This is also mirrored in the way that the other characters react to Rita, and initially her own views that she can’t do it herself. When Rita is beginning to settle into her new routine, she began to have trouble with her partner. This domestic trouble leads her to begin to rely on Frank even more for the comfort that she would have got at home. This may also show that even though the men may protest, a woman can still achieve something in life. Rita still sees frank as a tutor, but he is still a mysterious man whole knows all about how to walk in the social world of the middle class. She learns from him, and he gets to spend time with her. An unfair situation you might think, but frank sees Rita as something new, vibrant and ‘a breath of fresh air’.
He needs Rita, but still he doesn’t really want to change her. He appears, I think, to find Rita both sexually attractive, but also he sees Rita’s personality and originality as something special. Rita needs frank to teach her, but she may also like to be with frank, as they are very social during this period, but she may just want to be friends, but then again many of us have had relationships with good friends. Rita is by no means dependant on frank for most things at this time, but she still needs to have him around to give her some self confidence. She admits it herself, saying that ‘in this room [Frank’s] I feel safe, with you frank I feel secure’. Does this sound like the average thing a pupil would say to her teacher, unless there was something special going on?
During this period frank has stopped drinking, or at least cut down. This shows that Rita is having an influence over him, and that she is giving him something to care for in life other then just getting some more money to pay for the next bottle. You would think that by being with a partner he would already have this, but the relationship is one of mostly of duty rather then any love. You can tell that Rita means a lot to frank; just by the way she has had this effect on him, compared to franks partner, who doesn’t really bother with him anymore.
This relationship cannot last for long as when Frank teaches her how to survive in her new world, she begins to find new friends and begins to gain independence. Evidence of this is the way that she begins to sit and debate with the students ‘down there’, something that she always wanted, but could never quite bring herself to do it. This independence leads to degradation in the relationship, one that appears to be resolved in the short term when Rita returns from an intellectual trip to the Open University’s Camp, and they go on to talk about what they have done over the last few months. This is probably the time when we see the last of the ‘real Rita’, not the Rita that frank, and others, created out of her for a while.
This is probably the beginning of the end of Rita’s dependence on Frank, and there are signs that they don’t tell everything to one another. For a start, Rita doesn’t tell frank that she has moved in with Trish, and that she has given up her job to work in a bistro.
This is an important in the way that Frank finds out about this, when he is looking for Rita to tell her of her exam in the morning. He goes to her work place (the wrong one), goes to her favourite club and even talks to some students on the street. This is an example of the fact that frank is now a dependent of Rita, he doesn’t know where she goes, doesn’t know what she does but he does know that he cares for her. This is a reversal of the earlier relationship, where frank knew all about Rita, and he was a mysterious older man who seemed to know all. She was dependent on him, he was interested, but not dependant on her.
In the time between scenes 6 and 7, Rita sits her exams and gets a good pass. It seems that frank has taught her well, and that Rita is generally intelligent. By the time of act 2 scene 7, Rita openly tells frank that she doesn’t need him, and that he will never be any more then a very bad tutor to her. This state of affairs destroys what remaining self confidence that frank had left, and dives him to drink. Rita may have learnt everything literally, but she still doesn’t know how to interact with people properly, the most important lesson arguably that a human can learn. This is such a shock too both of them, that I think they both are just arguing the way that married couples argue over the slightest thing, but also it could be much more serious. There is a saying that the master will eventually learn from the pupil, and I think that Rita has but the one above lesson to learn, and then she will be what she always wanted, and not what frank feared she would turn out to be.
No matter what they say to each other, there is still a bond between them. In the play, a couple of days must have gone by, but in the next scene Rita comes to see frank to apologise. This is a crucial moment, for it shows that she still cares for Frank, even though she had previously been swallowed up by self pride, and the way that they react together shows that both still like each other. Rita apologises for everything she said to Frank, and he accepts the apology and offers to take Rita to Australia. This shows that frank probably wants to be something more to Rita then her tutor, even though she probably likes him, she gently refuses the offer.
So the film ends with Frank leaving Rita at the airport as a very close friend- but nothing more. This is very similar to the relationship that they had in the middle of the play, when Rita was dependant on frank for most things. The difference now is that they both like and need each other out of choice, for each is now independent of the other and the relationship is not one of necessity. The relationship changes, basically, through three periods during the film. The first period is the one where frank and Rita have just met, up until Rita leaves for the open university’s camp, and this period is one where Rita is totally dependant on frank for all her littery needs as well as some social support.
The second period is where Rita finally gains her independence, but only in academic circles, not socially. This period begins when Rita returns from the summer camp, and ends when she takes her final exam. This period is marked with the final argument between frank and Rita, and this is the lowest ebb in the relationship. This final argument destroys frank’s self confidence, and he nearly gets the sack.
The final period is the shortest, and this is the best period for Frank and Rita. Rita begins this period by coming to apologise to frank, and he then offers to take her to Australia. Although she turns him down, for she needs to make decisions for herself, they leave each other in goodwill.
