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TO WHAT EXTENT DOES RITA UNDERGO A

METAMORPHOSIS IN EDUCATING RITA AND
HOW DOES RUSSELL CONVEY THIS TO THE
AUDIENCE?

Educating Rita’ is set in Liverpool during the 1980’s whilst the

Conservatives were in power. There was high unemployment as many
mines were closing down and large scale strikes were occurring across
the country, consequently because of the strikes life was hard for all who
lived in England in particular those of the working class. Many left
school at sixteen, especially women, and had children very young, this
was classed as the normal thing to do. Educating Rita is a two hander
play because it contains only two main characters Rita and frank who
both work like mouthpieces to express the views of their classes. The
play itself has a semi autobiographical element to it because Rita has
many of the same life experiences as the playwright Willy Russell, since
both Russell and Rita at one point in their lives were hairdressers this
shows us that Russell uses Rita much like a mouthpiece to convey his life
experiences to the audience. Being the playscript Russell is part of the
dramatic triangle; he must try and convey his messages to the audience
through the actors in the play by using such devices as metaphors which
provide a deeper meaning to the play. Educating Rita very much links to
Pygmalion the play written by George Bernard Shaw in 1912, for
example, both Rita and Eliza are taken on a journey through a different
world and change to become better women in different ways.
Throughout the play Rita is undergoing a metamorphosis which is
transforming her overall into a better person; however this is not always
true as she has some drastic and unpleasant changes throughout her
journey. Rita is one of thousands who have been accepted by the Open
University to be given a better chance in life by providing her with a
further education. It was opened in 1969 to allow others just like Rita
have a second chance at their education; it was unlike the normal
university courses as it meant the students had to learn at home and report
to their lecturer once a week to show their progress, Frank was chosen to
be Rita’s lecturer and Rita was to be his first Open University Student.
At the opening of the play Rita has little education; this is because
of her working class background and the restrictions it has imposed on
her. As a working class child Rita was at a disadvantage to an upper
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classed child because they would have access to a better education at

technical high schools, children who attended the secondary modern
schools like Rita would have a limited education and most likely never
have the chance to continue on an educational path to university. It
wasn’t expected of working class children to get good grades and go on
achieving academically in life, as Rita explains most working class
children did not want to confront their education because of social
pressures or the thought of failure, most preferred to grow up in the image
of their parents because they believed that there was expectations they
had to achieve:

“Studyin’ was just for wimps, wasn’t it” and “I would have had to
become different from me mates, an’ that’s not allowed”

Whenever Rita tried to improve academically someone always

stopped her because she was always expected to carry on the same as her
friends, Rita eventually agreed with this and blocked the thoughts of self
improvement from herself, she trapped herself mentally in a working
class prison and couldn’t escape from the torment that something was
missing from her life:

“In me head, tappin’ away, tellin me I might have got it all wrong. But id
just play another record or buy another dress”

This is one of the main reasons that Rita is so hungry for

education in the opening scenes of the play because she has been
deprived of it for such a long time, Rita finds it so hard to open her mind
to the educational world, this is because she is not used to accessing that
part of her brain that has been blocked off from her and she hopes that
frank can reopen it. This is shown to the audience by a metaphor Russell
uses when Rita first meets Frank, he uses the door to Franks study to
show how hard it was for Rita to access the educational world by the
enormous amount of effort she has to give to open the door. This is
highly symbolic for Rita as the door can also be thought of being the door
of choice where Rita must decide between educational freedom where she
can be free of cultural restrictions or her old life of denial:

“It’s that stupid bleedin handle on the door. You wanna get it fixed”.

Rita’s lifestyle at the beginning of the play completely contrasts

Franks middle class lifestyle, this is shown throughout the play as both
the characters begin to open up and the contrasts in personality and class
are revealed. Rita is involved in a marriage with Denny an average
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working class man who is pressuring her along with her family and
friends to have a baby and settle down, this is because it is what was
expected of a working class woman. However Rita is secretly taking the
pill because she does not want to have a baby until she has discovered
herself:

“I’ve begun to find me – an’ its great y know “

Frank found Rita’s personality uplifting when she began her

education because he believed that Rita was unique, this was because he
was only used to dealing with the normal university students
personality’s many of which he despises. He frequently comments on
Rita’s view on life:

“I think you’re the first breath of air that’s been in this room for years “

As Rita develops she has many more influences in her life such as,
Trish, her flatmate who Rita believes is from a higher class because of the
way she talks and dresses, Trish becomes Rita’s main influence in life
and Rita begins to act and talk like Trish because she deludes herself into
thinking that it will improve her social status:

