Act 1 scenes 7 & 8: Rita's awakening

Up to this point in the play, we have witnessed a huge change both in Rita and Frank. Frank opened his mind to a totally different world, i.e., teaching an adult from the working class. In this thorough task he had to leave aside lots of prejudices, like going with Rita to see an amateur performance at the local church! :-) He really likes Rita, probably beyond the teacher-student relationship they are supposed to have... but we need to remember that beyond these labels, they are human beings!
As for Rita, she is determined to achieve her goal. She will fight against all odds, even against her husband who she chooses to walk on. She is going through a moment in her life in which she does not know where she belongs to: she feels uneasy drinking beer at the pub with her husband, mother and friends, yet, at the same time, she does not feel ready to interact with "educated" people, such as Frank's wife and friends! This is probably why she could not ring the bell at Frank's house when he invited her for dinner or why she decided to keep on studying despite her husband's opposition. Rita feels moved by her mother's words at the pub while they were singing: "we could sing better songs than those," in a way she can see what her mother means: there is more to life than just conforming to what one already has, there is a moment in which one's urge for knowledge, or self-actualization in Maslow's terms, is stronger than any obstacle one can find in one's way... I simpathise with Rita, I can understand how she feels: I cannot picture life without studying, without satisfying my thirst for knowledge... I would not feel entirely human!