Opening Scene of Educating Rita

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Opening Scene of Educating Rita

Explore the ways in which Russell engages the audiences interest in

the main characters and themes in the opening scene of Educating Rita

and explain whether you think the play written in 1979 is still

relevant to 2005.

Willy Russell’s play, Educating Rita, written in 1979, is a story

about a typical lower class woman called Rita who decides she wants to

lead an ‘educated life’ and she tries to do this by getting a private

tutor called Frank to teach her, but learning to lead an educated

life proves to be not what she expected.

Willy Russell introduces Frank and Rita in two very different ways.

Frank is introduced as a well read university tutor who seems to like

his drink; this is shown when Russell writes ’the walls are lined with

books’ making him appear educated. But then writes: “pulls out a pile

of books to reveal a bottle of whisky” which makes the audience

question their first impression of him as a typical university

teacher, is he an alchoholic? Does he drink too much? Is this

important?

Rita is introduced as an uneducated, loud, rude young woman. The first

impression Russell gives the audience is Rita saying: “I’m comin’ in,

aren’t I?” to someone she has never met before, which shows a lack of

manners or simply a casual upbringing. He then shows her going to a

chair and “dumping her bag”. By using the verb “dump” Russell

immediately suggests that Rita is not a ladylike person, and this

follows the impression that she is ill mannered.

Russell presents the play as a two-hander so that the audience is

focused on the clash between Frank and Rita and the entire play is

focused on Frank and Rita’s point of view. The two very contrasting

personalities seem t...

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... or missing

something in his life, and Rita also says ‘ I want to be free’ which

means she feels trapped in her life and wants to escape and she wants

to do this by getting educated. They both seem to change through the

play almost into totally different people, Rita changes her name to

susan as she thinks it sounds ‘proper’. The play has a certain humour

about it as the two characters personalities and views are almost

opposite, this creates chaos, as neither of them knows what the other

is talking about which is amusing to the audience, and Rita is very

loud and uses a lot of swearing and slang which is not what you would

expect in a university. In conclusion, Russell uses the contrast

of the two characters in Educating Rita to create humour and engage

the audience, whilst facing issues and views that are still a problem

and relevant to today in 2005.

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