Act 1 Scenes 3 and 4

Saturday, 13 September 2008

Rita has started to read many book and write essays. However, she is not reading the kind of books that would help her pass the examination and she still hasn't improved her essays. One of the reasons why Rita's essays are wrong is that she has been writing them when she had some free time at the shop, and they are too short. Frank learns that Rita's husband doesn't like her taking the course and writing essays at home. In spite of not having her family's support, Rita feels that taking the course makes her stronger.

I believe that Rita is starting to realise how education is already changing her life. She tells Frank that she sees no culture around her. She feels that the life of "people like her" has no meaning because they have no goals in life but to earn some money to survive and buy stuff. But Rita doesn't want that to be truth for her, she has refused to buy a new dress till she passes her first exam because she wants a real change, not the one that her costumers look for when they go to the shop to have their hair done. She wants the kind of change that comes from the inside and she needs to overcome that kind of inertia that sorrounds the working class. She has decided to go against the flow and try something different from the rest of them, even if they don't like it. That's why studying makes her stronger, because it is the means by which she will get to achieve what she wants.