Educating Rita 2

Act 1 scene 1 is an effective introduction to the ‘Educating Rita’, as there are good uses of themes, characters and dramatic techniques included.

Educating Rita is about a working class woman who decides she needs to do better things with her life. In order to accomplish this, she joins an Open University course where she meets her tutor, Frank. Their relationship in the play has trials and tribulations but in the end their amazing personalities comes into play.

Willy Russell was born in 1947. He grew up in a working class family and went to rough schools. He went to schools where they had no intention of helping him have a useful education, therefore he only came out with one O level.

Willy Russell decided he wanted an education after working in a few different jobs, so he enrolled at evening classes. Educating Rita was a way for Willy Russell to explain to the audience his experience of growing up in working class Liverpool.

In Act 1 scene 1, Rita is completely shown as a working class hairdresser who is around educated middle class and expensive things like art and hundreds of books. “The wall are lined with books and on one wall hangs a good print of a made religious scene.” Russell is showing here, the differences between what Rita is representing and what she is aiming for by pointing out the differences between her and everything she represents. People who she didn’t have knowledge of also surround her, which made her react in an uncomfortable way around them.

Rita trying to get into Frank’s office is a good example of their relationship. This example can be interpreted to Frank being the door and his office being his life, it is stating that Frank does not does not want Rita to be in his life, yet she is trying to force her way through.