educating rita essay topics

Educating Rita

by Willy Russell

Educating rita study guide.

Educating Rita is one of playwright Willy Russell ’s most well regarded works, as well as one of the most popular works for the theater of the late 20th century. Russell based the play on his own experience of growing up in a working class environment in Liverpool and not attending college until his twenties. It is also influenced by the classic Pygmalion tale in which an older, cultured man shapes an uncouth young woman into a lady. Of his own experiences with education and how they influenced the writing of the play, Russell commented in an interview, “I didn’t set out to write an autobiographical play, but the parallels between Rita and me seem glaring now. I was a ladies’ hairdresser. I left school with one O-level and went back to get the education I’d not had. It was in writing Educating Rita that I realised the power of political theatre with a small p.”  

It was first performed on June 10th, 1980 at the Royal Shakespeare Company Warehouse in London. Julie Walters played Rita and Mark Kingston played Frank . It then transferred to the Piccadilly Theater in the West End.  

The play was turned into a very successful film in 1983 and starred Walters and Michael Caine; Russell adapted the screenplay and Lewis Gilbert directed. Russell famously told Gilbert not to have the two main characters kiss at the end of the film. It was nominated for three Academy Awards and received mostly positive reviews. Another version starring all black actors was proposed in the early 2000s, but nothing came of the project.  

Russell adapted his play for radio in 2009, which starred Bill Nighy and Laura Dos Santos. Ninety minutes long, it was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Boxing Day in 2009.  

Revivals of the play took place in 2010, 2012, and early 2015; the lattermost performance was held in the Liverpool Playhouse. It garnered positive feedback, and on its contemporary resonance Russell explained, “Someone struggling to find something better is universal. Some people say that education is no longer seen as a route to something and that young people look to The X Factor instead, but I think that’s not true. It’s just a headline.”      

Educating Rita Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Educating Rita is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Rita's husband, Denny, resents her foray into a new world that does not seemingly include him. He isn't happy about the idea of Frank as her teacher or her decision to continue her studies. He also resents that fact that she is taking birth...

What does Rita say she wants to study in Act 1, scene 3?

In Act I, Scene III, rita tells Frank that she would like to study art and literature.

What is Rita doing when Frank hears someone at the door in Act 1, scene 2?

Rita is oiling the doorknob.

Study Guide for Educating Rita

Educating Rita study guide contains a biography of Willy Russell, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Educating Rita
• Educating Rita Summary
• Character List

Essays for Educating Rita

Educating Rita essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of the play Educating Rita by Willy Russell.

• Rita's Changes in Act 1
• Exploring Transitions: Educating Rita and Dead Poets Society

Wikipedia Entries for Educating Rita

• Introduction
• Plot summary
• Film adaptation
• Radio adaptation

“Educating Rita” by Willy Russell: Literature Analysis

The play, Educating Rita , investigates the way in which a woman, in her youthful age, Rita, has to cope with daily life, struggle, transformation, and different stages as she becomes informed. The play is based on the author’s personal life. From this novel the diverse cultures play a vital role in society and individuals’ social lives. The novel observes that the working class people struggle to break the lower-class circle. The novel discusses about cultural anticipations between the aristocrats against the working-class.

The novel was written in 1980s, but the cultural anticipations of the period are not as significant nowadays as they were. The author was attempting to convey the reflection that once a woman is born into a lower-class culture; it is very difficult to escape from it as people ignore one’s aspirations and judge one owing to her/his culture. However, the novel demonstrates that just because people are in a noble class full of everything; it does not essentially signify that they are satisfied in life. Russell has clearly demonstrated his considerations of a significant- culture and society’s perceptions.

In this novel, Russell discusses the question of women neglect in the society through their negative stereotypes and being considered by men as persons to raise children and assist them in house activities. The author presents a solution to this question by demonstrating through the main character, Rita, that education can upgrade the diminished position and status of women in society (Russell 10). Rita’s education is not limited to academic learning only; her change from the ignorant Rita to the knowledgeable Susan is comprehensive.

