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Educating Rita, a play written by Willy Russell focuses predominantly on the lives of two people: Frank and Rita. In this essay, we – as an audience – will explore the many ways in which Frank and Rita develop or change as the play progresses.
Once more, the audience sees how easily Frank and Rita’s conversations turn toward academic matters, as they seamlessly transition into a discussion about Chekhov. What’s more, Frank tries again to use a model of experiential education by urging Rita to go to the theater.
During Rita and Frank’s first conversation, Russell plays upon their different styles of speaking. Coming from a working-class background, Rita doesn’t use eloquent language to speak about art, instead calling the portrait on Frank’s wall “nice.”
Educating Rita takes cues from George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion. In Pygmalion, a self-assured professor decides to test his abilities by educating a working-class woman. Although this woman has no formal education, she, like Rita, is witty and naturally intelligent.
Rita wants to be educated because she says 'I wanna know'. She knows she isn't 'educated' yet and dimly realises what 'education' is, but her perceptions are stereotypical (see p 182 where we see her idea about public school) although her knowledge of uneducated people is very sharp.
Curious, Rita asks if he likes Julia and he says he does but is not fond of himself. Frank tries to turn the conversation back to the Forster novel, but Rita says she wants to talk since she likes talking to him.
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The conversations between Frank and Rita concerning this suspension as well as other changes reveal just how estranged the two of them are now. Rita is somewhat sympathetic to Frank when he says he is forced into a sabbatical, but also, now that she is a student and seeing things from that perspective, wonders if he doesn’t have a debt to his ...
