Essay on Educating Rita

Willy Russell was born in 1947 in Whiston which is close to Liverpool. Willy Russell had left school with one O-level in English. When Willy Russell had left school, Willy Russell had taken the job of being a hairdresser. Willy Russell had been through a selection of jobs which include writing songs for a local […]

The predominant aspect of change throughout the play is that of Rita’s character. This essay will explore the ways in which Rita changes and develops her character. ‘Educating Rita’ was written by Willy Russell, and throughout the play it is easy to recognise that the character of Rita that Russell created mirrors Willy Russell himself. […]

Frank is a very unconventional teacher. Although this can be argued as a good trait, Frank is not sufficiently detached from his students. This could lead him to look at her work from a bias point of view. To pass examinations, you’re going to have to suppress, perhaps even abandon your uniqueness. In Act One, […]

I believe that the opening scenes of Educating Rita are extremely effective in introducing the characters of Frank and Rita to the audience, not only through the speech but also by the setting and the props. The opening scenes establish the two characters of Frank and Rita firmly in the spectator’s mind. However one has […]

Willy Russell’s play, Educating Rita is set in the 1980’s in the North of England. A young woman in her late twenties called Rita is very determined to get an education and sets out to find one. She seeks help from Frank, a middle-aged university lecturer who relies on drink to get through his life. […]

At this time working class people did not usually stay in at school later than the age of 15. This lead to talent being wasted and many people leaving school with no qualifications. This applied even more to the women of this time as many of them were expected to simply get married and become […]

Educating Rita was published in 1982, written by Willy Russel. Educating Rita tells the story of a university lecturer, named Frank, and an undereducated Liverpudlian woman, named Rita, in search for higher learning. Being set in the 80’s, the book and its story reflect some of the most pivotal moments in British history for women […]

Educating Rita shows the major transformations that happen in the main character, Rita, due to a significant alteration in her education, providing her with new ‘choices’ for later life. As Rita, is trapped by working class life, she finds it difficult to tackle the academic tasks facing her. However, Rita does show ounces of intelligence […]

This script discusses the development of Rita’s character. To see if her growth from an uneducated, ignorant girl to an educated sophisticated woman has altered her for the better or for the worse and how her relationship with Frank has been affected with her change in attitude towards life and education.From the beginning of the […]

The attitudes towards women were drastically changing when “Educating Rita” was being both written and performed. Many women during the 70’s were beginning to feel frustrated that their main roles in life were those of housewife and mother. They were starting to realise that they deserved the same rights as men in all aspects of […]

Educating Rita is a play written by Willy Russell. It tells the story of Frank and Rita. The play is a two-hander; there are only two characters involved in the whole duration of the play. Although there are many other people that are important in the play, Educating Rita primarily focuses on Frank, a dissolute […]

The impressions that Rita makes on the audience in act 1 scene 1 are quite a few. Firstly the way she enters the room she finds it difficult to get into the room because the handle on the door is broke, she says “it’s that stupid bleedin’ handle on the door you wanna get that […]

In creating ‘Educating Rita’ Russell produced a piece of drama to entertain and give a wide audience the opportunity to understand the class and culture difficulties and differences faced between Rita who represents the working class and Frank who represents the middle class. The contrast between Rita’s witty and thoughtful remarks, lively personality and Frank’s […]

Willy Russell was born in Whiston, near Liverpool, England, in 1947. Russell has written a string of popular, award-winning plays and musicals, but perhaps one of the most well known is Educating Rita. In this play Willy Russell is very much producing a mirror image of parts of his life. As a child and growing […]

In this essay I am going to show my ideas for staging a production of ‘Educating Rita’, a play written by Willy Russell in 1979. It was performed particularly in the 1980s decade and was written to appeal to both middle class people and the working class. The most famous production of ‘Educating Rita’ was […]

In this essay I will be addressing the development of the characters Rita and Frank, from the play Educating Rita, develops throughout the course of the play. I will also make a comparison between the play and the film version starring Julie Walters and Michael Caine.Rita is an uneducated working housewife, stuck in a world […]

The first issue in Educating Rita is Frank not being to keen on teaching Rita but he has to because he needs the money. ‘ D’ y’ need the money? ” I do as a matter of fact ‘. Another of the early issues is Rita’s husband Denny not wanting Rita to go to the […]

Willy Russell was born in Liverpool in 1947. Russell comes from a working class background and grew up with his mother, grandmother and aunts around him, he said that this has had a big impact on his writing career, where he reflects opinions on class and women as in ‘Educating Rita’. When he left school […]

Rita is a young woman who is looking to extened her education. She has a husband who is looking to start a family but Rita feels she has a gap in her life and is hoping a better education and understanding shall help her move on. She has a need to take control of the […]

I have chosen to write about Act 2 Scene 1. In this scene Rita has been to summer school and we notice changes in her character and her attitude. Rita is now much more educated as we can tell. I have chosen this scene because I feel it contains the most significant changes to both […]

The comedy was first produced at the Liverpool Playhouse in February 1981 and was made into a film, produced by Lewis Gilbert in 1983, starring Michael Caine (Dr. Frank Bryant) and Julie Walters (Rita White). It was revised and re-written by Willy Russell in March 2003 for the reason that it is used for examinations. […]