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 Brown. 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 she 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.”
