Rita shows
the quest for the meaning of life
 In
Willy Russell’s novel “Educating Rita”, published in 1981, the 26-year
–old hairdresser Susan White, who has changed her original name into Rita, decides to
attend Open University. This institution is a non-residential University, which enables
people without academic qualifications to broaden and complete their knowledge of a
specific subject by offering television and radio programs as well as a personal tutor.
But which reasons may have persuaded her to participate in that program?
In
fact, Rita already holds a job as a ladies’ hairdresser and is married. She is
expected by her social environment to have a baby and live an orderly life as a mother and
wife, but not to study Chekhov, Ibsen and Shakespeare.
The
reasons for her desire to learn, which leads her to OU, are caused by her extensive
dissatisfaction with her present circumstances. Her job does not demand any effort and
passion from her; it does not require or reveal her talent, intelligence and energy. She
dislikes both the humdrum practice and the people surrounding her, who are never talking
about “things that matter” (page 16, line 16). Another source of discontent is
her relationship with her husband Denny, who does not basically understand her want for
changing her life. That becomes very clear when he answers her desperate explanations,
that she “wanted a better way of livin’” by suggesting to save money to
move to a better neighbourhood (page 18, line 35f.). His willingness is limited to the
social advancement symbolized by a new flat, an expensive car or a holiday abroad, but her
request is more fundamental: It is searching for the meaning of life and it is about the
choice to live a life the way you want to. Rita’s wishes are confronted with the
incomprehension and even anger of her family and friends. Talking about Denny she
expresses their controversial opinions: “He thinks we’ve got choice already:
choice between Everton and Liverpool, choosin’ which washing powder, choosin’
between one lousy school an’ the next, between lousy jobs or the dole, choosin’
between Stork an’ butter.” Though many
of her acquaintances share her feelings, they don’t articulate them in the way Rita
does. They numb their discontentment by taking refuge in memories of the past, in
consuming or even in taking drugs. The subliminal pressure of the working-class people not
to differ from their way of life does not allow to voice feelings of meaninglessness,
it’s “like this sort of disease, but no one mentions it, everybody behaves as
though it’s normal”(page 36, line 9-11). This attitude is reinforced by the
media only controlling the consumers’ behaviour without encouraging them to widen
their horizons regarding the attempt to change and improve your lifestyle. Rita herself
has experienced that consuming diverts attention from focusing on one’s problems. But
the idea of giving birth to a baby marks a watershed: She realizes that she has to
discover herself and her ambitions in life first. By this time the restrained feelings of
dissatisfaction become stronger and she makes her decision to apply for OU, in order to
“change from the inside” (page 17, line 26).
She
is convinced that education will enable her to escape from a dreary life and to discover
other possibilities of living one’s life. In her opinion education means having a
choice and achieving the freedom she had looked for for a long time. Rita shows the quest
for the meaning of life and getting to know English literature, which “feeds her from
inside” (page 36, line 26), is her way to perceive it. This is what makes her so
eager to learn “everything”, what makes her overcome the obstacles that make a
stand against her and what makes Willy Russell’s play so thrilling for all of us.
J.H.,
1.Sem., Sep.2011 |
Rita
is deeply dissatisfied
Rita
wants to visit the Open University, because she wants a better way to live her life. In
the first scene Frank asks her what it is that has led her do this and she answers that
her husband wants to have a baby with her, but she does not want a baby, because she wants
to discover herself first. She does not like her job as a ladies’ hairdresser,
because the women who want to get their hair cut never tell things that matter and want to
become different persons by having a different haircut. So Rita maybe thinks she could get
a better job after visiting the Open University.
Rita
tells Frank that she was often thinking that she got it all wrong, but because of the bad
environment she lived in when she was a schoolgirl, she never thought about how she could
change her way of living her life and become a different person than her parents and
friends.
Her
husband wants her to be a housewife and does not want her to become more educated than
him, so he starts a big fight, but Rita continues going to Frank, so you can see how
important it is to her.