The author not only demonstrates the significance of being knowledgeable, but shows how education assists women to prevail over their background and secede from the conventional role anticipated of a woman in the society. Rita sets on a path of self-discovery and is determined to manage her personal existence and create independent opinions. She trusts that education will enable her become independent in her choices by acknowledging that the value of education surpasses just academic learning.

Rita’s past has detained her back and put her in a helpless position. A significant amount of study completed in the 1970s proved that middle class youth were far more likely to excel at school and join institutions of higher learning compared to working-class youth such as Rita. Rita’s education faults are revealed in her remembrance of school life:

“…Boring, ripped-up books, broken glass everywhere, knives, and fights. And that was just in the staffroom. But, they tried their best I suppose, always telling us we stood more of a chance if we studied. But studying was just for the whimps, wasn’t it? See, if I’d started taking school seriously, I would have had to become different from my mates, an’ that’s not allowed” (Russell 17).

Rita wanted to match the way everybody around her lived their lives until she recognized that there was an approach to advance her life. The status battle that forced her is demonstrated through the conversation between them. The author considers education as the only thing that can achieve Rita’s aspiration to surmount the working class environment she was brought up in. Russell believes that through education, Rita can disentangle herself from the conventional beliefs bestowed on a lower-class female in the 1970s. Demands and controls on Rita emanated typically from her family, especially her husband. The author presents men as people who do not consider the decision of women in making choices. This is apparent when Rita’s husband disagrees with Rita’s decision of waiting before conceiving their first baby.

A different pressure that influence’s Rita’s decision to pursue education and oppose adapting to the conventional lower-class female is her mother. She realizes that she was not just pursuing education to benefit herself only; she was learning for all the women like her mother who by no means had the opportunity to do anything for themselves, and who were compelled to fill the customary ‘housewife responsibility’. Education is Rita’s expedition of self-realization to fill the empty space in her life. This journey of self-realization is vital to the play as via learning, Rita looks for the resolutions in existence; something that really pleases her (Russell 33). The novel presents women as people having strong resolve to manage their life by making their own decisions, and this is what they consider education will offer them.

The readers can evidently see how the major subject of the novel changes. The novel has a very powerful and emotional message and demonstrates that when women aspire to transform their life, they can be successful through hard work and determination, like Rita. Russel shows how a woman’s education and success positively changes the life of others. Rita has transformed to become an improved person and has quit her bad practices such as smoking for her own benefit. She has changed from a stylist to a well knowledgeable and esteemed woman in the society. Her husband started with his bad tendency of smoking, but quits smoking and starts writing poetry.

Works Cited

Russell, Willy. Educating Rita. New York, NY: A&C Black, 2013. Print.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2023, November 23). “Educating Rita” by Willy Russell: Literature Analysis. https://ivypanda.com/essays/educating-rita-by-willy-russell-literature-analysis/

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Bibliography

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Coming of Age — Rita’s Transformation in the Play “Educating Rita”

Rita's Transformation in The Play "Educating Rita"

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Educating Rita: A Feminist Play?

Post-1914 play Educating Rita- To what extent do you agree that Educating Rita is a feminist play? The play ‘Educating Rita’ is set in Liverpool during the 1970s, with only two main characters: Rita White and Frank. Rita, a vibrant and bubbly twenty-six year old, uneducated, working class woman enrols at the Open University, her real name is Susan, but she changed it to Rita in honour of Rita Mae Brown, a junk novelist.

Frank, however, is an educated, middle class man with a drinking problem, and is intending to tutor Rita at the Open University and help her study literature, although when the course first starts he doesn’t want to teach at the Open University (OU). Before enrolling at the Open University Rita feels her life is passing her by, she says she lives her life day by day, that she feels restricted and unable to make her own choices. “God what’s it like to be free? she says to Frank in Act one Scene one. Rita believes by bettering herself she will have more choice, but she want to change herself she just thinks she thinks it will make her happier after improving her education; Rita doesn’t have a proper education as she says “If I’d started takin’ school seriously, I would have had to become different from me mates, an’ that’s not allowed. ” This shows Rita could never have taken her education seriously.

