How Does Willy Russell Show the Changes in Rita's Character Throughout Educating Rita?

Educating Rita is the tale of one working class women 's struggle to find an escape to a boring, repetitive life and to find new things to conquer. To acheive this she begins university on a literature course despite the discouragement from family and baby-obsessed husband Denny. The play features only two characters, Rita and Frank. Frank- a middle class, well-educated, eloquent professor and Rita, an abrupt, crude excuse for a lady with no regard for or more precise, no knowing of social nouce. Throughout the play Rita 's character must reach two social extremities before she can learn to be true to herself. Arriving in Frank 's office loud and sarcastic dragging all attention to her so we fail to immediatly see her obvious insecurities. During the play Rita feels the best way of life, is the educated one; moreover, Frank protests against the change to a blind Rita who has gained in confidence but lost her true values and personality which is where Frank she 's beauty is his working class Rita. Near to the end of the play Rita, now known by her true title Susan, makes a revelation when her roommate attempts suicide. Rita 's new educated view is shattered when her apparantly stable, interesting, eccentric roommate feels her life isn 't worth living. In addition Rita discovers Frank to be correct and that she isn 't 'singing a better song, just a different one '. Rita gains a peaceful balance between her two lifestyles and finds that even though education may cause our personalities to bloom, it should not alter the magnificence of what we truly are.

When we first meet Rita she is your average working class hairdresser from Liverpool. At the being of the play she refers to herself as Rita 'y 'know, after Rita Mae Brown ' even though her real name is Susan. By hiding behind a different name we know Rita feels inadequate with herself and to be respected she must not be herself so she hides behind the mask of a different name, the name of an author who wrote an