Rita
also tells Frank that it makes her stronger to come there. I think she never felt
complete, because she always bought dresses and stuff like that to make herself feel
better. But now she says that what she learns from him about art and literature feeds her
inside. She has always lived a superficial and trivial life and wants to change that now,
because actually she hates it and people who act that way, which is another reason why she
hates her job. The women who want to become different persons by getting a haircut are
superficial and Rita thinks you have to change yourself from the inside. And that is what
she wants to do - change from the inside.
She
even changed her name to Rita, her real name is Susan. It’s like she wants to become
not only more educated, but also someone else. I think her participation in the Open
University is like the beginning of a new, better life for her and a second chance to be
the woman she always wanted to be. |
L.K.,
1.Sem. , Sep.2011
Rita explains why she
wants a better education
 ”Hi!
My name is Rita, actually it is Susan White, but please call me Rita. I am a 26-year-old
woman living in Liverpool. Everyone around me is poor, not very educated and doesn’t
really understand me. I was married and really bored with the working class I lived in.
The working class thinks that they have a choice but they haven't. It really isn't very
long ago, when I was totally unhappy with my
life and I hated everything I did. You are probably asking
yourself how much unhappiness is necessary to say anything like that? I had a simple life
filled by routine, every day I had to do my job. I was a hairdresser. I don’t want to
sound mean, but you can surely imagine how sick I was of it. Especially my costumers were
annoying, always the same conversations. They are pretty superficial, when they come and
expect to become a more beautiful person only by changing their hair style. Of course, I
came home after work every day as it is part of my daily routine. At home someone was
waiting for me ready to hear how my day was or rather to hear it was exactly like every
day. He is my husband, an honest man. I am sure he loves me and I know I love him, but he
doesn't understand me and I'm not prepared to have a baby with him right now. Obviously we
have different points of view on life.
The time
was ripe for a ”revolution”. I recognized that something in my life was missing.
I wanted to change. There must be more than the superficial things my costumers at the
hairdresser´s are talking about. The question was, how could I change and how could I
achieve a contented life? I decided to try the Open University. You are asking why? There
are a lot of reasons: First I want to find my real identity. Who am I? What ‘s my
destiny? I can't be a housewife, wife and mother of three children without knowing who I
am. There is so much that I don't know about myself. I am only 26 years old and I already
have the feeling that my life is over!
So I
applied at the Open University with confidence, hoping to join a course in English
literature because I love reading. I met Dr. Frank Bryant, my tutor. Frank is a smart
university lecturer, middle-aged, an alcoholic and a really impressive man. He has seen a
lot of this world and he knows everything about English literature. I hope he can educate
and teach me, because I have to catch up with everything. I want to become a new person
with an improved quality of life. I would recommend to everyone who feels this kind of
emptiness in his life to take the same way I went. I had searched for a solution for a
long time. It was definitely the right way, although in the end some things in my life
changed more dramatically than I had thought.”
E.R.,
1.Sem., Sep. 2011
Rita analyses her life
 Hello.
I’m Rita White, but my real forename is Susan. I called myself after the author Rita
Mae Brown, who wrote one of my favourite books, Rubyfruit Jungle. I’m twenty six
years old, I work as a hairdresser and I’m married, but I haven’t had a baby up
to now. My family and friends would describe me as a direct, candid, blitheful and
cheerful person due to my manner. But I’m also determined and aspiring, because I
decided to study further and applied at the Open University.
I
sometimes wonder why I actually attend the university. I mean, I could live in the way
like I lived the last years. But this would be both too easy and boring in my eyes. I
don’t want to be a hairdresser my whole life. People come into my hairdresser’s
shop and expect from me talking with them about irrelevant stuff and making them into
another person. This is absurd. You have to change from inside. I want to have
conversations with people about intellectual topics - themes which are important for
society. And I experienced that some people from my social class are interested in such
themes, too.
