Rita's Changes in Willy Russell’s Educating Rita
The story of ‘Educating Rita’ by Willy Russell is set in Liverpool in
the 60s.
At this time working class people did not usually stay in at school
later than the age of 15. This lead to talent being wasted and many
people leaving school with no qualifications. This applied even more
to the women of this time as many of them were expected to simply get
married and become baby machines and then perhaps get a part time job.
The Open University (OU) was the University that gave these people
another chance at education as you need no formal qualifications to
study there. People who enrolled into this university would typically
be people who, would have left school at the age of 15 and maybe
hadn’t taken their education seriously the first time round. The Open
University functioned by giving their students personal tutors who
would usually teach in the evenings as most of the students would be
working as well as studying. The OU also organised summer school trips
and set students assignments. There were also chances to learn through
distance learning e.g. BBC 2 programmes, TV and radio.
The Open University was a huge breath of fresh air for the whole
education system as it meant that nobody could be discriminated
against and everyone had the opportunity to learn and gain knowledge.
The OU followed a post-war philosophy that all citizens have a right
of access to Higher Education. It also narrowed the borders that were
up separating the middle from the working class, as now everyone was
on the same level and were interacting with each other.
The two main characters in this play are...
... middle of paper ...
...g in the sense that there
are only two characters and one setting, but is also very broad in the
sense that we have two hours to tell a story and delve so deep into
the characters of Frank and Rita and their chaotic relationship, that
the audience care for them and are hooked.
I will have a spotlight on Rita as she recites the Blake poem and
regard this as the climax of the scene. I think Rita should address
the audience at this point as if in a monologue type speech to show
that Rita is on top of the world when she is in her creative bubble.
The audience that has been following her story so far will find this
moment heart-warming and may even be able to relate to the feelings of
delight and pride she will convey.
I want this scene to mark and embrace the beginning of everything Rita
has been and is to become.
something in his life, and Rita also says ‘ I want to be free’ which
The roles that men and women were expected to live up to would be called oppressive and offensive by today’s standards, but it was a very different world than the one we have become accustomed to in our time.
"Educating Rita" By Willy Russell and The Social, Historical And Cultural Context Of Britain In The Late 1970's
The Ways in Which Willy Russell Develops the Characters of Rita and Frank in his Play Educating Rita
room. It could also be so you only need one set if you were performing
Frank's Growing Sense of Unease as Rita Becomes More Educated. In the play 'Educating Rita', Willy Russell shows the growing. relationship between the two main characters, Frank and Rita. Both are very different from each other, yet a bond is immediately established.
...to gain an understanding of her world, the only knowledge that she chose to put to use was the comprehension of superficial things. This contributed to her acquiescence to the conventions of the educated class. Instead of becoming independent from the people she relied on, she became dependent on a different class of people. Rita goes into Open University with seemingly good intentions, but the reader can see that her conformity to the preconceptions about the educated class, the compensation of her true opinions and the alteration of her personality prevented her from becoming autonomous. These things were also the cause of her unique personality dwindling away. Rita may have believed that she was going to university to free herself, but education simply chained her to the stereotype of an accomplished person and creates a dependence on her peers and their views.
Scenes 7 and 8 are the two last scenes in Act1. Seeing as it is only a
Your life is the sum result of all the choices you make, both consciously and unconsciously. Choices made, whether good or bad, follow you forever and affect everyone in their path one way or another. As you venture into new phases of life or worlds or ‘grow up’, you are commonly faced with having to make difficult choices and decisions, which may change your life forever. Each choice throughout this transition can be either rewarding or challenging, depending on the individual and the obstacles that they must overcome. However, through successfully moving into the world, it can consequently bring new experiences and opportunities, growth, change, self-fulfilment, greater freedom and choice, and other consequences, may they be positive or negative. The play, ‘Educating Rita’ by Willy Russell, and the music video ‘Fast Car’ by Tracy Chapman both explore this concept of ‘Into the World’ through the use of language, visual and dramatic techniques, as they portray the beneficial and negative relatable outcomes of personal choices and transitions into a new phase of life or world.
In what ways is Educating Rita effective as a play? 'Educating Rita" is dramatically effective in many ways. It is also recognised as an exceptional play; it was voted "Best comedy of the year" when performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1980, and just three years after release, it had become the fourth most popular play in Britain. There are obviously factors which make it so effective, and I intend to explore these factors.
The things Rita has done, which are to have taken great lengths in.
Most women, even those in privileged circumstances, had little control over the direction their lives took. The marriages of young aristocratic women were usually arranged by their families (but here it is worth noting that their husbands, too, had little choice in their partners). Once widowed, such women had legal independence and, in many instances, autonomy over considerable financial resources.
...r’s household most women in this period had no self-respect and were controlled by their husbands.
How does Willy Russell establish the differences between Frank and Rita in act one scene one of “Educating Rita”? In the play “Educating Rita”, Willy Russell presents us with the idea of two completely different people: Rita, who is a working class, uneducated, hairdresser and Frank, a drunken university professor, who is bored with his life. In the play the two characters are shown to have very different lives and backgrounds. Frank uses alcohol to escape from his life and his job, whereas Rita wants to escape from the restrictions of being working class, and plans to use education as her passport.
Frank is very shocked by this and now he can see for sure there is a