Educating Rita is a show about change and transformation. Susan White, a working-class girl, wants to escape the traps of the class system and become “educated,” thinking that this will allow her to “sing a better song.” By the end of the show, her transformation is absolute, and although drastic changes can be seen during Act 2, many aspects of Rita and her life have changed during the first section. Obviously she changes her name to Rita, in honor of her favorite author. This is particularly endearing as it shows her ambition to escape her former life but also her naivety in calling herself by the name of such a minor author. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Rita's first entrance is, although delayed by the stiff door, lively and energetic; He immediately speaks and scolds. His speech is constant, masks his nervousness and develops like a tirade: Rita leads the conversation. However, in her final entrance of the Act, Rita enters “slowly” and “vaguely.” Now Frank leads the conversation, speaking first and prompting Rita with questions, and when Rita responds it is short and direct, almost artificial. Even though her nervousness is gone, Rita has already started to lose the energy and “uniqueness” that made her such an interesting and attractive character. One of the key areas of Rita's life that changes from Act 1 is her relationship with her husband, Denny. At the beginning of the show, Rita is still living at home with him, even though their relationship is on the rocks. When Rita gives her speeches about how stifled she is by her working-class trappings, she regularly references Denny demonstrating that she sees him as the embodiment of everything she doesn't like about her background. She compares him to a "drug addict" and often tells Frank about Denny's reservations about his new upbringing, saying that Denny gets "put down", "scared", and "tries to stop me [Rita] from coming". The next time Denny is mentioned, it's because he burned all of Rita's books because he finds out that she hasn't stopped taking the pill. Rita knows that her marriage is failing, telling Frank that she knows he often wonders "where the girl he married went" and shows her resentment of Denny in the line "she wants him to stop shaking the coffin". Rita sees Denny and her old life as already dead while education can let her escape and provide her with "life itself." The act of book burning links him to the Nazis in our minds, but Rita's subsequent speech makes him appear not as an evil person, but as someone who cannot understand. He wants to be able to have a real choice about his life: Denny thinks they already have a choice by being able to choose between "eight different types of concentration camps" or "one crappy school and the next." At the end of the act, Denny gave Rita an ultimatum and she left the house. Rita chose her upbringing and her “choice” over her husband and has finally started to leave her old life behind. Rita's other relationship explored in the play is with Frank. This is the basis of the entire work and is constantly changing. The wonder and mutual admiration at the beginning of the play eventually turns to disillusioned resentment, but by the end of the first act both are still friendly. Rita views Frank with great respect and is fascinated by him when they meet for the first time. She refuses to let him move her to another tutor, calling him "a crazy piss artist" and telling him that "she likes him". For her, Frank embodies the exciting new world of cultured people and literature, just as Denny symbolizes, however”.
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