Rita can not understand why Frank is the way he is, ‘Why d’ y’ do it when y’ve got so much going for y’.’ She believes that those who are educated are content and are not stuck like the working classes. This is why she does not understand Frank’s retreat into alcoholism.
For Frank life is very different. He seems to have no relationships or experiences with what he may call real people anymore. Frank views academia as nothing more than a veneer that educated people can hide behind. He seems to have been this way for some time, before the beginning of the play, however it is only when Rita walks into his office that he puts his life and what he has into perspective.
Literature is no longer exciting for Frank. He’s been teaching it for some time and it has become dull and repetitive. Rita offers him a different outlook on life, ‘I’ve never really looked at it like that.’ After first encountering Rita, Frank’s behaviour improves and he drinks less. However, as the play progresses, his intake of alcohol increases, so much that his students complain about him administering his lecture whilst drunk. Indirectly this is the affect that Rita has upon Frank. Their relationship forces what Frank has been subconsciously avoiding into the conscious, which effectively causes him to retreat further into alcoholism.
After returning form Summer School Rita has gained enough intellectual confidence for her to be less dependent on Frank. Her social circle is widening and she is moving ahead with her life. Her weekly tutorial, which before helped her ‘get through the rest of the week’ is now not as necessary and she attends less. As Rita is moving on Frank becomes dependent on their meetings. Frank’s anticipation for her increases, as he believes that he is losing her, which makes him bitter, ‘You can hardly bare to spend a moment here’. He even becomes jealous, knowing that she is leaving him out of her life.
It can be said that what is initially driving Rita is her desire for choice. Her husband, Denny, wishes to have a baby but Rita tells him that ‘I’d only have a baby when I had a choice.’ However, despite Rita trying to explain it, her husband doesn’t understand her; he believes that they have choice because they can choose between ‘eight cans of lager’ in their local pub or which football team to support. When Rita talks to him about wanting a ‘better way of livin’ [her] life’ he thinks she means moving to a nicer area. Rita knows that moving house is simply not enough.
For Rita education helps her to overcome her feelings of inadequacy, ‘I don’t wanna spend the night takin’ the piss, comin’ on with the funnies because that’s the only way I can get into the conversation.’
Rita gains many things through the course of the play, such as confidence, the ability to express her views clearly and a ‘better song’ to sing. However, more significantly, at the end of the play, she has choice. She has the choice to choose between going to her mother’s, travelling to France, staying at home and having a baby or even going off to Australia with Frank.
Rita does not understand what Frank means until the end of the play, when her flatmate, Trish tries to kill herself. This is a real eye-opener for Rita, as she no longer glorifies everyone that is educated. In Rita’s eyes, Trish was someone that she looked up to and perhaps even aspired to be like, ‘ I thought she was so cool an’ together.’ She admires Frank because he is knowledgeable, but she sees him for what he. Trish’s problem is not so obvious and is concealed until the very end.
We can assume that Trish is educated because Rita describes her as being like Frank. ‘She’s dead classy, she’s got taste y’know, like you Frank.’
Trish is another example to Rita that educated people do not have everything, including happiness. For Rita education has become everything to her, but Frank is intent on making Rita see that that shouldn’t be the case. Frank relates himself to Mary Shelly, believing that he had created a monster in Rita. ‘…you’ve found a different song, that’s all–and on your lips it’s shrill, hollow and tuneless.’
By the end of the play Rita finally realises what Frank had been talking about the whole time. ‘I wanted it all so much that I didn’t want it to be questioned. I told y’ I was stupid.’ What happened with Trish brought everything into perspective for Rita. We must remember that Rita has been where Frank has not. She has seen where she could end up, which is what inspires her in the first place to enrol at the university. Perhaps that is what Frank is missing, a real taste of the life that Rita left behind.
The point Willy Russell is trying to get across can be summed up in this quote:
Rita: Tch. Y’d think there was somethin’ wrong with education to hear you talk.
Frank: Perhaps there is.
Act 1, Scene 2, page 22
