Educating Rita

A play in which there is an important relationship is “Educating Rita” by Willy Russell. I am going to show how this relationship is important to the play as a whole. The play takes place in the confines of Frank’s, Rita’s English tutor at the O.U (Open University), office over an unspecified period of time. Rita, who is 26 years old and is a part of the working class, although she believes she is in the middle “... I’m a half -caste...” she is unhappy with the direction in which her life is going and wants that to change. She wants a better life (... we could be singing better songs than this...) she wants to be a “somebody” and she wants to feel like she belongs to “the educated class”, hence taking the O.U course.
I think Willy Russell may have depicted his own ambitions as he was much like Rita in that he came from a working class background from Liverpool.   Perhaps he wished he could have had the same guidance as he shows Rita gets.
The relationship starts in Act 1, Scene 1, when we are first introduced to Frank, then Rita. Frank who is drunk “... we should recognise the voice of a man who shifts a lot of booze” is on the phone when Rita knocks on his door. Rita enters and immediately starts to talk, before Frank can even say hello “I’m comin’ in, aren’t I? It’s that stupid bleedin’ handle on the door. You wanna get it fixed!”, Rita is very talkative “... I talk too much don’t I?... I talk a lot when I’m nervous”, Rita knows her flaws, but Frank doesn’t see them as flaws, he is shocked by Rita, but doesn’t believe talking too much is her flaw “... you’re the first breath of fresh air that been in this room for years.” Frank likes Rita but doesn’t show it much. The door handle seems to be symbolic of the barrier between her and the choices she believes she feels she deserves by becoming educated.   This is interesting as later on in the play she oils the handle which is again symbolic of her beginning to find her way past the barrier and also shows how her...