Frank and Rita's Relationship

Frank and Rita's Relationship

At the start of the play, Frank and Rita can be seen as opposites;

Frank is a middle aged academic, whilst Rita is a young, female

hairdresser. Any friendship between the two seems unlikely, but they

quickly warm to one another as first appearances show. They are both

involved in unsatisfactory relationships, and they both want more from

life than it seems to offer. The main difference between the

characters are that, whereas Rita has recognised her unhappiness and

is determined to change it through becoming educated, Frank is more

negative and prefers to drown his sorrows in alcohol. Frank and Rita

become friends because she needs him to teach her, and he needs the

vitality and freshness that she brings to his life. Willy Russell

presents Frank and Rita’s relationship, and the changes it goes

through, in a variety of ways.

The relationship starts off well when they meet each other in scene

one and the contrast of personalities is shown very well, Frank leads

the boring lifestyle, whereas Rita bursts in and is full of life-

their personalities and characters are totally opposite. Frank could

do with a bit of something different in his life and this is why he

takes to her so warmly. I think that the reader comes under the

impression that Frank may want something out of this relationship

other than teaching his literary knowledge.

RITA: This Forster, honest to God he doesn’t half get on my tits.

FRANK: Good. You must show me the evidence.

This quote shows that Frank likes to flirt with Rita and shows that

literary knowledge is not all that is on his mind.

Rita, however, just wants to learn and be good friends with Frank but

nothing more. From Rita’s perspective fra...

... middle of paper ...

... goes on to tell Rita how

he has changed her and that he doesn’t like the change he sees. Frank

in his own words then says that he can’t bare Rita anymore.

Through the last few scenes both of them have changed considerably and

Frank especially does not like the change that he sees in Rita and due

to this he continues to argue with her. The most important thing is

that education has given Rita choice. She now has a lot more freedom

to what she wants, as she is educated, she can choose form a number of

jobs, she can choose which type of people she wishes to socialise with

an so on. I think that overall both of them have learned that

sometimes times change and people change and In the end I think they

both accept this as they get on good ground with each other. At the

very end Rita gives Frank a hair cut that she has promised him since

Act one scene one.