Rita free essay sample

Background Information Educating Rita, written by British playwright Willy Russell, was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, and premiered at The Warehouse, London, in June 1980. The play went on to win the Society of West End Theatres award for Best Comedy in the same year. The play was adapted by Willy Russell into a 1983 award-winning film starring Michael Caine and Julie Walters. Setting The play takes place entirely in Frank’s office at a university in the North of England. The original play took place in the 1980’s but the script was revised in 2003 to be more generically â€Å"contemporary†. The Playwright I wanted to make a play which engaged and was relevant to those who considered themselves uneducated, those whose daily language is not the language of the university or the theatre. I wanted to write a play which would attract, and be as valid for, the Ritas in the audience as well as the Franks. We will write a custom essay sample on Rita or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Willy Russell, born and raised in a suburb of Liverpool, came from a working-class background. Some of his experiences in early adulthood are reflected in his play Educating Rita. Russell left school after completing only one O-level (comprehensive exams taken in the equivalent of grade 10) in English Literature and went on to become a hairdresser. At age 20 he returned to school and became a teacher. Echoes of all of these experiences, his working-class upbringing, leaving school early, hairdressing and later becoming a teacher, can be seen in Educating Rita, a play he wrote to appeal to people from a wide range of backgrounds. In many f Russell’s plays a philosophy is put forward that anyone is capable of change whatever obstacles may be in their path. Literary Elements Characters Frank Frank is a middle aged, middle-class English professor who has taken on the extra job of tutoring an Open-University student. He claims that this is to help pay for the copious amounts of alcohol he drinks throughout the play. It’s not clear if this is merely a joke or not. He i s disillusioned with the university environment, but is so closely identified with academia that he cannot imagine leaving. He claims he is a terrible teacher and is a poet who hasn’t written anything in years. Frank’s central conflict is that he can offer Rita the knowledge and skills she wishes to gain in her quest to change her circumstances and transcend her class origins; however, to do this he believes he will destroy the very characteristics that make Rita such a breath of fresh air. Frank is obviously charmed by Rita because she represents to him the very opposite of his own mundane, predictable and safe life. Frank’s fortunes in the play are closely linked with Rita’s progress – in a way, he deteriorates as she flourishes. He becomes emotionally dependant on her just as she is, initially, intellectually dependant on him; his dependence on her reflects his need to feel useful and influential when his guidance is no longer needed and Rita ventures out on her own, Frank is cut loose and his drinking spirals out of control. We can see that Frank is trapped by his class and circumstances and addiction, in some ways, as much as Rita is limited by her circumstances. In the final scenes of the play, as Frank prepares for his trip away from the university, we can imagine that he is about to embark on his own journey of self discovery and learning and it is Rita’s haircut that symbolically cuts him lose and prepares him for what is to come. Rita (Susan) Rita is a young working class hairdresser in her 20’s. She applies to study with the Open University; the OU was a very popular correspondence-based school in Britain that did not consider previous academic standing for admission. Rita’s real name is Susan, but at the opening of the play she introduces herself to Frank as Rita, a name she associates with a somewhat radical popular American author, Rita Mae Brown. This re-naming, along with some of her early comments to Frank, show us that she is painfully uninformed and passionately hungry for knowledge, and eager to reinvent herself. The knowledge she can get from Frank, she feels, will give her access to a world where she will be able to find greater meaning in her life. Rita says she has enrolled in school because she â€Å"wants to know†. She’s married and wants to â€Å"find herself† before beginning to have children, but her quest for knowledge is also a yearning for transformation and meaning. Rita begins the play as an interesting character because her persona is very deliberate. She hides her insecurity and her ignorance behind a brash facade of bravado. We can’t help liking her for her courage while at the same time we cringe a little at how transparent she sometimes is. Eventually Rita (who goes back to being Susan with everyone but Frank) becomes successful within the world of academia. She separates from her husband, quits her job as a hair-dresser, tries to change her accent and makes friends with some of the students on campus. She feels her transformation is complete – and because she associates Frank with her rough beginnings, she distances herself from him, and largely comes to conform to a somewhat stereotypical version of an academic intellectual. In the end, after Frank nearly drinks himself out of his University job, Rita returns, having found a balance between the brash, naive person she was and the intellectual she wished to