Clash of Classes and Cultures in Educating Rita Essay example -- Educa

Clash of Classes and Cultures in Educating Rita To What Extent Would You Agree That Educating Rita Depicts a Clash of Classes and Cultures? 'Educating Rita' is a play by Willy Russell, a dramatist recently turned novelist. 'Educating Rita' contains only two characters, a young woman called Rita and a middle-aged man called Frank, although this may sound boring these characters are so interesting that anymore characters would ruin the ambiance of the play. In the early part of the play Rita, a hairdresser from north-west England, has started an Open University course with Frank, a university lecturer in his early fifties, in order to change herself. Throughout the play Rita becomes more and more cultured giving up anything that gets in the way of her education or tries to stop her being the cultured individual she wants to be. Rita is a working class woman in her late twenties trying to find herself through a university education; Frank is a divorced university professor in his early fifties. Bored of teaching Frank drinks his life away and has taken on Rita as an Open University student to fund this habit. These two interesting characters from very different backgrounds are thrown together and the clashes of class and culture are depicted in a number of ways. Rita's language is very colloquial and this, at times, amuses Frank; for example, '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. These phrases seem out of place when issued by Frank. 'One is obviously very off one's cake,' - 'you can't say that [Frank].' Frank's sesquipedalian language does not mix with Ri... ...etween two classes and cultures. In the earlier part of the play Rita feels surrounded by an alien environment, the university and its students, she is nervous and, as a result, comes across as very loquacious. She sees this in herself when she says, 'I talk too much' in act one scene one. However, towards the end of play her speeches are generally shorter. In this new environment Rita also feels isolated but gradually changes and feels as though she can interact with the 'real students'. When she finally does this in act two, scene two it may surprise the audience because in earlier scenes she describes them as 'real students' as though her life and their lives cannot mix. But, when she finally does speak to the student, the first line she tells us she said was, 'Excuse me but I couldn't help overhearin' the rubbish you were spoutin' about Lawrence.'