educating rita critical essays

“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.

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

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

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

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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Rosatom Starts Production of Rare-Earth Magnets for Wind Power Generation

TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom has started gradual localization of rare-earth magnets manufacturing for wind power plants generators. The first sets of magnets have been manufactured and shipped to the customer.

In total, the contract between Elemash Magnit LLC (an enterprise of TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom in Elektrostal, Moscow region) and Red Wind B.V. (a joint venture of NovaWind JSC and the Dutch company Lagerwey) foresees manufacturing and supply over 200 sets of magnets. One set is designed to produce one power generator.

“The project includes gradual localization of magnets manufacturing in Russia, decreasing dependence on imports. We consider production of magnets as a promising sector for TVEL’s metallurgical business development. In this regard, our company does have the relevant research and technological expertise for creation of Russia’s first large-scale full cycle production of permanent rare-earth magnets,” commented Natalia Nikipelova, President of TVEL JSC.

“NovaWind, as the nuclear industry integrator for wind power projects, not only made-up an efficient supply chain, but also contributed to the development of inter-divisional cooperation and new expertise of Rosatom enterprises. TVEL has mastered a unique technology for the production of magnets for wind turbine generators. These technologies will be undoubtedly in demand in other areas as well,” noted Alexander Korchagin, Director General of NovaWind JSC.

For reference:

TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom incorporates enterprises for the fabrication of nuclear fuel, conversion and enrichment of uranium, production of gas centrifuges, as well as research and design organizations. It is the only supplier of nuclear fuel for Russian nuclear power plants. TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom provides nuclear fuel for 73 power reactors in 13 countries worldwide, research reactors in eight countries, as well as transport reactors of the Russian nuclear fleet. Every sixth power reactor in the world operates on fuel manufactured by TVEL. www.tvel.ru

NovaWind JSC is a division of Rosatom; its primary objective is to consolidate the State Corporation's efforts in advanced segments and technological platforms of the electric power sector. The company was founded in 2017. NovaWind consolidates all of the Rosatom’s wind energy assets – from design and construction to power engineering and operation of wind farms.

Overall, by 2023, enterprises operating under the management of NovaWind JSC, will install 1 GW of wind farms. http://novawind.ru

Elemash Magnit LLC is a subsidiary of Kovrov Mechanical Plant (an enterprise of the TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom) and its main supplier of magnets for production of gas centrifuges. The company also produces magnets for other industries, in particular, for the automotive

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Why were so many metro stations in Moscow renamed?

Okhotny Ryad station in Soviet times and today.

The Moscow metro system has 275 stations, and 28 of them have been renamed at some point or other—and several times in some cases. Most of these are the oldest stations, which opened in 1935.

The politics of place names

The first station to change its name was Ulitsa Kominterna (Comintern Street). The Comintern was an international communist organization that ceased to exist in 1943, and after the war Moscow authorities decided to call the street named after it something else. In 1946, the station was renamed Kalininskaya. Then for several days in 1990, the station was called Vozdvizhenka, before eventually settling on Aleksandrovsky Sad, which is what it is called today.

The banner on the entraince reads: "Kalininskaya station." Now it's Alexandrovsky Sad.

Until 1957, Kropotkinskaya station was called Dvorets Sovetov ( Palace of Soviets ). There were plans to build a monumental Stalinist high-rise on the site of the nearby Cathedral of Christ the Saviour , which had been demolished. However, the project never got off the ground, and after Stalin's death the station was named after Kropotkinskaya Street, which passes above it.

Dvorets Sovetov station, 1935. Letters on the entrance: "Metro after Kaganovich."

Of course, politics was the main reason for changing station names. Initially, the Moscow Metro itself was named after Lazar Kaganovich, Joseph Stalin’s right-hand man. Kaganovich supervised the construction of the first metro line and was in charge of drawing up a master plan for reconstructing Moscow as the "capital of the proletariat."

In 1955, under Nikita Khrushchev's rule and during the denunciation of Stalin's personality cult, the Moscow Metro was named in honor of Vladimir Lenin.

Kropotkinskaya station, our days. Letters on the entrance: "Metropolitan after Lenin."

New Metro stations that have been opened since the collapse of the Soviet Union simply say "Moscow Metro," although the metro's affiliation with Vladimir Lenin has never officially been dropped.

Zyablikovo station. On the entrance, there are no more signs that the metro is named after Lenin.

Stations that bore the names of Stalin's associates were also renamed under Khrushchev. Additionally, some stations were named after a neighborhood or street and if these underwent name changes, the stations themselves had to be renamed as well.

Until 1961 the Moscow Metro had a Stalinskaya station that was adorned by a five-meter statue of the supreme leader. It is now called Semyonovskaya station.

Left: Stalinskaya station. Right: Now it's Semyonovskaya.

