Summary of Educating Rita

Main characters are Frank who is a university lecturer and Rita who is a hair dresser. Rita wants to be educated she decides to take an Open University course. The main theme of the play is to be educated.

At the start of the scene we hear a conversation between Frank and someone else on the other end of the phone. We hear him arguing if he will go to the pub or not. “What do u mean I determined to go to the pub? I don’t need determination to go to the pub”. This shows his sarcasm. Showing that he doesn’t care this shows us that he doesn’t care about his partner and he’s a caring person. Frank also doesn’t want to teach at Open University he only does it for the money. He thinks there is no point in teaching Open University because all his students will be stupid. ‘Some silly woman’s attempt to get into the mind of Henry James’ this shows he is prejudice before he starts teaching. He thinks she is going to be stupid because she didn’t get enough education. He is only doing this for the money. He doesn’t care about the job, all wants is the money to go to the pub.

Then we see Rita enter the room. She barges through the room because it’s jammed. She doesn’t use the correct grammar. ‘I’m comin in aren’t I’. She speaks in colloquial English, this makes us think that she doesn’t have a good education and shows that she is working class. She speaks in a scouse accent, she swears a lot showing that she doesn’t care about offending anyone, and she is loud and enthusiastic about learning. She wants to learn because she wants a change.

When Rita tries to get into the room she can’t because the handle is jammed .she manages to open it and barge in. “it’s the stupid bleeding handle………you wanna get that fixed”. She doesn’t wait around to fix the problems she gets them done. She isn’t lazy she wants to move things along like in life. Rita doesn’t like her life so instead of waiting around she decides to change it and get educated. She is trying to get better in life but she has to struggle to get something in life you have to work hard. Whereas frank is ignoring his problems and is drinking instead of trying to fix his problems.