Q11.1 Educating Rita PDF

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Zusammenfassung der Englisch Lektüre Educating Rita für Englisch Kolloquium...

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Educating Rita (1981) “I wanted to make a play which engaged and was relevant to those who had no knowledge of literature, those who considered themselves uneducated, those whose daily language is not the language of the university or the theatre.” o Susan White, a hairdresser who decides to call herself Rita and study English at the Open University o Educating Rita is a passionate plea for everyone´s right to a decent education

The author Willy Russell o o o o o o o o o o

born 23 August 1947 English dramatist, lyricist, composer best known works: Educating Rita, Shirley Valentine, Blood Brothers left school at the age of 15 became a ladies’ hairdresser, running his own salon until the age of 20 when he was 20 he returned to education and became a teacher at college he began writing drama respects the world of work his characters are of the working class  wanted to write for working class audiences Educating Rita was inspired by Russell`s experience of returning to education as a mature student, and uses Pygmalion myth as source material  Pygmalion, a sculptor, makes a statue representing his ideal of womanhood and falls in love with his own creation (Galatea) the goddess Venus brings his statue to life in answer to his prayer

Educating Rita – Biography Willy Russell o was also brought up in a working class family in Liverpool  father worked in a factory, mother in a warehouse o experience of school is mirrored in Rita´s description on p.31  horrendous circumstances, fights, dealer, surviving, bad teachers o worked as ladies´ hairdresser until he was 20 o felt left out of theatres because they were just for upper classes  changed his opinion when his girlfriend took him to Liverpool´s Everyman Theatre  experience is echoed by Rita´s enthusiasm for her first visit to the theatre o he wanted to know everything like Rita o feels that the working class is denied access to many aspects of national culture  but also criticizes the working class´s attitude towards changes (Denny)

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Act I Scene 1 The scene starts with Frank searching for his booze. He is not really amused about giving lessons to an open university student but he needs the money to pay for his liquor. The relationship between him and his wife is not so good because he gets mad when she calls him to ask if he will have dinner with her even though he told her that he will be late again. Rita enters the room and Frank is a little bit confused of her behaviour at first but I think Rita amuses him. She immediately notices the painting on the wall of a naked woman. Rita feels like she is missing something in her life and wants to know everything. At the end of the scene Frank says he will find another tutor for her because he is a bad teacher but Rita refuses and offers him a haircut.

Act I Scene 2 Frank is waiting for Rita when he notices the door handle is being turned but no one walks in. It is Rita oiling the door knob. Also Frank can learn something of Rita. She explains to him what “off ones cake” means but he shouldn´t use because it sounds wrong. Rita tells him about her old school. In her school you couldn´t admit to like learning. It was a horrible situation. Even the teachers were fighting. So instead she bought new dresses to distract from that situation. She managed to resist to buy another dress because she rather wants to change her personality than changing her appearance again. Rita is upset about the book Howards End because it doesn´t deal with social problems. Rita is curious so we get to know that Frank and his wife spilt up and he lives with an ex-student now. She tries to improve the relationship but he doesn´t really love her. That is also why he starts flirting with Rita and wishes he would have met her 20 years ago.

Act I Scene 3 Frank is still flirting with Rita. Wants to see her tits. In her essay she should not compare a book to pulp fiction. Rita has never been in contact with “good” literature so she can´t tell if everything is really literature.

Act I Scene 4 Rita becomes desperate about Forster´s line “Only connect, only connect”. In her essay about Peer Gynt she only writes one sentence because she was busy in the barber shop and Denny doesn´t want her to learn. He is afraid to lose her. While she is writing a new essay about Gynt she tells Frank that even customers in the store were interested in Peer Gynt. In the end she finally starts to connect things until she understands Forster. She finds out that it is only irony and Frank is very proud of her Gynt essay.

Act I Scene 5 Denny found out that Rita is still on the pill and burnt all her books Frank lent her. Frank is worried about her that situation but Rita consists to learn

Q11/1 something about Checkhov. Denny maybe is afraid because Frank can give Rita something he can´t. Education and chances. Rita wants to go to an amateur theatre with Frank but he is concerned about Julia´s reaction. Frank is still flirting with Rita as he says she is wonderful.

Act I Scene 6 Rita comes unexpected to Frank´s office to tell him she went in a professional theatre “Macbeth”. She is amazed of the play and wants to write an essay about it. Frank explains her the difference between tragic and tragedy. Frank wants to meet for lunch and Rita suggests to go to the art gallery. Frank also invites her and Denny to his home for dinner with friends.

