In this play we can sympathise with both characters, most of the sympathy lies with Rita because I feel that she has more problems to deal with than Frank. Some of Rita’s problems that we can sympathise with stem from pressures she has to deal with from her family including Denny. In the film version of the play there is a scene where Rita is at her sister’s wedding reception. She and Denny are dancing when he comes out with an ultimatum that either she has a baby with him or he leaves her. The audience feels sympathy for Rita at the end of this scene when Denny walks off leaving her all alone whilst everyone else is dancing around her, this scene symbolises Rita’s isolation and how she no longer fits into her social class and at that moment she is trapped between social classes. This is one of the key reasons why this scene was added to the film.
Likewise, there is an additional scene where Rita feels that she is trapped between social classes is when Rita goes to a dinner party which Frank has invited her to. In this scene Rita only gets as far as the window of Franks house, she looks in and feels that she would not fit in with the people at Franks dinner party. All she can do is stand outside in the rain holding what she thinks is the wrong bottle of wine. It is here where the audience feels sympathy for her because they realise that Rita feels that she fits into neither working nor middle class life.
Similarly we sympathise with Frank because of his drinking problems and his break-up with his girlfriend Julia. Frank’s problem is that he drinks to leave his other problems behind such as his married life. We don’t just sympathise with him but we also pity him because he drinks to get rid of his problems. The difference between pity and sympathy, are that pity is a feeling we have as a result of other people’s suffering and pain, whereas sympathy is mutually understanding other peoples feelings. We sympathise with Frank because he feels left out after Rita has returned from summer school. After Rita recites a poem Frank says in shock and disbelief, “You know it!” After this we find out that Rita has learnt all she needs to know in summer school. Frank feels left out because he feels that Rita no longer needs him, he is also feeling that he has change Rita into almost a completely different person from the Rita he knew when he first met her; this makes him feel trapped because he feels that he has turned her into a normal average pupil just like the rest, basically he is back where he started before he met Rita.
Each character has learnt different things. Rita has learnt to be more independent and has learnt from Frank, and vice versa.
In this play there are three main themes. They deal with personal relationships between the characters and the culture clash between the characters and education.
In the theme of personal relationships there is a contrast of tension and warmth.
There is tension in the relationship between Rita and Denny, in the film Denny burns all of Rita’s books, even more tension builds up when Rita tries to stop Denny but then she id pushed back by Denny. This related back to being trapped because Denny was trying to trap Rita into staying with him, Denny feels that if Rita were to get an education Rita would leave him and the relationship would be over.
An example of warmth in a relationship is at the start between Frank and Rita. An example of Frank warming to Rita is when he says, “why didn’t you walk in here 20 years ago?” By saying this, he means that he would have been even more attracted to her but now he is too old. Frank sees Rita as a breath of fresh air, he is not used to people like Rita.
An additional theme is the culture clash between Frank and Rita. They practically come from two different worlds. Frank is a middle class university professor who is well educated and also speaks quite eloquently; on the other hand Rita is a badly educated hairdresser. One clear difference between them is the way they speak. Rita speaks with a strong liverpudlian accent and often uses some quite colourful language at times, whereas Frank speaks with hardly any sort of dialect or accent. Rita’s accent means that some words such as “you” and “got” are contracted to “y” and “gorra”.
Moreover another culture clash is the opening to the play, when Rita asks Frank whether he thinks that the painting in his office is erotic. Frank who is taken aback tries not to talk directly about it but says to Rita it beautiful but then Rita questions Franks’ answer Frank replies with, “the term ‘beautiful’ covers many feelings I have about this picture, including the feeling that, it is erotic.” This shows the culture difference because Frank being of middle class status would not openly just talk about sex, its took Rita a couple of tries to get Frank to answer the question properly. In contrast Rita’s reaction to the painting is “Look at those tits.” This clearly shows the culture clash because normally a middle class person would not say something like that about a painting, whereas someone like Rita would. Rita also uses some colloquial language, which makes the culture clash more apparent. This relates back to being trapped because they are both in their own different social classes, and therefore do not have much experience of people from outside their own class.
The final theme is education. Both Frank and Rita are unhappy about where their education has got them. Rita feels that her lack of education as got her nowhere apart from the hairdressing salon where she works. Rita's main reason for trying for an education is so she can have choice, she tells Frank that everyone thinks they have choice but they all think choice is deciding what drink to have or what to wear, Rita also thought this at the very beginning of the play, now Rita knows this is not choice, choice is something that will change her life. Rita is feed up of other people making her choices for her like Denny wanting her to have a baby, "He thinks we have choice already, choice between Everton an Liverpool, choosing which washing powder… I told him I’d only have a baby when I have choice." Through this Frank is showing that we are trapped without choice, with no choice we can go nowhere, or at least not where we want to, he is showing that we have to make are own choices. Frank’s education had got his doing a job that he does not like doing; in the film this is shown when Frank turns up to one of his lectures drunk showing that he does not like doing what he does. He is trapped in his job because of he education he has got.
Russell also uses dramatic techniques such as having a very effective opening and ending to the play, only having two actual characters in one setting, use of humour and in the film the addition of extra scenes and characters.
Russell makes the opening and ending of the play successful by making it entertaining and humorous. Russell opens the start of the play with frank looking as if he is looking for a book but he is actually looking for a bottle of drink.