"I want to change everything"

Rita is not a hairdresser anymore. It seems that Rita is not interested in boring details so she doesn’t tell Frank about it.
Rita works in a bistro now…but what’s the difference between working in a bistro from a hairdresser’s?
To me, there is not any difference because when you are proud of what you are, you can work wherever you want. Stupid and boring rubbish details are everywhere so it’s up to you to manage them the better way you believe. But I also think that there is something more important than that.
Maybe, she feels that being a hairdresser does not match her appearance of being a “proper student”, an interesting wise woman, who does not care about a room full of junk as a hairdresser could be to her and in which she was surrounded by old ladies.
Now, she loves working in a bistro because she meets other students who are passionate about things that matter, just like her.
I believe that Rita is keeping up appearances; she is doing what people expect her to do. That’s why she cannot work as a hairdresser anymore.

“…I can do things on me own more now…”

It is startling to see how Rita’s personal development has increased. She dares to speak her mind when talking about books with Literature students she meets on the lawn. She is able to understand literature and write essays without consulting Frank all the time. But why does she change her way of speaking?
I think that Rita doesn’t want to leave a trail of what she was; even in her way of speaking. It seems that she is trying to imitate what she called “the proper students” at the beginning of the play, those who she wanted to be when she decided to study.
In turn, Frank finds it difficult to cope with this “new” Rita.
First of all, it is because he wants her to be the spontaneous girl he met, with her flaws and virtues. Secondly, when he finds out that the opinions in her essays are merely objective ones, because they don’t follow her instincts but they are led by different authors she read to make an opinion.
Frank is partly responsible for what has happened. He has asked Rita to be objective when writing or speaking about literature and not to involve her feelings when she had to give an opinion. That’s what Rita has done.

Ladies and Gentleman…this is Rita….!!

Rita has come back from London; she has been at the Summer School so she seems to be renewed. She has met new people, visited theatres and pubs and she has also been immersed in her work.

Rita has changed a lot during this time and Frank can see how her character and attitude show a different woman. She has dared to talk in public without caring less what people thought about her.

It was not in vain when Innocence and Experience by Blake is quoted in the play by the author. I believe that it shows how the experience of doing new things drives away the very spontaneity (innocence) Rita could express through her behaviour at the beginning of the play.
Frank, who was greatly surprised at her changes, did not seem to be glad to see Rita looking so well. Maybe, he felt he got stuck and Rita has developed into a secure woman, the one who feels good about herself.

Now, she was not an innocent girl anymore and it seemed she could spread her wings and fly wherever she wanted. The experience of being alone in London has helped her become more independent than she was and it has also helped her lose the innocence that led her to meet Frank

Educating Rita by Willy Russell

Rita is a twenty-six-year old hairdresser who has taken the decision of enrolling on a literature course at the Open University, where she met her tutor, Frank.
I think that Rita wants to study because she feels she would be able to become a better person than who she actually is.
She wants a change in her life which makes her feel she is alive and free to choose what she wishes for her life. She feels ready to meet the challenge of studying what she desires. Besides she wants to learn “everything”, she needs to fulfil herself to succeed as a person.
I believe that this change, maybe, would also contribute to her not being influenced by people’s feelings or thoughts so it is not going to be others’ beliefs but hers.