“She’s great. Y’know she’s dead classy”

This is shown to the audience in many ways, the most obvious is the
way Rita no longer quotes her own opinions and prefers to use the
opinions of Trish instead. Trish is the first to introduce Rita into the upper
class world and she starts to teach Rita the believed rules of being upper
class such as speech and pronunciation.
Another new influence in Rita’s life is Tyson an average university
student who shares his values and experiences with Rita, Tyson
eventually accepts Rita into his social group; this is a key event as it starts
a chain reaction that causes Rita’s metamorphosis to go wrong. This is
because Rita has been longing to become an average everyday student
and often expresses’ this obsession to Frank, she believes that to achieve
this she had to be accepted which consequently created a desire to reach
the lawn, this is a symbol for Rita and acts as a goal for Rita to aspire to
for all she wants is to be accepted as a normal Student just like those on
the lawn:

“I got here early today. I started talking to some students down on the
lawn”
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As Rita’s metamorphosis continues Frank begins to realise that her

uniqueness is disappearing and her personality is draining and becoming
dull and dried up just as his normal everyday students personalities are.
But because of Rita’s longing to be a normal academic student and
produce work of the same quality she is blinded by these changes. Frank
does not agree with this and thinks Rita would achieve so much more as
her unique self rather than a dull academic student.
Just as in Pygmalion, Rita begins to be drawn apart from frank
and starts to believe she has learnt all that she needs to pass her exams,
she believes that she has surpassed Frank and his knowledge but has not
realised that she has only acquired a modicum of education. As the play
continues we realise that frank is worried about Rita and her perception
on life and tries to show Rita her misguided perceptions before she drifts
too far apart. As Rita gets closer and closer to her examinations the belief
that she has reached a higher class increases more and more, but this is
untrue because her metamorphosis has only changed her academic life
rather than her social life and she still remains in the working class but
has just become an educated working class women.
This upsets Frank because he wants the bold self expressing Rita
back and because of his deep feeling for Rita he bursts out at her which
consequently causes Rita to start shouting at frank. It begins to become a
clash of cultures the working class against the middle class as she
believes that frank is trying to repress her from her education just like the
higher classes are trying to repress the working class from a better life.
Although Educating Rita is seen as a two hander play, in this scene there
is not only these two individuals on stage but two opposing classes the
working class and the middle class. The different classes and their
meaning’s is the main point Russell is trying to convey to the audience in
the play he achieves this through Rita’s experiences while trying to
become a well educated person and how it goes wrong as she starts to
worry more about herself on the outside than the inside

“I know what clothes to wear, what wine to buy, what plays to see, what
papers and books to read”

This shows the audience that Rita believes that there are set rules
for being middle class and that she has to abide by them to reach the
higher classes this is the main reason for Rita splitting up with her
husband Denny because they were starting to become too different as
people and Rita started to have aspirations in her life which of course
changed for the worse over time. Frank just like Mary Shelly realises he
has created a monster and also that he’s lost control over it, Russell uses
this metaphor to describe what Rita has changed into, Mary Shelly is used
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because she was the author and creator of the legendary monster in her
novel Frankenstein and Frank believes he has created a monster because
of way Rita has been acting:

“I shall insist upon being known as Mary, Mary Shelley- so you

understand that allusion Rita”.

Frank commented in such a way because he believes that Rita has

completely changed, he also believes that it is his fault because he started
her journey along the path of education meaning that he is Frankenstein.
During the closing scenes of the play Rita visits Frank one last time to
explain what happened during her examination. She tells Frank how she
realised she had been misguided and had turned into a fool by thinking
that she could improve her class by the way she talked or by entering a
new social group, this is a key moment in the play because Rita’s eyes
have been opened and she is able to observe the fool she has become.

Overall, Rita’s life had improved because she has gained a valuable
education, although she may have not improved socially she has gained
her new academic abilities which means she can now move on to a better
life and improve overall. Her education has provided her with another key
element of life, choice; Rita can now choose to do what she wants and
cannot be held back from making these choices any longer, this is the
main thing that Rita wanted to gain from her education. Women like Rita
today have a better life because they have a greater chance of succeeding
and now have a real chance to go to university and achieve the academic
requirements they need to improve in life. In the workplace today women
are seen as equal to men and can now achieve the same or even more than
men in their careers, this has greatly changed from earlier Britain where
women were not seen as equal and could not improve greatly in their
daily jobs. However, there are still many cases of women being pressured
to have children all around the world and this pressure will not subside
too hastily.