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As she didn’t have the confidence to stand up to her friends and achieve an education, as she lacks knowledge she also lacks a proper vocabulary and abbreviates words like “y” and “D’y” Rita also shows that she is not very well educated as she swears in Frank’s classroom. Rita is a ladies’ hairdresser and during the 1970s this would have been a typical woman’s job, but Rita hates it, she hates all the gossiping only does the job properly when she can be bothered.

She says that her clients “get on me nerves”. Furthermore, Rita doesn’t want to become a housewife, like her mother and other women in her neighbourhood she thinks that the other housewives have no culture and are happy making do with what they have instead of trying to improve it, because they are too stupid to know any better: Rita implies that they drink to much to hide the fact they are too unhappy with their lives like Rita’s mother. Rita doesn’t want to be like this she wants to reak away from the routine and better herself, she wants to learn more, broaden her horizons and move on, she wants to know educated people and be able to discuss literature with them. Her mother also wants more for her daughter, she wants Rita to get a better job, not end up like her, drinking to hide the fact she is so unhappy with her life. Rita is married to Denny, he is a working class, uneducated man who loves Rita very much, and Rita says she loves him, but I feel as though Rita only married him because that’s what everyone expected of her.

Denny and Rita live in a two-up two-down terrace house, they have no children but Denny would like Rita to have a baby so they can be part of a proper family. In Act One Scene One Rita is talking to Frank about Denny’s expectations of her settling down with him and not going on the Open University course, she says “I’m twenty-six. I should have a baby by now; everyone expects it” this quote is feminist as she is saying that everyone expects her to have a baby, as it was a normal thing to do as a women.

But although without Denny knowing, Rita is on the pill, to prevent her from having children; with the advent of the pill it gives women a lot more freedom as they can now choose whether or not they want to become pregnant and have children. Rita later says, “I don’t wanna have a baby yet. I wanna discover meself first. ” During Act One Scene Five, Rita and Denny’s relationship is starting to show cracks, since Rita’s been at the Open University, and it didn’t help their relationship when Denny found out Rita was back on the pill, despite telling him she was off it now.

Denny was left feeling embarrassed, as he and Rita are one of the few couples without children in their neighbourhood, “Come off the pill, let’s have a baby,” he says to Rita, but she refuses. Denny is starting to think and feel like Rita is having an affair with Frank, consequently after finding Rita is back on the pill Denny burns all Rita’s essays and the books Frank gave to her. She tells Frank what Denny has done to her work, as he had burned her current essay, she also tells Frank what Denny had been saying about how Denny thinks she is having an affaire with Frank; “what time have I got for an affair?

I’m busy enough findin’ me self, let alone findin’ someone else. ” Rita is saying that she has is to busy trying to discover herself, discover what makes her ‘tick’ and that she barely has enough time to discover what’s going on with her own life, never mind finding someone to have an affair with. Act One Scene Eight, Denny gives Rita an ultimatum “either I stop comin’ here an’ come off the pill or I could get out altogether” Rita leaves and goes off to London and summer school, she moves in with new flat mate Trish.

After summer school is over she goes back to see Frank, Rita is dressed drastically differently from before she went away, she is wearing new, second hand clothes and showing her improved understanding of literature. She shows how much she changed as she has stopped smoking even though she said in Act One Scene One “everyone seems to have packed up smoking these days. They’re all afraid of gettin’ cancer. ” After passing the OU course, Rita gains a lot more confidence in herself, she can now do things she wasn’t comfortable with before, like talking to other students, being able to express her opinions in a lecture.

She has also gained a lot more freedom to do what she wants to do; this is shown when Frank says, “The hairdresser’s shop. Where you work. Or, should I say worked. ” Rita left her old job as a hairdresser and got a new job working in a bistro, this shows the freedom she now has, by leaving a typical woman’s job that she didn’t like and starting a job where she can socialise with people who understand her. Rita gains new friends, with whom she can have, a proper conversation and she gains a new social class after passing her course.