Act I Scene 7 Frank is sad and disappointed that Rita didn´t come to the dinner. She explains that she wanted to come although Denny didn´t want to and was mad at Rita. But as she was standing in front of Frank´s house she got scared and was afraid she bought the wrong wine. So she went back to the pub where her family sang a song. Suddenly her mother started crying because she thinks they could sing better songs, they could have a better life.

Act I Scene 8 Denny threw her out because she wants to continue taking lessons with Frank. She comes into Frank´s office and tells him about that. You can see that he cares about her because he is worried about Rita. Frank finds her essay about Macbeth very good but it is not what they expect in tests. So she has to change her style of writing and Frank is unhappy about that because she is such a unique person with a unique style. But Rita came here because she wants to be changed.

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Act II Scene 1 Rita comes back from summer school in London. Frank seems really happy to see her again. She tells him about her experiences in summer school. Before summer school she got a new flat mate what Frank didn´t know. Frank tells Rita that Julia left him because of an argument about eggs. Rita spots the Whiskey bottle Frank is hiding. She tells him off why he is still drinking because she thought he would have changed himself. Frank wants to teach Rita about William Blake but she already did him in summer school. He is upset because you don´t just do an author and he wanted to teach her that. He feels a little bit useless. He is sure that one day Rita will leave him and he will lose her good influence on him.

Act II Scene 2 Rita comes in to Frank´s office talking in a proper way. Frank doesn´t like that and ask her to talk normal. She also spoke to a few students on the grass before the lesson. She was very proud of telling some guy off. Frank is jealous of Tyson/ Tiger and accuses Rita to have fallen in love with him. The students asked Rita to go abroad with them, Rita has never been abroad. Frank doesn´t like that she may leave with them.

Act II Scene 3 Frank is very drunk so students reported him. He uses expressions Rita taught him like “off one´s cake” and told the students assonance means getting the rhyme wrong. Frank is afraid of losing Rita and doesn´t want to accept that she doesn´t need him anymore. Rita is angry because Frank behaves that way. He also says that Rubyfruit Jungle is excellence but even Rita knows now that it isn´t.

Act II Scene 4 Rita is too late. Frank was worried and called the hairdresser´s shop. He is told that Rita doesn´t work there anymore. Rita thought that she has told Frank but she obviously didn´t what makes Frank sad and disappointed because there was a time when Rita told him everything. He thinks Rita does not even want to come to the lessons any more. In the end he hands her a poem of himself to write an essay about it.

Act II Scene 5 Rita comes unexpected to Frank. She wanted to tell him his poems are brilliant. He thinks he has done a great job on Rita but he hates that he had to change her. He also hates his poems so he throws them away. The two get into a fight because Frank can´t bear that Rita is educated now and can do without him. Rita has changed a lot and so did her life. She even changed her name again but Frank doesn´t know into which one.

Act II Scene 6 Frank is on the phone trying to reach Rita/ Susan to tell her the detail for the examination.

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Act II Scene 7 It is Christmas. Rita comes to Frank to tell him he is a good teacher and she passed the exam about Peer Gynt. Rita tells him that Trish her roommate who she kind of adored tried to kill herself. She was surprised because Trish seemed to have a happy life. Frank wants her to go to Australia with him. Also Tiger asked her to go to France with him and his friends. Rita cannot decide what to do yet. She may even have a baby. Frank gives her a dress he once bought for an educated woman. In the end Rita finally gives Frank a haircut to make him look younger. Even Rita changed herself into a better educated woman she never lost herself.

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Characterisations Rita White (Susan) o o o o

