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Significant Scenes from ‘Educating Rita’
(Simply some brief note-headings to remind you of our discussions)
The Opening Scene
Contrasting characters from very different worlds
Rita : working class, loud, vulgar, swears, interested, lively mind (the painting),
funny, forthright, hungry for knowledge, Remember the window, talks all the time,
references refer to pulp fiction or television – Rita Mae Brown, Elliot Ness, wants
something more from life, does not want to conform (baby) , impressed by Frank and
his world , desperately wants what he has
Frank : Door stuck ( rut), has not ‘looked’ at much for years, academic, middle-class,
educated, references are literary, drawn to Rita’s freshness and honesty
Quotes
‘It’s that stupid bleeding handle on the door’
‘ the real students’
‘Degrees for dishwashers’
‘Everything’
‘I’m always cutting hearing aid cords’
‘ Everything I know – and you must listen to this – is that I know absolutely nothing’
Act 1 ( vii) (The Dinner)
The dinner – Denny had objected + she felt inferior – what to wear – talk about –
wine to bring – object of ridicule – a laugh! – feels no longer belongs in her own
world but neither does she belong in Frank’s – went to pub – mother! – makes her
even more determined to pursue her education
Quotes
‘But I don’t want to be charming and delightful’
‘I don’t want to be funny’
‘I wanna talk seriously with the rest of you’
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‘I’m a freak’
‘I’m a half-caste’
‘Because we could sing better songs than those’
Act 11(1) (Post Summer School)
Student dress, new sources of influence, confident ( lecture, tutor), new flatmate,
Blake! , wants to open window- won’t budge! Wants Frank to change –drinking too
much.
Frank beginning to sense how she is changing – his influence on her? Senses
beginning to lose her – his summer – has done little – sense of him waiting for her
return – see his dependence on her and her lessening need of him,
Quotes
‘Frank it was fantastic’
‘You don’t do Blake without doing innocence and experience, do y’?’
Act 11 ( v) ( Frank’s poetry – argument)
Rita has not been turning up to tutorials- Bistro – Frank knew nothing of it – Frank
feels abandoned – She raves about Frank’s poetry that he had given her - She and
Trish ! Jargon ! Violent argument – She says he is jealous ( why?)
Quotes
‘Oh I’ve done a fine job on you’
‘I shall insist on being known as Mary Shelley’
‘I don’t need you’
‘I know what clothes to wear, what wine to buy, what plays to see’
‘ Have you come all this way for so very, very little’
‘Nobody calls me Rita but you
Final Scene
Frank enforced sabbatical- packing up – the exam ? Peer Gynt ? – Trish’s attempted
suicide – Haircut Quotes ‘you’re a good teacher’ ‘ I was so hungry’ ‘ I had a
choice’
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