Rita also has Trish, a friend, flatmate and someone who she looks up to, as she is an educated woman. Although Rita has gained a lot she has also changed a lot, she wears new clothes, pronounces her words better and doesn’t abbreviate as much. Although Rita thought being a middle class woman would be great, she has learned a lot about what middle class people are really like. Frank, a middle class man with an education, but a drunk who gave up on his poetry and life and Trish, also middleclass; she tried to kill herself because she was so unhappy with the way she lived.

You get the feeling that Rita has ended up limiting herself, even though she now has more choice and freedom. In the end Rita admits that she never really liked her friends anyway. Do I agree that Educating Rita is a feminist play to an extent? Yes and no because while Educating Rita does focus on the struggles that Rita faced due to her sex and social class, it also focuses on the fact that not always what you want to be is always the best thing.

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Educating Rita

Willy russell, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions, rita quotes in educating rita.

Well, then you shouldn’t have prepared supper, should you? Because I said, darling, I distinctly recall saying that I would be late…Yes, yes, I probably shall go to the pub afterwards—I shall no doubt need to go to the pub afterwards if only to mercifully wash away some silly woman’s attempts to get into the mind of Henry James or Thomas Hardy or whoever the hell it is we’re supposed to study on this course…Christ, why did I take this on? …Yes, darling, yes, I suppose I did take it on to pay for the drink… Determined to go to the pub? When did I need determination to get me into a pub…?

See, the properly educated, they know it’s only words, don’t they? It’s only the masses who don’t understand. But that’s because they’re ignorant; it’s not their fault, I know that, but sometimes they drive me mental. I do it to shock them sometimes; y’ know if I’m in the hairdresser’s—that’s where I work—I’ll say somethin’ like ‘I’m as fucked as a fanny on a Friday night!’ and some of the customers, they’ll have a right gob on them just ’cos I come out with something like that. […] But it doesn’t cause any kind of fuss with educated people though, does it? Because they know it’s only words and they don’t worry. But these stuck-up ones I meet, they think they’re royalty just because they don’t swear. An’ anyway, I wouldn’t mind but it’s the aristocracy who swear more than anyone, isn’t it, they’re effing and blinding all day long; with them it’s all, ‘I say, the grouse is particularly fucking lovely today although I’m afraid the spuds are a bit bollocks don’t you think?’ ( She sighs .) But y’ can’t tell them that round our way. It’s not their fault; they can’t help it. But sometimes I hate them. ( Beat .) God…what’s it like to be free?

They expect too much. They walk into the hairdresser’s and expect to walk out an hour later as a different person. I tell them, I’m just a hairdresser, not a plastic surgeon. See, most of them, that’s why they come the hairdresser’s—because they want to be changed. But if you wanna change y’ have to do it from the inside, don’t y’? Know like I’m doin’…tryin’ to do. Do you think I will? Think I’ll be able to do it.

I’ve been realisin’ for ages that I was…slightly out of step. I’m twenty-six. I should have had a baby by now; everyone expects it—I’m sure my husband thinks I’m infertile. He’s always goin’ on about havin’ babies. We’ve been tryin’ for two years now; but I’m still on the pill! See, I don’t want a baby yet. I wanna find myself first, discover myself. Do you understand that?

Yeh. They wouldn’t round our way. I’ve tried to explain to my husband but between you an’ me I think he’s just thick! No, not thick ; blind, that’s what he is. He can’t see because he doesn’t want to see. If I try an’ do anything different he gets a gob on him; even if I’m just reading or watchin’ somethin’ different on the telly he gets really narked.

