Educating Rita: Important Quotations
Below is a selection of some of the best quotations from
‘Educating Rita’. Learn approximately 10 which cover various
ideas- i.e. Rita’s struggle, Denny, Frank’s problems etc.
“I’m comin in, aren’t I? It’s that stupid bleedin handle on the door. You wanna get it
fixed!” – Symbolises Rita’s struggle to enter academic world.
"Everything I know--and you must listen to this--is that I know absolutely nothing."
"Do you think it's erotic...Look at those tits!"
"God, what's it like to be free?"
“See if I’d started taking school seriously I would have been different from my mates,
and that’s not allowed.”
“My mind’s full of junk isn’t it? It needs a good clearing out.”
"I've been realizin' for ages that I was, y' know, slightly out of step. I'm twenty-six. I
should have had a baby by now; everyone expects it. I'm sure me husband thinks I'm
sterile. He was moanin' all the time, y' know, 'Come off the pill, let's have a baby.' I
told him I'd come off it, just to shut him up. But I'm still on it. See, I don't wanna
baby yet. I wanna discover myself first. Do you understand that?"
"Found a culture, have you, Rita? Found a better song to sing, have you? No--you have
found a different song, that's all. And on your lips it's shrill and hollow and tuneless.
Oh, Rita, Rita…"
"I can't talk to the people I live with anymore. An' I can't talk to the likes of them
[the academic crowd], because I can't learn the language. I'm a half-caste."
“Because I think your marvellous. Do you know you’re the first breath of fresh air
that’s been in here for years.” – Frank is in awe of Rita
"I'd just play another record or buy another dress an' stop worryin"
Frank symbolically puts her essay on the pile with the others because it would not look
out of place. “It wouldn’t look out of place with these.”
“The great thing about the booze is that it makes one believe that under all the talk,
one is actually saying something.” – Frank’s alcoholism leave him with very low selfesteem.
“I don’t know that I want to teach you. What you have is already valuable.” – Frank
recognises that Rita has something he will never be able to teach- honesty.
(Offering a haircut and perhaps more at the end of the play) - “I’m gonna take ten
years off you.” –Rita is now the one looking after Frank
“He thinks we’ve got choice already: choice between Everton an’ Liverpool, choosin’
which washin’ powder…choosin’ between Stork an’ butter.” – Rita mocks her own classthe working class. She is clearly dissatisfied with her life.
‘I don’t want to be funny … I wanna talk seriously with the rest of you … I don’t want to
come to your house just to play the court jester.’
‘… I asked her why. I said. ‘Why are y’ cryin’, Mother?’ She said, ‘Because – because
we could sing better songs than those.’ – Rita is aware that there is more to life than
drinking, shopping and singing. She wants more from her life.
“Like what you’ve got to be into is music an’ clothes an’ lookin’ for a feller, y’know the
real qualities of life.”
“Denny gets dead narked if I work at home. He doesn’t like me doing this.”
“Denny found out I was on the pill again; it was my fault, I left my prescription out. He
burnt all me books.”
“…he’s wondering where the girl he married has gone to…she’s gone an’ I’ve taken her
place.”
"This tutor came up to me… an' he said, "Are you fond of Ferlinghetti?" It was right on
the tip of me tongue, to say, "Only when it's served with parmesan cheese", but, Frank,
I didn't!"
“I heard one of the sayin’ as a novel he preferred Lady Chatterley to Sons and Lovers.
I thought , I can keep walkin’ and ignore it, or I can put him straight. So I put him
straight.” –Rita’s confidence is growing.
“For students they don’t half come out with some rubbish you know.”
"I'll tell you what you can't bear, Mr. Self-Pitying Piss Artist. What you can't bear is
that I am educated now. What's up, Frank, don't y' like me now that the little girl's
grown up, now that y' can no longer bounce me on daddy's knee an' watch me stare back
in wide-eyed wonder at everything he has to say? I'm educated, I've got what you have
an' y' don't like it because you'd rather see me as the peasant I once was. … I don't
need you anymore. I've got a room full of books. I know what clothes to wear, what
wine to buy, what plays to see, what papers and books to read. I can do without you."
"Found a culture, have you, Rita? Found a better song to sing, have you? No--you have
found a different song, that's all. And on your lips it's shrill and hollow and tuneless.
Oh, Rita, Rita…"
‘… I shall change my name; from now on I shall insist upon being known as Mary, Mary
Shelley …’ – Frank compares himself to Mary Shelley, the author of ‘Frankenstein,’ as
he feels he has created a monster in Rita.
“I might go to France. I might go to my mother’s. I might even have a baby. I dunno.
I’ll make a decision. I’ll choose.” – At last, Rita is in control of her life.