Compare and contrast the way Rita and Frank use language throughout Educating Rita

Compare and contrast the way Rita and Frank use language throughout Educating Rita

Language plays a very central role in Educating Rita–the main theme of the book is the English education of Rita. The reader is introduced to two different versions of English, Rita’s Liverpool accent and Frank’s educated and more typical accent. The play discusses class and culture and it’s relation with language and raises questions such as: How does manipulation of the language affect the cultural identity of the speaker and how is education used to change the way language is used? Does the need for students to adapt to the standards of schools have any effect on the ability to interpret the words of other people?

When Rita begins her education at the University, she has a very distinctive way of talking. She uses slang words and expressions such as “telly”, “feller” and “off your cake”. She does not pronounce “do”, “you” and “and” but instead she says “d’”, “y’” and “an’”. This suggests that she comes from an uneducated background, and she is probably working class. Franks language is very different from that of Rita. He uses more sophisticated words like “incinerate” and “wearisome” and his grammar is flawless. This indicates that he, as opposed to Rita, comes from an educated background and possibly from a higher class.

Rita is not used to the academic language that Frank uses, and likewise there are expressions that Rita uses that Frank is unfamiliar with. The first example of this is introduced very early in order to indicate to the reader that Rita and Frank come from different backgrounds;

“Frank You are?

Rita What am I?

Frank Pardon?

Rita What?

Frank (looking for the admission papers) Now you are?

Rita I’m a what?”

This dialogue effectively establishes the difference in the use of language, even regarding common expressions, between the two. Another example where the language leads to a misunderstanding can be seen on page 20, act one, scene two:

“Rita [… ] She said I was off me cake.

Frank (with an exaggerated look at her) What in the name of God is being off one’s cake?

Rita Soft. Y’know, mental.

Frank Aha. I must remember that. The next student to ask me if Isabel Archer was guilty of protestant masochism shall be told that one is obviously very of one’s cake!

Rita Don’t be soft. You can’t say that.

Frank Why ever not?

Rita You can’t. If you do it, it’s slummin’ it. Comin’ from you it’d sound dead affected, wouldn’t it?”

In the dialogue between the two it becomes clear that Rita is aware of the fact that her language is not fit for academic purposes. Her desire to leave behind her class and her old self in favor of the world of the educated is very strong and while Frank is ambivalent in changing Rita from the unique, honest person that she is, Rita is so determined to get educated that she furiously tears apart one of her essays after Frank commenting on the content as worthless in terms of being analytic, but wonderful “in its own terms”.

Rita does succeed in her wish to become the essay-spewing educated woman she wants to be and this even manifests itself in the way she talks. After taking a summer course and after the suggestion of her roommate, she suddenly start talking without any slang words and with a, what is described as, peculiar voice. Rita seems to think that by switching to this way of talking, she can change her identity and the way she is being perceived. Frank, on the other hand, is repelled by the way Rita has abandoned her language and asks her to stop and be herself. Perhaps is Frank saddened by the fact that when Rita has accomplished what she came for, she will abandon him, like he expresses in act two, scene one: “What do I do then when, in appalling sobriety, I watch you walk away and disappear, my influence gone forever?” or perhaps is he genuinely disturbed by the fact that the education has reformed Rita and her way of expressing herself in such a way that her own true self is lost.

Frank also embraces parts of Rita’s language as his own, as seen in the example with “off the cake”, but also Rita’s definition of an assonance being; “gettin’ the rhyme wrong”, which he later repeats to his students (though while under the influence of alcohol). Frank admires the simplicity in her way of seeing the literature she reads. His boredom of students who try their best to impress with a pretentious way of writing is in contrast with the excitement he feels over Rita’s uncomplicated and almost naïve way of putting herself.

Both of the two protagonists learn from each other throughout the play but at the same time, they have different views on language, Frank sees qualities in Rita’s language, and dismisses the thought of an educated language as being any better. Rita, on the other hand, is determined to learn how to speak “properly”, even though she eventually comes to somewhat of an insight about how appearance and language does not change a human being fundamentally (something she learns first hand from discovering that her educated friend has attempted suicide) and that she has the choice of how to use her education.