become. Rita is often compared to Eliza in Shaw’s Pygmalion, but she possesses much greater agency than Eliza ever did. Rita finds a future with possibilities, whereas Eliza was still very much trapped by class and gender. Plot Structure Act I Act one introduces us to Rita and Frank and the rhythm of their relationship. Every scene takes place in Frank’s study. Most scenes begin with Frank working or drinking in his office, and Rita barging in. It is clear that she is a breath of fresh air in his life which seems predictable and staid. The power dynamic between the two characters in the first act remains steady. Frank possesses the stability and balance that Rita needs to be successful in her aim to get an education. Rita, full of energy and enthusiasm, lacks focus and discipline. She continuously veers off topic, more interested in expounding on her working class environment and quizzing him about his drinking and personal life than in really focusing on the texts he presents her with. Rita resists Frank’s attempts to bring her in line, but not without intelligence and wit. At the same time she manages to instil in him a certain degree of spontaneity and enthusiasm which we guess has been lacking in his life previously. At the end of the act the conflict comes to a head when Rita’s husband tells her to quit studying. She leaves her husband instead, and at this point makes the decision to apply herself fully to the academic world. Act II The opening scenes of this act are short and to the point. It is immediately evident that Rita’s determination is paying off. She is successful in her attempts to turn herself into an academic. Ironically, the more successful she is in this world, the less powerful Frank becomes. He is aware that he is going to become less relevant to her as time goes by, but this process is obviously painful for him. This culminates in scene three, when we find Rita in the office and Frank barges in the door drunk. We learn that Frank has been asked to leave the college. At this point we begin to see that Rita is surviving in the world of academia more successfully than Frank. While he has had an influence on her, she has also had an influence on him – through her eyes he has seen the superfluous of the world he inhabits. This realization seems to be contributing to his drinking as he makes a few disastrous attempts to let some fresh air into his teaching. Throughout this section of the play we see Rita rejecting her own previous life and opinions in favour of a more conventionally academic approach to life. Frank and Rita have reversed roles. Frank is obviously devastated by this and the climactic moments of the play come at the point where Rita rejects Frank because she feels he is holding her to a previous version of herself. In the end, Rita comes to reconcile her newfound knowledge with a clearer sense of the world. Frank has been asked to leave the university, a change which we (perhaps vainly) hope will be good for him. Rita comes to tell him that what he has given her is choice: choice in what to do with her life, choice in how to see the world. Themes â€Å"One way of describing Educating Rita would be to say that it was about the meaning of education†¦ Another would be to say that it was about the meaning of life. A third, that it is a cross between Pygmalion and Lucky Jim. A fourth, that it is simply a marvellous play, painfully funny and passionately serious; a hilarious social documentary; a fairy-tale with a quizzical, half-happy ending. † Sunday Times The majority of themes in the play interconnect with one another. Here is a not entirely exhaustive list of some of the main themes in the play. The Limitations of Class Educating Rita was written in the 1980’s in Britain, at a time when many traditional working class occupations were disappearing. Rita’s opinion is that the working class, from which she comes, has lost some of its place at the heart of British society. She talks about the older people she knows who get a certain â€Å"spark† when they talk about being more involved in the struggle to survive that would have been more prevalent in earlier times in Britain. She says that now that everyone has access to housing and other necessities that people have lost their purpose. Rita implies that when a class, which was defined by its work, no longer has work, that a vacuum is created. She claims that the space which was once filled with work is now filled by consumerism and empty pursuits. When her mother says â€Å"we should be singing better songs than these,† she is implying that they should be finding more meaning in their lives. The play is fairly bleak in its portrayal of working class British culture. Willy Russell’s own working class origins softens this a little. It is possible to view this portrayal as a deeply personal one which is informed by Russell’s own experience and channelled through the deeply subjective voice of Rita. That is to say the opinions expressed in the play are part of Rita’s process and not necessarily presented as universal truths. Frank’s class origins are more obscure, but what is clear is that in the present of the play he is firmly a member of the middle class. His own critique of middle class, academic culture are as damning as Rita’s of her own culture, but for the most part they read as a critique of academia as much as the middle class. It is clear that from Rita’s perspective the trappings of middle class culture are desirable, but with Frank as its representative, the