But
I cannot expect any support from my family for my intention. They absolutely leave me
alone. For example: My husband doesn’t like the Open University. Maybe he has a
problem with the fact that his wife could be more intelligent than himself. But it’s
also possible, and I hope that’s the real reason, that he is scared of losing me,
because he loves me the way I’m now. I wish that he could have more understanding for
my aims. He urges me to have a baby, but I’m not ready for a child. Is it so wrong
for women to spend thoughts on their education and on their future? I don’t think so.
Later I will have a better paid job, where I am happy and motivated, and then I will be
able to offer my child a base for life. I want to be a good mother.
If
somebody thinks my mother assists me at least a bit is wrong. She visits pubs and
doesn’t even try to change her life. But I’m sure she wishes she could have done
it. I will never forget the day when she said to me, when she was drunk, that she would be
contented if she could sing better songs. My mother probably thought about the question
whether she had a fulfilled life. That gives me courage. Maybe it will be possible for me,
when I have changed myself, to live a sensible life.
But
I also have to blame myself. If I had struggled more at school to learn seriously, I would
have lived a better life earlier. I think everybody knows the situation: You adapt
yourself in order to be accepted by other pupils and not to be an outsider, even though
you will never see them again in later life.
I
have to confess that I wouldn’t attend the Open University, if I had another teacher.
Frank, that’s his name, is different. He doesn’t pretend to be a perfect person,
but he shows me that he is a drinker and has problems in his relationship. Besides I have
the feeling he likes me, despite of my uneducated character and slang. He is the best
tutor I ever met. It’s my aim to learn everything he can teach me, and to show Frank
that it’s worthwhile to change yourself, so that he can change his lifestyle, too.
J.B.,
1.Sem., Sep.2011
Rita
is determined to change
The
play is about the relationship between a young hairdresser and Frank, a middle-aged
university teacher. Rita, whose real name is actually Susan, is dissatisfied with her work
and social life and wants to change from the inside by signing up for an Open University
course in literature.
Rita
wants to be educated by Frank because she wants a better way of living her life. It
started with the school she went to. It was a bad school because her parents did not care
to find a better school. There was always a pressure from others not to be good at school
and if she had started learning she would have become different from others and would have
had no more friends. After school she became a hairdresser, a job she does not really
enjoy. All these people come to her and want her to change them but she says she can only
change their outside. If you really want to change you have to do it from the inside. They
never talk to her about something serious or interesting and never about something that
matters to her.
So
she decides to go to the Open University. Once she asked Frank what it was like to be free
because for her education means freedom. You can choose what you really want to do and do
not have to accept everything the way it comes.
Her
husband whom she married early wants her to have a baby and be a housewife just like
everybody in their circle of friends. But Rita wants to discover herself and her
possibilities first. Even when he gets angry with her and wants to stop her from going to
her tutor, he cannot stop her. That shows how serious she is about education and how
scared he is that she could become more educated than him or maybe he is just scared of
what the people around them, friends and neighbours, may think. She was born into the
working class and first she thought there was no way out of it. Everybody around her just
did the same she did. First she just took it this way because it was so much easier than
actually getting up and doing something for your life but then she became unsatisfied.
When
she talks to Frank about ballet or opera she says people in her class do not understand it
and that is why they call it rubbish but she does not want to. She wants to understand it.
She says sometimes she hates the people in her class because they think they are clever by
for example not using swear words, but they are not.
There
are often misunderstandings between Frank and Rita and she wants to learn, because in her
opinion that is what educated women do. They know the differences between an author and a
movie title or they can understand a certain sort of poetry. For
her there was no sense of her life until she started university. It fills her up with life
and joy and she discovers her passion for theatre and poetry. Rita starts all over again
and one day she wants to be taken seriously by other educated people, confidently, with
knowledge and living a civilized life. |
C.M.,
1.Sem., Sep.2011
Is "Educating Rita" a
love story? Read more essays about the play here. |
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