What Does a Comparison of the Way the Characters and Their Relationship Are Presented in Act One, Scene One with the Way the Characters and Their Relationship Are Presented in Act Two, Scenes One to Three Reveal About
David Beer
What does a comparison of the way the characters and their relationship are presented in Act One, Scene One with the way the characters and their relationship are presented in Act Two, Scenes One to Three reveal about the development of Rita and Frank and their relationship, in Educating Rita?
Educating Rita was written in 1980 by the playwright Willy Russell and is one of his most famous plays to date. Since the play has many similarities to Russell’s life, it is viewed as a semi-autobiographical play containing certain similarities to his life; for example both he and Rita were female hairdressers and were under-educated at school. The play is written as a comedy and shows the change in character and personality of a young woman, Rita, through her education at an Open University and also her effect on her tutor Frank. Russell creates humour through the class difference between her and Frank, developing their relationship throughout the play through the time they spend together and the change they act on each other. This change in their relationship and individual character is most noticeable in a comparison between the scenes Act One, Scene One and Act Two, Scenes One to Three.
In Act One, Scene One the audience see Rita dramatically erupt onto the scene having had difficulty opening the door into the study. This situation could certainly be viewed as a metaphor for the ill educated Rita struggling to break through the barrier into the educated environment of Frank’s study and is an immediate example of Rita’s enthusiasm to learn. Rita’s entrance is all the more dramatic with the way she expresses her annoyance with Frank’s persistent calls of “Come in!” in her response “I’m comin’ in, aren’t I? It’s that stupid bleedin’ handle on the door. You wanna get it fixed!” Not only is her language incredibly colloquial, it is also a command directed at Frank; words you would not expect a student to say to their tutor.
What does a comparison of the way the characters and their relationship are presented in Act One, Scene One with the way the characters and their relationship are presented in Act Two, Scenes One to Three reveal about the development of Rita and Frank and their relationship, in Educating Rita?
Educating Rita was written in 1980 by the playwright Willy Russell and is one of his most famous plays to date. Since the play has many similarities to Russell’s life, it is viewed as a semi-autobiographical play containing certain similarities to his life; for example both he and Rita were female hairdressers and were under-educated at school. The play is written as a comedy and shows the change in character and personality of a young woman, Rita, through her education at an Open University and also her effect on her tutor Frank. Russell creates humour through the class difference between her and Frank, developing their relationship throughout the play through the time they spend together and the change they act on each other. This change in their relationship and individual character is most noticeable in a comparison between the scenes Act One, Scene One and Act Two, Scenes One to Three.
In Act One, Scene One the audience see Rita dramatically erupt onto the scene having had difficulty opening the door into the study. This situation could certainly be viewed as a metaphor for the ill educated Rita struggling to break through the barrier into the educated environment of Frank’s study and is an immediate example of Rita’s enthusiasm to learn. Rita’s entrance is all the more dramatic with the way she expresses her annoyance with Frank’s persistent calls of “Come in!” in her response “I’m comin’ in, aren’t I? It’s that stupid bleedin’ handle on the door. You wanna get it fixed!” Not only is her language incredibly colloquial, it is also a command directed at Frank; words you would not expect a student to say to their tutor.