The end of the enrolment into the Open University and her relationship with Frank left Rita a much better-rounded person. Rita returning to hairdressing to cut Frank’s hair at the close of the play makes it eminent that she has not completely shed her old, energetic and vivacious personality, and combined with her education, Rita has become much more interesting and sociable. We see evidence of this from the first scene of Act 2, when Rita describes how she had an intriguing conversation with students of the university.
Perhaps the most significant loss Rita’s character has sustained by the close of the play is the loss of her personality. When Rita was first introduced, we met a confident, inquisitive and vivacious character, who possessed a unique quality in her ability to voice her own, personal opinions and perceptions. Over the course of the play, we see her determination to abandon these qualities, and Frank’s reluctance to encourage her in that way. In Act 1 scene 2, we learn about Rita’s tendency to incorporate her subjectivity in analysing literature. Rita possesses by the time of her examination the ability to answer the questions posed in a literature exam, as we see in the final scene, but in the process of what she believes is learning how to be educated, she loses her subjectivity, not only in her literature work, but also in her lifestyle. Frank expresses the need for Rita to ‘suppress, perhaps even abandon your uniqueness’ in the final scene of Act 1, and the character of Rita continues to do so in Act 2. By the end of the play, her success in abandoning the unique qualities which had once dominated her life is apparent to the audience: we are now watching the character of a woman who has lost her ability to maintain her own opinions and views of society in an attempt to be an ‘educated person’.
The close of the play, Educating Rita, lost Rita the respect of many people. Her husband, Denny, had held the stereotypical view that his wife was supposed to help him at home and have a baby. Rita’s thirst for knowledge and want to be educated did not follow this, and their differences led to Rita being given an ultimatum by Denny. Rita being thrown out of the house shows the lack of love and respect Denny held for her, a direct cause of these traits. Frank had admired the original character of Rita, but his lack of encouragement in her desire to change herself proved his distaste in her new character. This is particularly evident at the end of scene 6 in the second act. Frank scorns Rita when she presents her new persona to him, describing what she thinks is a new culture, as ‘shrill and hollow and tuneless’. He also mocks her, suggesting sophisticated author’s names to replace her own. We can also see Frank’s lack of respect for her when he snubs her in the last scene of the play, after she has passed her exam and has fully transformed into her new character. By the end of the play, we can see signs that Rita has also lost some respect in herself. Although she is relatively proud that she has passed her exam, some regret and wistfulness are also evident. In Act 2 scene 7, she describes to Frank that she understood only in the exam what Frank had been trying to warn her of, that her appreciation of literature would comprise only of ‘a load of quotes and empty phrases’. She describes herself as ‘stupid’ and says that she ‘wanted it all so much that I didn’t want it to be questioned’, mentioning how she had misunderstood her flatmate, whom she had idolized and ‘thought she was so cool and together’, and who had tried to commit suicide. We can also see evidence of her lack of respect in her new self when she feebly attempts to defend herself against Frank’s attacks at the end of scene 5 of Act 2. Rita losing respect in herself is particularly significant because it can highlight her constant, permanent insecurity and classlessness.
One of the most significant benefits Frank has gained by the end of the play, Educating Rita, is a breath of fresh air. Over the course of the play, we the audience can see that many such opportunities have been are presented to Frank, by Rita, by the university he works at, and by his wife. Rita’s entrance into his life at the beginning of the play is a literal example of this. She oils the door handle in the second scene, making his life run a little smoother, and attempts to open the window in his office, and let in a breath of fresh air. Rita’s spontaneity, inquisitiveness, confidence and lack of inhibitions portray a different attitude to life for Frank. Her qualities could have been a basis for changing his views and way of life, and although he did not follow this through completely, some of Rita’s original qualities did rub off on him. We can see this particularly in Act 2 scene 3, when he describes assonance as ‘getting the rhyme wrong’, an idea originally formulated by Rita. Rita gives Frank another opportunity to change his life at the beginning of Act 2. She gives Frank a pen, which ‘must only be used for poetry’, as a form of encouragement for him to continue with his contribution to literature. Frank’s wife liberated him from what his marriage to her restricted him to – she too gave him the chance to improve his literature output, giving him ‘something new to write about’ by leaving him. However here again Frank rejected the doors which had been opened in front of him – he ‘stopped writing altogether’. The university at which Frank works also gives him a second chance to build his life with the ‘sabbatical’ in Australia for two years. Frank embraces this opportunity: although he censures the students who reported him, he sees it as a chance to ‘leave a place that’s just finishing for one that’s just beginning’. He accepts the chance to change, knowing that he has the ability to.
Frank has also gained by the end of the play a new outlook onto life. This is primarily because of Rita’s involvement in his life, but the university he works at and his other students have also encouraged it. Frank now has a more light-hearted, spontaneous view on life. This is evident in his perception of the term, ‘assonance’ and the book ‘Rubyfruit Jungle’. Frank adopts Rita’s original view on both articles, using her words – he describes the book as ‘excellent’, and defines the term ‘assonance’ as ‘getting the rhyme wrong’.
Frank’s character has lost, during his journey with Rita’s over the course of the play, his confidence. In the first act of the play, the audience related to a confident, blunt, arrogant man who dominated Rita within the office. However, from scene 3 of the second act, we can begin to see him lose this confidence as he describes a lecture in which he was drunk enough to ‘fall off the rostrum’. This idea is reinforced in scene 5, when he feebly attempts to mock Rita after she has left the room, and scene 6, when Frank calls the hairdresser’s where Rita used to work and her flatmate Trish, with strong hesitations and inhibitions.
Frank’s biggest loss is Rita. Frank has been greatly dependant upon Rita’s original personality, and by the close of the play, he has lost the presence of this. His dependence is evident throughout the play, particularly in Act 2 scene 4 when he comments, ‘it struck me that there was a time when you told me everything’, and in scene 3 when he justifies repeatedly warning Rita not to lose her original character with ‘I care for you’. As a result of his dependence, we can see aspects of Rita’s old character in Frank’s developed one – he now possesses spontaneity, inquisitiveness and vivacity similar to what the audience saw Rita’s character to have possessed in the opening of the play.
Frank’s character has gained little in comparison to Rita’s: while we can expect Rita to continue through many opportunities in her life, there is more doubt as to what to expect from Frank, a middle-aged alcoholic. However both characters have developed substantially in the play, both in their understanding of society and perception of life, and the audience can now see two characters who have improved since the opening of Willy Russell’s Educating Rita.