The biggest wholesale renaming of stations took place in 1990, when Moscow’s government decided to get rid of Soviet names. Overnight, 11 metro stations named after revolutionaries were given new names. Shcherbakovskaya became Alekseyevskaya, Gorkovskaya became Tverskaya, Ploshchad Nogina became Kitay-Gorod and Kirovskaya turned into Chistye Prudy. This seriously confused passengers, to put it mildly, and some older Muscovites still call Lubyanka station Dzerzhinskaya for old times' sake.

At the same time, certain stations have held onto their Soviet names. Marksistskaya and Kropotkinskaya, for instance, although there were plans to rename them too at one point.

"I still sometimes mix up Teatralnaya and Tverskaya stations,” one Moscow resident recalls .

 “Both have been renamed and both start with a ‘T.’ Vykhino still grates on the ear and, when in 1991 on the last day of my final year at school, we went to Kitay-Gorod to go on the river cruise boats, my classmates couldn’t believe that a station with that name existed."

The city government submitted a station name change for public discussion for the first time in 2015. The station in question was Voykovskaya, whose name derives from the revolutionary figure Pyotr Voykov. In the end, city residents voted against the name change, evidently not out of any affection for Voykov personally, but mainly because that was the name they were used to.

What stations changed their name most frequently?

Some stations have changed names three times. Apart from the above-mentioned Aleksandrovsky Sad (Ulitsa Kominterna->Kalininskaya->Vozdvizhenka->Aleksandrovsky Sad), a similar fate befell Partizanskaya station in the east of Moscow. Opened in 1944, it initially bore the ridiculously long name Izmaylovsky PKiO im. Stalina (Izmaylovsky Park of Culture and Rest Named After Stalin). In 1947, the station was renamed and simplified for convenience to Izmaylovskaya. Then in 1963 it was renamed yet again—this time to Izmaylovsky Park, having "donated" its previous name to the next station on the line. And in 2005 it was rechristened Partizanskaya to mark the 60th anniversary of victory in World War II. 

Partizanskaya metro station, nowadays.

Another interesting story involves Alekseyevskaya metro station. This name was originally proposed for the station, which opened in 1958, since a village with this name had been located here. It was then decided to call the station Shcherbakovskaya in honor of Aleksandr Shcherbakov, a politician who had been an associate of Stalin. Nikita Khrushchev had strained relations with Shcherbakov, however, and when he got word of it literally a few days before the station opening the builders had to hastily change all the signs. It ended up with the concise and politically correct name of Mir (Peace).

The name Shcherbakovskaya was restored in 1966 after Khrushchev's fall from power. It then became Alekseyevskaya in 1990.

Alekseyevskaya metro station.

But the station that holds the record for the most name changes is Okhotny Ryad, which opened in 1935 on the site of a cluster of market shops. When the metro system was renamed in honor of Lenin in 1955, this station was renamed after Kaganovich by way of compensation. The name lasted just two years though because in 1957 Kaganovich fell out of favor with Khrushchev, and the previous name was returned. But in 1961 it was rechristened yet again, this time in honor of Prospekt Marksa, which had just been built nearby.

Okhotny Ryad station in 1954 and Prospekt Marksa in 1986.

In 1990, two historical street names—Teatralny Proyezd and Mokhovaya Street—were revived to replace Prospekt Marksa, and the station once again became Okhotny Ryad.

Okhotny Ryad in 2020.

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Educating Rita

Willy russell, everything you need for every book you read., 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

by Willy Russell

Educating rita quotes and analysis.

“Er, well, I...you know, I don’t think I’ve actually really looked at it for the past ten years or so." Frank, 3

Frank’s comments about not having looked at the painting on the wall for ten years reinforce the sense that he has become world-weary, apathetic, and incapable of being moved by beauty or eroticism. If this were just one throwaway line it might be understandable, as we all grow inured to the things and people around us, but Frank follows this up with other comments that reveals how he takes his environment for granted and no longer is stirred or inspired by it. In contrast, Rita’s amusement and interest in the painting reveal her as excited, ready to learn and experience new things, and possessive of open eyes and an open mind.

“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.” Rita, 13

In this quote, Rita demonstrates how she is both full of zeal and ambition but also, at this stage, still unsure of herself. She states emphatically that she wants to change, and recognizes that she has taken the steps to do so. However, she is still hesitant, and asks Frank his opinion on whether or not she can do it. This changes as the text goes on, especially in Act II. By then Rita has become sure of herself, which creates a rift with Frank. Rita’s growth of confidence is directly linked to her education, as well as a result of her innate and indefatigable desire to evolve and improve.

“See if I’d started takin’ school seriously then I would have had to become different from my mates; an’ that’s not allowed.” Rita, 19

Although Rita knew early on that there may be more to life than fighting or getting dressed up or joking around with one’s friends, the strength of “herd mentality” meant that her interest in behaving or even thinking differently from her peers was suppressed. She acted like everyone else and not until her mid-twenties could she conceive of anything different. Youth is a time of conformity mixed with a desire to please and to be popular, but there is also something else going on. Members of the lower classes made their lives more palatable through community and shared experience, and those who tried to deviate from that by escaping were considered traitors; this is why Denny was so hostile to Rita’s new ambitions.  

