanding between the two characters. It also displays how the media exploit the working class and ‘mould’ those within it to think and do whatever the media may want them to. In Scene 4 Rita says ‘y’ know the Daily Mirror an’ the Sun an’ ITV an’ the Unions, what are they tellin’ people to do? They just tell people to go out an’ get more money, don’t they? But they don’t want more money…The Unions tell them to go out an’ get more money and ITV an’ the papers tell them what to spend it on so the disease is always covered up’. This long speech from Rita tells us how the media takes control of her social class, what to do, what dresses to buy and Rita realises that what her social class is being forced into believe is not really what those within it really want and why she feels empty when she buys a new dress, and the reason why there is vandalism and violence, is because people are finding so little meaning to their lives. Willy Russell shows how each class rejects the other when Denny burns all of Rita’s books, because she is not behaving in the way expected of her, doing the things expected of her social class and Rita complains that she wants a choice, and believes that this education would give her that choice, ‘I told him I’d only have a baby when I had a choice. But he doesn’t understand. He thinks we have choice because we can go to a pub that sells eight different types of lager’. Rita thinks that the education Frank is giving her is her chance for a choice because when she was at school, she was pressured by friends and family to reject education, ‘But studyin’ was just for the whimps, wasn’t it? See, if I’d started takin’ school seriously I would have had to become different to me mates, an’ that’s not allowed.’ Again, Rita is forced by her class to reject even the things she may enjoy, and forced into empty materialism that means nothing to her, but takes her mind off whatever is nagging her inside, ‘there’s always a new club to go to, a new feller to be chasing’, Rita tells of how those in the same social class don’t want to change even though they want something else to their lives. Frank also wants to seem in touch with Rita’s age group and social class ‘what in the name of God is being off one’s cake…Aha. I must remember that. The next student to ask me if Isabel Archer was guilty of protestant masochism shall be told that one is obviously off one’s cake’ Rita objects ‘You can’t. If you do it’ll sound dead affected’ Rita points out that Frank cannot shift into being one of his students as he is acting out of his place, his social class, like Rita he doesn’t have a choice, he has to remain the middle class, ageing university tutor, and Rita is trapped being a working class hairdresser, for it is their destined place in society. Willy Russell warns us how society is trapping us into one way of living, and that those in the same class around us prevent and resent us from trying something else. Rita realises that the middle class is as shallow and empty as the life she once had. When Frank invites Rita to dinner with him his partner, she is intimidated because she is worried about which wines to buy, which shows the materialism of the middle class and is ironic of the same materialism of her original social environment. When Rita changes she is rejected from her own social group and to begin with, finds it hard to cope with those within the middle class. Rita recalls when everyone went to the pub, ‘I said, ‘why are you crying mother?’ She said, ‘because – because we could sing better songs than those.’ Ten minutes later, Denny had her singing again, pretending that she hadn’t said it. But she had. And that’s why I came back’, Rita feels that her family is acting in pointless ways, pretending to themselves, e.g. like her mother, and feels she cannot bear to keep living a lie and wants to be able live how she wants to live, but in the end realises her education may not have been as amazing for her as she thought, in the last scene she tells of her flatmate and how she resented her lifestyle, in the end trying to kill herself. Rita realised she didn’t want just to be able to regurgitate quotes and empty phrases, but to be herself, to enjoy whatever aspects of each social class she wants.
In conclusion, the message that Willy Russell is trying to convey is that the boundaries of social class can be broken, and the key to success is to be yourself and embrace individuality rather to conform to the sheep of society
