Willy Russell's Educating Rita Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Willy Russell's Educating Rita - Essay Example It traces the development of a young working class hairdresser who attends English literature tutorials with an older academic called Frank. While the story of Rita is both amusing and poignant, it is in fact the transformation of Frank that provides the richest message of the play. At the beginning of the play there is a deliberate contrast between Rita’s fresh approach to literature, and Frank’s obvious boredom with his job. This can be seen in the way that Rita surprises Frank in her answers to his assignment questions, for example when he asks her a question about how to stage the play Peer Gynt, Rita answers â€Å"Do it on the radio† (Act I, Scene 4). The audience knows that part of the reason for this short answer is that she had to struggle against the combined opposition of her partner and her father to complete this assingmnent. Frank, however, interprets this the answer of a genius, showing Rita is an original spirit, able to think around the question a nd reframe it in an intelligent and quite radical way. It is not the kind of answer that Frank would expect from his usual students.