middle class doesn’t come off particularly well either. It is clear that in some ways Frank is as trapped by his class and environment as Rita is, maybe more so. Rita talks about a degree of conformity in the people she grew up with which limits people’s ability to transcend their origins, but this can be applied to all levels of society. In Rita’s case, she is expected not to pursue her education, but to get married and have children. She worries that any rejection of this class-based destiny would be hurtful to those around her. She talks about people being proud of their class, but implies that the pride is based on an outmoded way of looking at the world. Rita mostly laments that she is not being given the opportunity to explore her own identity within the class culture that she lives in. Language Language, particularly swearing, and accents are important but subtle elements in the play. Accent In Britain, accents are often an indication of class as well as region. Rita clearly has a working class accent. At the beginning of the play her language is littered with regionally specific phrases which are far from formal. As the play progresses, her language becomes more formal, and her vocabulary changes when she discusses academic matters. Eventually, in the second act she tries to lose her working class accent entirely – this phenomenon reflects real class issues in Britain, where people actually do try to change their accents to sound â€Å"better†. Frank is shocked by this denial of her true identity. When Rita begins to try to integrate her new-found education with her old way of thinking, we see her slip slowly back into a softened version of her old accent. The blending of the old and the new neatly mirrors the balance she finds at the end of the play. Swearing Rita comes into Frank’s office extolling the virtues of swearing. She claims that it is only narrow minded people who don’t see that words are just words. This is one of her first attempts at an intellectual discussion; however, it is clear that Rita’s language when she first meets Frank is entirely inappropriate. Swearing is associated with emotion rather than intellect in both a positive and negative way. Rita’s attempts to cover up her own discomfort at being in a new threatening environment by swearing is inappropriate, but interestingly, Frank, at a few key moments in the play, swears. One such moment is when he hears that Rita’s husband has asked her to leave. At this point the emotion seems largely appropriate. Materialism Rita believes that once, the working class was proud of its blue-collar, hard-working values; now that there isn’t enough work to go around, those values have been replaced by a materialistic culture which numbs people’s sense and keeps them from questioning what’s happening in their world or trying to get ahead in life. These ideas tie into the thematic significance of Howard’s End, the Forrester novel Frank tries to get Rita to read and which she, ironically, calls rubbish. Rita puts her materialistic pursuits aside while she is attempting to acquire knowledge through her course with Frank. She claims she won’t buy any more dresses until she has finished studying. At a certain point she does however, buy some second-hand clothes and we get the feeling that for a time anyway, she has replaced working class materialism with middle-class materialism. She quits her job as a hairdresser, which she complained was superficial, for a job in a bistro. We suspect, despite the change in the quality of the conversation, that this new job is not so meaningful either, but it has the trappings of intellectualism, which Rita mistakenly takes for the point of her pursuit of knowledge. The height of this mistaken view is seen when she tells Frank that she now knows what clothes to wear and what wine to choose and so she no longer needs him. In the end, Rita sees the mistake she has made. Frank presents Rita with a new dress as a symbol that he feels she has indeed become an educated woman who is unlikely to mistake material things for knowledge. The Value of Education/ Culture and Knowledge In general, education and its links to cultural pursuits, such as ballet and poetry and drama, are seen as positive things in the play. The big question of the play, however, is whether academic learning in some way stifles creativity. We watch Rita yearn for knowledge so that she can find new meaning in her life. To be successful at the university, however, she needs to put her passionate responses and independent thinking behind her, and conform to a staid, predictable formula. This, at times, undermines the real point of her quest, and in fact implies that all levels of society are prey to the same ennui On the other side of the class divide we see Frank, who is trapped in the dry world of academia. It is clear he is bored and unsatisfied, but that he is too stuck in his ways to ever leave. He is a failed poet because, in his own self-assessment, he wrote from an intellectual standpoint, not one of passion. This is symbolic of the curse of academics, who, it is suggested, have the power to suck the joy out of art in their pursuit of knowledge and definition. In some ways Frank is on the opposite trajectory from Rita. To be successful, she needs to harness her originality and energy and learn how to conform. Frank, on the other hand, needs to find a way out of the dry, staid life of academia which he is allowing to stifle him. The question becomes whether Rita will suffer this same