I’ll make a bargain with you, yes? I’ll teach you everything I know…but if I do that then you must promise never to come back here…because there’s nothing here for you! You see I never…I didn’t want to teach this course in the first place; allowed myself to be talked into it. But I knew it was wrong and seeing you only confirms my suspicion. My dear, it’s not your fault, just the luck of the draw that you got assigned to me; but get me you did. And the thing is, between you, me and the walls, I’m really rather an appalling teacher. Most of the time that doesn’t really matter—appalling teaching is quite in order when most of my students are themselves fairly appalling. And the others manage to get by despite me. But you, young woman, you are quite, quite different, you are seeking a very great deal indeed; and I’m afraid I cannot provide it. Everything I know—and you must listen to this—is that I know absolutely nothing.

Rita: See, if I’d started takin’ school seriously then I would have had to become different from my mates; an’ that’s not allowed. Frank: Not allowed by whom? Rita: By y’ mates, y’ family, by everyone. So y’ never admit that school could be anythin’ other than useless an’ irrelevant. An’ what you’ve really got to be into are things like music an’ clothes and getting’ pissed an’ coppin’ off an’ all that kind of stuff. Not that I didn’t go along with it because I did. But at the same time, there was always somethin’ tappin’ away in my head, tryin’ to tell me I might have got it all wrong. But I’d just put the music back on or buy another dress an’ stop worryin’. ’Cos there’s always something that can make y’ forget. An’ so y’ keep on goin’, tellin’ y’self that life is great—there’s always another club to go to, a new feller to be chasin’, a laugh an’ a joke with the girls. Till one day, you just stop an’ own up to yourself. Y’ say, ‘Is this it? Is this the absolute maximum that I can expect from this livin’ lark?’ An’ that’s the really big moment that is. Because that is when you’ve got to decide whether it’s gonna be another change of dress or a change in yourself.

Look, there’s a way of answering examination questions that is…expected. It’s a sort of accepted ritual. It’s a game, with rules. And you have to observe those rules. Poets can ignore those rules; poets can break every rule in the book; poets are not trying to pass examinations. But Rita, you are. And therefore you must observe the rules.

There is no contentment. Because there’s no meanin’ left. ( Beat .) Sometimes, when y’ hear the old ones tellin’ stories about the past, y’ know, about the war or when they were all strugglin’, fightin’ for food and clothes and houses, their eyes light up while they’re tellin y’ because there was some meanin’ then. But what’s…what’s stupid is that now …now that most of them have got some kind of a house an’ there is food an’ money around, they’re better off but, honest, they know they’ve got nothin’ as well—because the meanin’s all gone; so there’s nothin’ to believe in. It’s like there’s this sort of disease but no one mentions it; everyone behaves as though it’s normal, y’ know, inevitable, that there’s vandalism an’ violence an’ houses burnt out and wrecked by the people they were built for. But this disease, it just keeps on bein’ hidden; because everyone’s caught up in the ‘Got-to-Have’ game, all runnin’ round like headless chickens chasin’ the latest got-to-have tellies an’ got-to-have cars, got-to-have garbage that leaves y’ wonderin’ why you’ve still got nothin’—even when you’ve got it. ( Beat .) I suppose it’s just like me, isn’t it, y’ know when I was buyin’ dresses, keepin’ the disease covered up all the time.

I’m all right with you, here in this room; but when I saw those people you were with I couldn’t come in. I would have seized up. Because I’m a freak. I can’t talk to the people I live with any more. An’ I can’t talk to the likes of them on Saturday, or them out there, because I can’t learn the language. I’m an alien. I went back to the pub where Denny was, an’ me mother, an’ our Sandra, an’ her mates. I’d decided I wasn’t comin’ here again. I went into the pub an’ they were singin’, all of them singin’ some song they’d learnt from the jukebox. An’ I stood in that pub an’ thought, just what in the name of Christ am I trying to do? Why don’t I just pack it in, stay with them, an’ join in with the singin’?

Well, I did join in with the singin’, I didn’t ask any questions, I just went along with it. But when I looked round, my mother had stopped singin’, an’ she was cryin’. Everyone just said she was pissed an’ we should get her home. So we did, an’ on the way I asked her why. I said, ‘Why are y’ cryin’, Mother?’ She said, ‘Because—because we could sing better songs than those.’ Ten minutes later, Denny had her laughing and singing again, pretending she hadn’t said it. But she had. And that’s why I came back. And that’s why I’m staying.

