How far would you agree that Educating Rita depicts a clash of classes and cultures?
Within Educating Rita it could be argued that Russell is trying to depict an aspect of conflict within class and culture in the UK- the play itself being in the context of the country during the 1980’s where the rise of Thatcherism grasped many industrialised areas of Britain, thus Russell attempts to depict the importance of education with in this era to those who wanted to escape from the lower end of the social scale. This directly affects one of the two characters in the play, Rita. Who- due to a working-class background- feels held back in life; bringing us to the rising action within the play.
Willy Russell begins to create an image of Rita in Act I Scene 1, as a woman who has wasted her life on simply living the social normalities of a working-class woman: marriage, hair dressing, and the ideal of having a child. Resulting in a philosophical realisation for the need of change in her life;
‘I’ve been realizin’ for ages that I was... slightly out of step.’
From this she then decides to find herself by means of joining an open-university course where she meets Frank who himself is a clash of class with Rita; Frank is a divorced university professor in his early fifties who has obverse ideals and values in comparison to those of Rita. Despite this, Frank has a realist view of life becoming an inebriate and has may have possibly taken on Rita as an open-university student to fund this habit of drinking alcohol in excess. These two interesting characters from contrasting backgrounds are thrown together and the clashes of class and culture are depicted in a number of ways. Rita's language is very colloquial for example;
‘Ogh. You mean was I gonna whip out the wacky-backy?’
And this, at times, amuses Frank;
'What in the name of God is being off one's cake?'
Her language is both new and puzzling to Frank as he is used to hearing the generally proper English spoken by his university students. However some of the phrases issued by Frank toward Rita seem out of
Willy Russell begins to create an image of Rita in Act I Scene 1, as a woman who has wasted her life on simply living the social normalities of a working-class woman: marriage, hair dressing, and the ideal of having a child. Resulting in a philosophical realisation for the need of change in her life;
‘I’ve been realizin’ for ages that I was... slightly out of step.’
From this she then decides to find herself by means of joining an open-university course where she meets Frank who himself is a clash of class with Rita; Frank is a divorced university professor in his early fifties who has obverse ideals and values in comparison to those of Rita. Despite this, Frank has a realist view of life becoming an inebriate and has may have possibly taken on Rita as an open-university student to fund this habit of drinking alcohol in excess. These two interesting characters from contrasting backgrounds are thrown together and the clashes of class and culture are depicted in a number of ways. Rita's language is very colloquial for example;
‘Ogh. You mean was I gonna whip out the wacky-backy?’
And this, at times, amuses Frank;
'What in the name of God is being off one's cake?'
Her language is both new and puzzling to Frank as he is used to hearing the generally proper English spoken by his university students. However some of the phrases issued by Frank toward Rita seem out of