1.Rita is uneducated and feels socially inferior to Frank at the beginning of the play.
2. Rita, although she doesn’t know how to write academic essays, (her essay on Peer Gynt is one long line and Frank makes her rewrite it), shows great determination to learn in the first few scenes of the play.
3. Once Rita starts to become educated she can no longer go back to her old life, but she is not ready for the new one.
4. After the summer school Rita finally begins to change. She begins to speak differently, she can hold her own intellectually and she is beginning to mix with the other students.
5. By the end of the play Rita has completely changed. She is free to do whatever she wants but she can do it with the confidence of an educated woman who no longer feels socially inferior.
1. At the beginning of the play we realise Frank has a drink problem and he is completely disenchanted with academic life. He also has no self-belief.
2. Frank, although he knows she has a long way to go, finds Rita a breath of fresh air in comparison with his other students precisely because she is such a contrast with his other students.
3. Frank’s inability to write and the fact his poetry is so obviously literate and dry is indicative of the general rut his life is in.
4. When Rita starts to change Frank begins to express regrets. He doesn’t want her to be like the other students. Frank becomes jealous and childish as Rita changes.
5. By the end of the play Rita is the one helping Frank. He is still drinking, unable to write and even more disenchanted with his life and with himself. She has transformed herself into someone new who she really wants to be and she thanks Frank for it.