Rita’s first reaction to this habit was “y’ wanna be careful with that stuff, it kills y’ brain cells.” This shows the audience that she might be a person who jokes a lot, but if she says it in a serious way, then it shows that she doesn’t really like drinking, or that she is concerned for Frank, in case he throws his life away.
In the rest of the play Frank is nearly always drunk, he is always pouring himself a drink. In act 2 scene 5 Rita has read Franks poems, “are you sober? Are you?” This question suggests that Frank was drunk a lot and Rita wanted to speak to him when he wasn’t.
We discover the type of relationship Frank is having with his girlfriend at the beginning of the first scene when Frank is on the telephone to her. “If your trying to induce some feeling of guilt in me” This shows that they may not get on too well, so Franks girlfriend is trying to make him feel guilty because he cant make it home for dinner, but she didn’t succeed very well.
This prepares us for his relationship with Rita by showing us that he may just not get on too well with women, so therefore he may not get on too well with Rita. Or it may mean that he is soon going to be single and available.
When Rita comes into the play she has a problem opening Franks door. This could be symbolic because it shows that there is a problem between them, and there may be problems between them later on.
When she finally manages to open the door she reacts as if Frank is stupid by not getting it fixed. “Ya wanna get that fixed!” this says to the audience that maybe Rita is a bit annoyed by the fact she couldn’t open the door and get in, it may show she is a bit impatient aswell. Or that she likes to joke around a lot.
You can see the difference in their literary tastes by the way Rita reacts to Howard’s end. “It sounds filthy doesn’t it?” (She is referring to the title ‘of human bondage’) This shows that she has a rude sense of humour and that she doesn’t really understand what the title means. And it also shows that there might be a lot Rita doesn’t understand later on in the play.
You can also see the difference in their tastes when Rita starts discussing a poet she’d read about,
“ahh Dilan Thomas (Frank)"
“No, roger McGough (Rita)”
This shows Rita doesn’t like the poems you can’t understand, but like simple understandable poets.
At the beginning of the play there is a misunderstanding over Rita’s name, this prepares us by showing us that Rita, is not used to educated, well-mannered people.
Frank - “You are?”
Rita – “What am I?”
Frank – “Pardon?”
Rita – “What?”
It also shows that they are from different cultures and Rita isn’t used to Franks, and Frank isn’t used to Ritas. So there may be a lot of confusion between them in the future.
When Rita and Frank have finished confusing each other over Ritas name, Rita notices an erotic painting on the wall, “its very erotic isn’t it?” This shows Rita sees it in a different view than Frank because he doesn’t/didn’t see it as erotic. This might symbolise the fact that they are from different lifestyles, or that they may not always see things in the same perspective.
Overall I think the first three pages introduce the audience quite well to the main themes, it introduces Frank as an obvious alcoholic and Rita as an uneducated woman. It shows they both have different views and may find it difficult to see each other’s at times.
After reading the play, I found it was a good laugh, it made me understand a bit more about the two different cultures and inspired me to learn.