Rita ( angrily ): What d’ y’ mean be careful? I can look after myself. Just ’cos I’m learnin’, just ’cos I can do it now an’ read what I wanna read an’ understand without havin’ to come runnin’ to you every five minutes y’ start tellin’ me to be careful. ( She paces about .) Frank: Because—because I care for you—I want you to care for yourself. Rita: Tch. ( She goes right up to Frank. After a pause .) I—I care for you, Frank…But you’ve got to—to leave me alone a bit. I’m not an idiot now, Frank—I don’t need you to hold me hand as much…I can—I can do things on me own more now…And I’m careful. I know what I’m doin’. Just don’t—don’t keep treatin’ me as though I’m the same as when I first walked in here.

Educating Rita Psychology Essay Example

• Pages: 7 (1701 words)
• Published: September 23, 2017
• Type: Paper

This script discusses the development of Rita's character. To see if her growth from an uneducated, ignorant girl to an educated sophisticated woman has altered her for the better or for the worse and how her relationship with Frank has been affected with her change in attitude towards life and education.From the beginning of the book we see Rita's eagerness about education and her determination to learn and achieve her goals, she refuses to accept Frank's unwillingness to teach her.

We also get a sense of joy from her character's wild personality. Rita is very open minded and refreshing " Y' don't paint picture like that just so that people can admire the brush strokes".Rita's real name is Susan but she has changed her name to Rita after the author Rita Mai Br

own. Her intentions were too immediately change her name after the author, unfortunately it turned out to be the wrong type of author, an author who wrote sexual explicit books.

Rita is from the working class who is trapped in life and wants choice, she has little education and a poor job as a hairdresser and during the book we see how she tries to break free from her social class, she thinks she should have had a baby by her age because that's what everyone expects from her: "I should have had a baby by know every one expects it"But feels she needs to discover herself first, and believes that her family do not understand, so thinks she is different and wants to find out what exactly that difference is. In the book she says. She aspires to be educated but admits sh

feels like a "half-cast" she's left behind her roots but feels she can't penetrate middle-class pretentiousness.Rita lacks confidence in her capacity as a student, she compares herself to "proper students". Rita would like to succeed in school and to be content but her friends and family don't understand her and don't take into account what she would like. School isn't cool and so there's no need for learning: "you've got to be into music, clothes an fellers.

..".Rita has always put off going back to school and pursuing her dreams, every time she feels low she'll go off and cheer herself up and forget about it until the next time: "if you get it wrong you just play a different song or get a new dress an stop worrying".Rita also believes that there is something wrong with society, everyone is sad but seems to cover up for it by getting more money as unions, TV and the papers tell you to, "there's like a disease but no one mentions it, they behave as though its normal..

..".Frank, Rita's tutor is a miserable alcoholic and doesn't enjoy his job: "I shall need to wash away the memory of some silly woman's attempts to get into the mind of Henry James...

Why did I take this on?" He drinks during work hours and then heads down to the pub straight after work.Frank has stopped looking at what is around him (the picture on the wall) and Rita is looking at everything for the first time, she sees things differently because she wants to learn about everything.Rita is very literal; she takes things at face value, but has lots of

native wit. She knows more about real life than Frank does. Knows how people work, especially her 'own type' of people. Rita wants to be educated because she is curious, she wants to look at everything in a new perspective, to be happier, "I wanna know".

Rita knows she isn't educated yet and dimly realises what education is, but her perceptions are stereotypical although her knowledge of uneducated people is very sharp.Rita wants to be successful because she is unhappy where she is. She wants change in her life, and her personality will change as a result. Rita would like to turn into someone different and this will affect the way she is as a person and the relationship that develops with Frank over the year.Frank starts to fall in love with her personality and her character because she is unique. Note the irony, Rita wants meaning and has no learning yet Frank has loads of learning and has little meaning in his life.