fate; however, in the end she has found a balance, where she can take what academia has to offer and still maintain her fresh creative look on life. Frank also is on the edge of a new chance. Rita cuts his hair taking â€Å"ten years† off of him at the end of the play and we hope that in his time away from the university maybe he will find some of his passion and creativity again. Choice In the end, the world of the working class is not given precedence over the world of the university; passion does not triumph over reason; youth does not triumph over age. In the end, what triumphs is the ability to choose your own path. Rita says she may go to France for Christmas or maybe she’ll stay home. She may have a baby or she may not. What Frank has given Rita is the ability to choose what direction her life is going to take. For Frank, just knowing Rita has given him the insight that there are choices in the world. By teaching Rita to make choices, he has reminded himself of his own options. He has, despite his desire for passion and art, allowed himself to settle into a predictable life, and a self-destructive path. In the end, he too has learned that he is responsible for his own destiny. Space The play is confined to the staid space of Frank’s office. The office represents the academic world to which Frank belongs. In the first scene Rita cannot get the door open to let herself in, symbolically representing how, because of her upbringing, access to the university is difficult. Later in the play she cannot get the window open to let in the fresh air, and we symbolically see how stuck in his dusty world of old ideas Frank is. In all the scenes but one Frank is already in the office as if he is permanently ensconced in this world. In most of the scenes Rita enters the room like a whirlwind bringing with her passion and enthusiasm. The two main exceptions to this are telling. At the point at which Rita has rejected Frank as no longer useful to her on her journey, she is already in the office, symbolizing her success within the university setting. In contrast to all the other scenes, Frank is the one who cannot get through the door and when he does, he is drunk and belligerent showing his slipping grasp on things. In the final scene we see Frank slowly packing up his books which both symbolize his learning, but also have acted as a screen behind which he hides his drinking. We cannot but hope that when he leaves this room he will be given a chance to find the same kind of passion and enthusiasm outside of it, that Rita has brought to it. Questions 1. What differences are there between Frank and Rita in terms of class? . Why does Rita say she wants to go to university? 3. What does Rita mostly want to talk about for the first half of the play? What does this indicate about her commitment and understanding of what a university education is? 4. Does Frank want to help Rita get the education she wants? Why or why not? 5. What do you think it means when Rita says her mother tells her â€Å"we should be singing better songs than th ese†? 6. What change occurs at the end of the first act of the play? 7. Is Frank pleased about how successful Rita is, throughout Act Two, in her academic endeavours? Why or why not? 8. Why does Rita attempt to change her accent? What does this symbolize about what she is trying to do with her life? 9. Why does Frank say to Rita â€Å"You haven’t learnt better songs, just different ones. †? 10. How is Frank changed by his interactions with Rita? How is she changed by him? 11. What do you think the haircut at the end of the play symbolizes? Activities Watch My Fair Lady. Compare such things as depictions of class, language, gender. Read Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw. Ask students to compare Shaw’s message with the message of Educating Rita. Read Earl Shorris’ â€Å"On the uses of a liberal education: As a weapon in the hands of the restless poor† from Harper’s (Sept. 1997) pgs 50-60 (available on the internet). Compare Shorris’ conclusions about the value of a liberal education with Rita’s evaluation of the importance of education. Ask students to write a brief essay about a teacher who has had an impact on them. Compare their experiences with the experiences of Rita in the play. Compare Educating Rita to one of the following movies about teachers and education. Most movies about this kind of relationship are about a teacher who enters the world of the students and inspires them (upper class kids in Dead Poet’s; working class kids in the other examples. It might be interesting to look at how in Educating Rita, Rita comes to the teacher and liberates him as much as he liberates her. Dead Poet’s Society To Sir, With Love Stand and Deliver Dangerous Minds (There are many other examples of this sort of film about an inspirational teacher who opens doors of opportunity and understanding for his or her students, which would be entirely suitable for this kind of comparison. Ask students to do some research on the links between class and education as a way towards discussing some of the things Rita says about her working class background. Study class conflict in the 1970’s -1980’s in Britain to get a deeper understanding of some of the issues Rita hints at when she discusses the world she grew up in. Discuss whether study ing art too closely takes the joy out of it, or whether we sometimes have to study art to truly appreciate it. Using the attached model (appendix 1) as an example, ask students to create an idea map.