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“Studyin’ was just for wimps, wasn’t it” and “I would have had to
become different from me mates, an’ that’s not allowed”
“In me head, tappin’ away, tellin me I might have got it all wrong. But id
just play another record or buy another dress”
“It’s that stupid bleedin handle on the door. You wanna get it fixed”.
working class man who is pressuring her along with her family and
friends to have a baby and settle down, this is because it is what was
expected of a working class woman. However Rita is secretly taking the
pill because she does not want to have a baby until she has discovered
herself:
“I think you’re the first breath of air that’s been in this room for years “
As Rita develops she has many more influences in her life such as,
Trish, her flatmate who Rita believes is from a higher class because of the
way she talks and dresses, Trish becomes Rita’s main influence in life
and Rita begins to act and talk like Trish because she deludes herself into
thinking that it will improve her social status:
This is shown to the audience in many ways, the most obvious is the
way Rita no longer quotes her own opinions and prefers to use the
opinions of Trish instead. Trish is the first to introduce Rita into the upper
class world and she starts to teach Rita the believed rules of being upper
class such as speech and pronunciation.
Another new influence in Rita’s life is Tyson an average university
student who shares his values and experiences with Rita, Tyson
eventually accepts Rita into his social group; this is a key event as it starts
a chain reaction that causes Rita’s metamorphosis to go wrong. This is
because Rita has been longing to become an average everyday student
and often expresses’ this obsession to Frank, she believes that to achieve
this she had to be accepted which consequently created a desire to reach
the lawn, this is a symbol for Rita and acts as a goal for Rita to aspire to
for all she wants is to be accepted as a normal Student just like those on
the lawn:
“I got here early today. I started talking to some students down on the
lawn”
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“I know what clothes to wear, what wine to buy, what plays to see, what
papers and books to read”
This shows the audience that Rita believes that there are set rules
for being middle class and that she has to abide by them to reach the
higher classes this is the main reason for Rita splitting up with her
husband Denny because they were starting to become too different as
people and Rita started to have aspirations in her life which of course
changed for the worse over time. Frank just like Mary Shelly realises he
has created a monster and also that he’s lost control over it, Russell uses
this metaphor to describe what Rita has changed into, Mary Shelly is used
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because she was the author and creator of the legendary monster in her
novel Frankenstein and Frank believes he has created a monster because
of way Rita has been acting:
Overall, Rita’s life had improved because she has gained a valuable
education, although she may have not improved socially she has gained
her new academic abilities which means she can now move on to a better
life and improve overall. Her education has provided her with another key
element of life, choice; Rita can now choose to do what she wants and
cannot be held back from making these choices any longer, this is the
main thing that Rita wanted to gain from her education. Women like Rita
today have a better life because they have a greater chance of succeeding
and now have a real chance to go to university and achieve the academic
requirements they need to improve in life. In the workplace today women
are seen as equal to men and can now achieve the same or even more than
men in their careers, this has greatly changed from earlier Britain where
women were not seen as equal and could not improve greatly in their
daily jobs. However, there are still many cases of women being pressured
to have children all around the world and this pressure will not subside
too hastily.