I think Franks meaning in life is to have Rita in it and Frank knows that in order for Rita to pass her exam, then she must change and Frank is reluctant to change her as he sees her as being matchless; "You're a breath of fresh air".But Rita doesn't like who she is "I don't wanna be charming and delightful...I wanna talk seriously", she believes that by being educated her personality will change, people will respect her more and take her more seriously.As we go through the text we see that not only does Rita's character change but Franks also does.

The development of his character is a result of

knowing Rita. He begins as a stale old- fashioned, burnt- out alcoholic. But through Rita he progresses she tries to stop him from drinking and he becomes dependent upon her.As Rita begins to know what she wants in her life and to go somewhere her husband Denny has become jealous and doesn't fond of the 'new' Rita that is emerging "I see him looking at me sometimes and I know what he's thinking, he's wondering where the girl he married has gone to." So Rita decides to leave him, she wants a new start in life and he isn't allowing her to do so.

At this point Rita considers herself to be a 'half cast' because she is caught between two cultures, upper and lower class.Rita has, during the course of Summer school, found another group of people to whom she can express and discuss her ideas with, this shows a subtle shift in her relationship with Frank she is no longer so dependent on him. She is broadening her horizons, "A crowd of us stuck together all week".When Rita was at summer school she decided to take things seriously so instead of telling a joke when the teacher asked a question she replied sensibly"Are you found of Ferlinghetti? It was right on the tip of my tongue to say only when served with Parmesan cheese but Frank I didn't" and in a lecture Rita decided to start asking questions.

"After he'd finished he asked if any one had any questions, and I stood up".From this Rita thinks that she is educated. Rita's lifestyle has completely changed. She has moved into a flat with Trish; whose

"dead classy", "she's got taste" and is "dead unpretentious" again Rita's naivety shows as the more we hear about Trish, the more pretentious she appears.

Rita has bought Frank a pen which "must only be used for poetry", in order to encourage him to write again. She wants Frank to be happy as well as herself. Frank wants Rita's old self back but Rita thinks she has changed for the better.In Act 2 Scene 2 Rita arrives late and has changed her voice:"As Trish says there is not a lot of point in discussing literature in an ugly voice."This annoys Frank he doesn't wish for her to speak in an 'ugly voice' only her own. He is taken aback further when she reveals that she had arrived early and got into a debate with students on the lawn about D.

H. Lawrence. This shows that Rita is beginning to learn more everyday and doesn't hold back on her thoughts, she is happy with what she is achieving. Although Frank has a completely different opinion he believes that he is losing the very Rita he loves: "Talk properly"Trish, Rita's room mate showed Rita how to live by telling her everything where to eat, what to where, how to talk and Rita took notice., she believed what she had been told. But when Trish tries to commit suicide, Rita begins to realise that education isn't the answer to everything it can help but it doesn't make up who you are.

Upper and lower class are not all different, " I thought she was cool an' together- I came home the other night an' she'd tried top herself."In the

final scene of the play we see Frank jetting off to Australia, he is forced to go and doesn't have any objections to departing, there is no reason for him to stay, "metaphorical the sentence was reduced from the sack to two years in Australia."Although he is going to live in Australia he does not try to make emends with Rita, he ignores the fact that she has visited him "For God's sake, why did you come back here?"We see that Rita has changed her attitude slightly, she has not altered completely, she remains educated but we see her old personality rising to the surface, "I chose, me."She understands that Frank has helped her a great deal, she doesn't know what to do with her life, she's passed her exams but isn't sure which path to take "I might go to France.

I might go to my mother's. I might even have a baby."Rita has changed for the better and for the worse, she has become educated and also resurfaced most of her old personality. Frank and Rita relationship became weaker as time went on but at the end of the book we see that their old friendship has rekindled. Frank begins to appreciate Rita more, by letting her be her own women "I bought it some time ago- for erm- for an educated women friend- of mine..." and Rita also appreciates Frank for everything that he's given her, "All I've done is take from you I've never given anything."

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