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26 years old, highly intelligent and honest outspoken, down-to-earth woman from Liverpool´s working class so far has always played the role expected by her family and friends rejected educational achievement to fit in  instead focused on pop music, clothes and boys  now she feels like she might be missing something became a ladies´ hairdresser bored by the superficial conversations of her customers sees the working class way of living as a disease  don´t have a lot of choices because they don´t have a good education understand and feels sorry for them but she still wants to change her life wants to discover herself and find a ”better culture” passion for reading  admired a popular novel written by Rita Mae Brown, Rubyfruit Jungle  changed her name into Rita not aware of the conventional way of answering examination questions  too subjective and emotional  has to be more objective and refer to proper samples  might lose her ability to react to it spontaneously and honestly major step in Rita´s education: watching Macbeth passing an academic exam becomes a symbol of this better quality of life period when she would be a cultural misfit, alienated from her old culture, but not yet part of a new one  dinner party at Frank´s house  realises she does not belong to Frank´s middle class Summer school in London marks her entrance in this new culture begins to feel that she has outgrown Frank  no longer needs his guidance she used to always interrupt him with personal questions  used to appreciate him the way he is  now wants to change him loses her refreshing honesty and spontaneity  seems to be afraid of her own feelings in case they are not acceptable for the exam Rita and Frank appear to be changing places  Rita now approaches literature with the objective, analytic eye of the academic  Frank urges her to appreciate it in a more emotional, subjective way he was the most important person in her life she later understands that Frank only tried to warn her not to lose herself instead of an education she had merely gained knowledge Rita has wider more meaningful choices what to do with her life she has achieved a balance between her old self and the new

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Frank Bryant o in his early fifties o middle class  represents a different culture and is Rita´s key to a better way of life o drinking problem o failed at being a poet  university lecturer o has grown bored and frustrated, disillusioned, cynical  students just go to university to have a secure future, are not really interested in literature o later we begin to understand that he is really a very sensitive person o split up from his wife, now lives with a former student called Julia o Rita brings fresh air into his office o afraid that he has to give up his boring but comfortable existence to educate Rita o “Through Rita Russell is challenging the traditional university studies by forcing Frank to question his own understanding of his work and of himself” o he is afraid that Rita will lose her unique and refreshing spirit  he would be responsible for such change o he doesn´t really understand what it is like to be in the working class  even after Rita has painted a depressing picture of working class culture he cannot see anything wrong with it as long as the people believe they are happy  he is not as much aware of social class as Rita  he does not recognize that he put Rita in an embarrassing situation when he invited her to his dinner party  was disappointed that she did not come o Rita is too ignorant of middle class academic culture to know that in his circles Frank, too, is an outsider o he is unaware of all the sacrifices Rita has made o he begins to dislike the person Rita is changing into  has lost the one person who had given his teaching some sense of purpose and brighten up his existence o he is devastated when Rita tells him she has already read the poems of William Blake because he wanted to see her reaction and teach her o he thinks he has created a monster  he is so disappointed that he can no longer stand the sight of her o under Rita´s influence he had cut down on alcohol, but now there is no reason to control himself o for him education is more than the transmission of knowledge, skills and exam techniques  tries to develop a person´s whole being o balance between teaching the accepted code of literary studies and helping his students to become more sensitive and aware o haircut  Frank´s rejuvenation

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Educating Rita (Willy Russell 1981) – Pygmalion (George Bernard Shaw 1913)

similar

different

Young woman who wants to improve herself

Educating Rita: broaden her horizon Pygmalion: improve the way she E: hairdresser P: flower girl E: can choose  go back to Denny, go to Paris with friends, go to Australia P: marry Freddy, go back to Higgins, become Nepommuck´s assistant E: Rita came to Frank out of her own accord P: Eliza meets Higgins coincidentally Frank is in love with Rita´s natural and fresh behaviour Higgins only likes what he made of her  he is proud like Pygmalion was of his work

Members of a lower social class Open end, fight between them

Development in language & education Higgins & Frank are both trying to improve the way the young ladies speak and behave Fall in love with them Want them to stay

Education and identity changes o Eliza Doolittle is a young flower girl who speaks a gutter language o Rita is a hairdresser who wants to gain education in order to escape her social class o the stories tell how the education of the women changes their lives Internal and external changes o Eliza changes on the surface  transformed into a refined young lady, behaves like a duchess  but no change in personality o Rita doesn´t change her way of talking but gained a lot of knowledge which brings her to a world of self-respect and new opportunities

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Questions 1. Explain in what way the play deals with the issue of a strict class system in British society 2. There are characters who appear on stage and others who never actually are on stage in this play. Name some and explain why some characters do not need to appear. 3. Comment on the theme of “change” and “personal growth” by referring to the two protagonists, Rita and Frank. 4. “Education is no doubt the most prominent theme of the play. It is included in the title. But the role it plays is ambiguous (mehrdeutig). Explain in what way. 5. This play is set in the 1980s, but has literally models. Tell us about Pygmalion as one of them. 6. There are also parallels to Willy Russel´s life. Can you outline some? 7. Give a short introductory presentation of this play....