Willy Russell Educating Rita Essays

Willy Russell Educating Rita Essays Willy Russell Educating Rita Essay Willy Russell Educating Rita Essay Essay Topic: Literature The play is about a working class hairdresser from Liverpool, that wants to be educated, hence the title Educating Rita. Her tutor, Frank is an English lecturer who is teaching in the Open University for the money. The play is set in Franks office. Frank and Rita in the beginning have a teacher pupil relationship that changes to friendship, and subsequently turns back to teacher pupil and towards the end back to friendship. The play is staged with only two main parts and on one set. This allows the audience to become closer to the two characters easier because they are the only characters shown. This means that the audience had to imagine the other characters. The film however has many sets and a more characters, it also gives more of an insight to the working class and middle class home life. I preferred the play because it had a superior dialogue and didnt stray to far from the main point of the play. Our first impressions of Frank are that he is an alcoholic, who hides his drink. Jubilantly he moves to the Dickens section and pulls out a pile of books to reveal a bottle of whisky. He takes the bottle from the shelf and goes to the small table by the door and pours himself a large slug into the mug is his hand. Frank has taken on the Open University work to pay for his drink. It is also obvious from the out set that Frank is middle class, this is shown by his profession, a university lecturer, his speech, standard English and his food, lamb and ratatouille. He also shows his lack of will power when he breaks his promise not to smoke. Frank is very cynical about the education system and has a dry humour. He is almost always apathetic about life; encased in his own environment, his office and his senses become dulled. This is shown when Rita first comes to Franks office and notices the religious painting on the wall and describes it as erotic to which Frank replies, Actually I dont think Ive looked at it for about ten years, He doesnt take notice of his surroundings. In contrast, Rita is a working class hairdresser from Liverpool who decides to take on an English Open University Course to discover herself and to improve her way of life. In the first scene Rita bursts into Franks office and this has a dramatic effect. Rita has a good sense of humour, which keeps the play more interesting at the beginning. She is also assertive, however she sometimes puts herself down because of her lack of formal education. Ritas language is full of slang and swearing. So y switch it off an say, thats fuckin rubbish. Rita believes that the course she is doing will be the key to changing her life. The relationship between Frank and Rita starts at a teacher pupil basis, Rita begins the relationship with high expectations, she assumes that Frank the lecturer will have all the answers and this comes from the fact that she isnt educated, she doesnt come from an educated background. However Rita tests Franks intellectual talents to the full. She always wants an explanation and justification for everything he says. Frank and Rita get on so well because they are different. To Frank Rita is like a breath of fresh air, very natural and down to earth, compared to Frank who is a disillusioned, apathetic, battered university lecturer. But they are both unhappy about the situation that they are in. Rita has a failing marriage with a husband that wants her to have a baby, and Frank his unhappy with everything in his life. However Ritas freshness and appetite for learning and knowledge inspires Frank, he also finds her attractive, intelligent and he enjoys her company. So he invites Rita to his dinner party, he also feels that she will enjoy meeting new people; he never thinks how Rita would really feel being surrounded by middle class educated people. Rita on the other hand is partly excited about it and also apprehensive. In the end Rita does not go to the party because she thinks she brought the wrong wine, or so she said, and would not be able to converse with Franks middle class friends at their level. But I dont wanna be charming and delightful: funny, whats funny? I dont wanna be funny, I wanna talk seriously with the rest of you, I dont wanna spend the night taking the piss, comin on with the funnies because thats the only way I can get into the conversation. I dont want to come to your house just to play the court jester. She thinks that she is a half-caste stuck between working and middle class, not quite fitting into either. For Rita Act One ends on a very negative note, her marriage is finished. This came about because Ritas husband Denny wanted a baby and Rita did not, also Denny wanted Rita to stop going to the O. U course. Denny gives an ultimatum do as he says or leave. Frank and Rita both know that Rita will have to change to be able to write essays that will pass an examination. This will affect the relationship because Frank doesnt want to change Rita but Rita wants Frank to help change her, so it is inevitable that there would be a clash of wills. When Rita comes back from the O. U summer school she is more mature. Frank however is surprised that Rita has changed this much. Rita has gained a larger vocabulary at the summer school and begins to speak more objectively which is what Frank described the language of education to be. Well any analogy will break down eventually. The relationship has developed from the original teacher pupil status to a firm friendship that, as Frank knows, will inevitably have to end. Trishs is Ritas flat mate and has a large influence on Rita; this is shown when Trish tells Rita to talk in Standard English, which she does (to Franks annoyance). Trishs influence also causes Rita to gain confidence, so Rita begins to talk to the proper students. Rita, Yeh, I got here early today. I started talking to some students down on the lawn. Frank, You were talking to students down there? During Act 2 it is shown that, as Ritas life becomes better Franks is becoming worse. He enters scene 3 drunk, after students had complained about him being drunk in a lecture. Rita on the other hand is becoming more educated. Towards the end of the play Rita says that she doesnt need Frank, that she didnt need to hold his hand anymore. This shows that Rita is becoming more independent from Frank, this distanced the pair. Frank asks if Rita wants to stop coming to the tutorials because even without him she would sail through the exam. The audience feels sorry for Frank all through this scene. The end of scene 6 is a low point in the relationship because Rita and Frank arent in direct contact with each other and so the relationship is deteriorating. Frank at the end of the play is being sent to Australia for his crimes and he is still apathetic about the whole affair. Rita however is slightly more depressed with the attempted suicide of her flatmate and Frank leaving. Rita changing her name back to Susan is significant because it shows how she has grown up over the course of the play and that she now knows that changing her name was a silly thing to do. Frank is going to Australia for repeated drinking on campus and his punishment is reduced from the sack to a sabbatical to Australia. Rita plans to either go to France with Tyson, go to her mothers for Christmas or have a baby. These choices reveal that she is still indecisive. I think Russells message is that however well together people seem you cant really tell whats going on inside. For example, you could be a well paid businessman or woman who has a spouse, 2 kids, car and a roof over your heads a perfect life, and still want to kill yourself. The play ends on a happy note with a sad undertone. With the friendship between Frank and Rita back to normal, but with Franks leaving and Trishs suicide attempt ending it as a mix of the two. Russell uses humour to soften the blow that could be caused by tackling class, political and social issues, and the different ways the different classes deal with these issues. The first part of the play is funnier because the differences between Frank and Rita are more prominent. The play ends on a funny note with Rita giving Frank a haircut and cutting him.