Willy Russell's Educating Rita

Willy Russells "Educating Rita"

Educating Rita is a play about a working class girl who is tired of

her lifestyle and asks a university tutor to educate her in an attempt

to change her ways her life. Her tutor, Frank, shows her the cultures

and values of the middle class world as well as teaching her about

literature even though he too is tired of his lifestyle. Rita forces

herself to change and realises the damage she causes to herself,

acting as someone she isn't. Willy Russel writes about the clash of

cultures from each of the English classes.

In the beginning of the play when Rita and Frank first meet, they

hardly understand each other:

'Frank stares at Rita who stands by the desk

Frank: You are?

Rita: What am I?

Frank: Pardon?

Rita: What?

Frank: (looking for admission papers) Now you are?

Rita: I'm a what?'

The way of speaking in each class is so alien to the other and both

Rita and Frank are totally bemused. Willy Russell uses this to show

how much each class is separated with the other and how little to do

they have with each other, each representative of each class in the

play is depicted as having made stereotypes of the other:

'Rita: Can I smoke?

Frank: Tobacco?

Rita: Yeh. Was that a joke?'

And:

'Rita: You wouldn't watch ITV would y'? Its all BBC with you, isn't

it?

Frank: Well I must confess

Rita: It's all right, I know. Soon as I walked I here I said to

meself, 'Y' can tell he's a Flora man.

Frank: A what?

Rita: A Flora man.

Frank: Flora? Flowers?'

In these two passages in scene one, it is possible to see the

stereotypes that both Rita and Frank have of each other. Frank thinks

that Rita might want to smoke cannabis, and Rita initially thi...

... middle of paper ...

...hat she hadn't said it. But she had. And

that's why I came back', Rita feels that her family is acting in

pointless ways, pretending to themselves, e.g. like her mother, and

feels she cannot bear to keep living a lie and wants to be able live

how she wants to live, but in the end realises her education may not

have been as amazing for her as she thought, in the last scene she

tells of her flatmate and how she resented her lifestyle, in the end

trying to kill herself. Rita realised she didn't want just to be able

to regurgitate quotes and empty phrases, but to be herself, to enjoy

whatever aspects of each social class she wants.

In conclusion, the message that Willy Russell is trying to convey is

that the boundaries of social class can be broken, and the key to

success is to be yourself and embrace individuality rather to conform

to the sheep of society.