“Look, there’s a way of answering examination questions that is...expected. It’s a sort of accepted ritual.” Frank, 30

Frank’s explanation of why Rita’s early answers to essay prompts are insufficient is familiar to anyone who has had a decent education, but in this new context it bears reflection and discussion. Frank’s faltering tone and his words themselves do end up sounding a little ridiculous. The rigidity of the curriculum, of the behavior of professors and students, of the norms and mores, is strongly pronounced. For Rita to move up a social class and to experience the change she wants, she will have to do more than read certain books -she will have to learn the code, the “accepted ritual” of higher education. She does eventually do this, but, as Frank points out, she may have lost some of herself in the process.

“But it’s not takin’ the place of life, it’s providing’ me with life. He wants to take life away from me; he wants me to stop rockin’ the coffin, that’s all.” Rita, 37

Frank is so disillusioned with his life that it is difficult for him to believe Rita when she makes such pronouncements. For her, though, reading the great works of literature and poetry removes her from her working class background and elevates her; it sustains and nourishes her soul. The “he” in this quote is Denny, who objects firmly to the changes he sees in his wife. He does not want her to become educated because it means she will not be like him anymore. He believes that her changes are implicit critiques of his life. We never get to hear Rita and Denny talk to each other, but it is likely that Rita was not intentionally indicating she believed this, but that Denny’s own insecurities manifested these concerns.  

“You see, he goes blindly on and on and with every step he’s spinning one more piece of thread which will eventually make up the network of his own tragedy.” Frank, 45

Frank’s explanation of what tragedy is, and how Macbeth is a tragic character, is not just a miniature lesson in a bit of literary theory, but is also a telling commentary on Frank and his inability to grow as a person. He is deeply flawed, and such flaws impede him from turning his life into something more productive and meaningful. He allows alcohol and apathy to take control, wallowing in his depression and disillusionment. As he explains how Macbeth is doomed, he is unknowingly talking about himself, and giving the audience/readers insight into why he is the way he is.

“...I don’t wanna spend the night takin’ the piss, comin’ on with the funnies because that’s the only way I can get into the conversation. I didn’t want to come to your house just to play the court jester.” Rita, 49

This passage expresses Rita's frustration that she does not seem able to fit in anywhere -not in her old world, and certainly not in this new one that Frank is inviting her into. She knows she is an outsider, and that small things -- such as her dress, the wine she chose, and the conversation she made -- would give her away. She also suspects that people there would have snickered at her attempt to be one of them, and she did not want to be their source of amusement. This scene is the precursor to the one in which Rita tells Frank she left Denny and she wants to fully transform herself.  

“Life is such a rich and frantic whirl that I need the drink to help me step delicately through it.” Frank, 60

Frank's words here remind us that he was once a poet, but their charming nature cannot cover the sad truth they convey: that Frank is an alcoholic who needs help. He can no longer get through the day and manage his various affairs without the assistance of drink. He prefers to slightly cloud real life, preferring to glimpse it from far-off rather than immediately. Rita is the contrast to him, as she does not want anything to get in the way of her experiencing life. She never got to probe deeply into her inner being when ensconced in her old world, and now it is of utmost importance to her that she pushes herself to do so without any impediments. Finally, what is sadly ironic about Frank's words here is that there is nothing delicate about his behavior when drinking; in fact, it is his clumsy behavior and stumbling in class that leads to his suspension from teaching.  

“I have merely decided to talk properly. As Trish says there is not a lot of point in discussing beautiful literature in an ugly voice.” Rita, 63

In Act II Rita makes a number of changes to herself; these are more than just reading the right works of literature and responding to essays properly. She decides to go back to her actual name of Susan, quits her job as a hairdresser and begins to waitress in a bistro near the university, moves out of her mother's place and into a flat with a "classy" girl named Trish, and, as this quote expresses, decides she is going to talk properly. Her Liverpudlian accent was one of the most salient parts of her working class identity, and by shedding it she announces to the world (and to Frank) that she is cultured, civilized, and educated. What is fascinating, though, is that in the last couple scenes in which she and Frank argue, her accent creeps out again. The question thus remains of how much Rita has actually changed.

“I never thought there was anything’ I could give you. But there is. Come here, Frank…” Rita, 82

By the end of the text, Rita and Frank have achieved an uneasy peace, as exemplified by this scene in which Rita volunteers to cut Frank's hair, something that she mentioned wanting to do the very first time she met him. This small gesture pays tribute to Rita's past as a working-class hairdresser, as well as how far she's come, in that she now is offering Frank something as opposed to him giving her something. It is also a sweet scene and one that reminds the audience/readers of how close the two characters got, and how intimate educating another person can be. Finally, as a concluding scene it is far from being able to offer real closure:  we don't know what will happen to Rita or to Frank, or what they will be to each other in the future. It is fitting, as Russell's whole play leaves more unanswered questions than answered ones.

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
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