Educating Rita, characterization Rita and Frank

Frank is a university professor in England. He is about fifty years old. His office is very distinguished and full of book. Since the office is Victorian style, it creates the atmosphere of being in a university, that’s famous and has a long history. This shows that Franks seems to be an important professor. In short, Frank has all the signs of being a well distinguished person.

However the way Frank searches alcohol and the way he drinks it and behaves demonstrates that Frank has a serious drinking problem. He is open to admit that he drinks. He has a sarcastic, cynical, dark humour. He hates his students, thinking that most of them are just stupid. However Frank needs to work for a living and that makes it even harder for him. Frank is not satisfied with his life and tries to drown his misery with alcohol.

Rita is quite a contrast to Frank. Her real name is Susan White but she has changed her name to Rita because Ruby fruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown is her favourite book She is a 26 year-old hairdresser with a quite heavy Liverpool accent and this is the first hint regarding her lower education. The way she introduces herself, talking in dialect and swearing, she gives the impression of being a cheeky person with no manners. When she asks Frank about the picture and the “tits” of the women in it, Frank is shocked. Since she is only a hairdresser, one might go: “Oh, I thought so all along”. She seems to be just a blithering idiot, and first we think Frank is right of being afraid of this kind of student. The way she sharpens her pencils shows that she is nervous, too. Only after a while, we can see what is driving her. Where she comes from learning is not approves, but she senses that there is more to life than just living. She is also afraid, she might be rejected by the “better society”, and she tries to provoke Frank. Later she admits that she is putting up a front. She will accept only a teacher that takes her the way she is. In contrast to Frank, who wants to go down in alcohol, she wants to get up and get more out of her life, she wants to know more and not to change the programme or turn it off.

By giving a cigarette to Frank and accepting a drink from him, they start to create a common basis. It is a bit funny that they do this by sharing their bad habits. In the end Frank accepts Rita and she accepts him. She says that she gives him ten out of ten points, while Frank says that he dreams of throwing a student out of the window, he doesn’t do anything against Rita.