Act 2 scenes 2 & 3: Rita's complete make over

Up to this point in the play, we have seen how Rita has developed into a more sophisticated person (according to social standards, mind you! ;-) ) She has now almost achieved her objective of discovering her true self, of seeing life in a different light... but Frank does not feel comfortable with her new self. As said in the previous post, he feels threatened by Rita's new independence, by this new criteria she has, by the way she speaks her mind confidently! Rita is able to sit down with "proper students" on the lawn and discussed poetry! This is a huge success for her... but it turns Frank even more insecure and jealous to the point that he goes to teach being drunk! rita is ready to fly and to try new things by herself but Frank is not ready to let her go... once more this kind of situation rings a bell in our lives as teachers! How generous one has to be to teach and to feel proud and pleased to see our students going places we have never been! How open minded to be ready to listen carefully to them to keep on learning! How wise to let them go when we know there is nothing else we can give them but our admiration and friendship! I hope Frank realises this before the play finishes!

Rita's back!

Rita is back from summer school with a whole new experience under her belt! She has changed a lot from that first shy, insecure student who started to attend lessons with a tutor... She is now living with a friend in her own flat, she now sees life from a totally different perspective and she loves it! This change takes place not only outside, i.e. she wears new clothes, has a new hair style, but also inside: she feels a whole new person and she says so! Frank is happy to see her back: he feels happy about her new look but quite hesitant about her other changes: Rita wants to experience new things together with him, to a point Frank feels threatened as when she insists that he gives up drinking or when she wants to open a window because "a room is like a plant: it needs air..." But what air does Rita refer to? This new air that has changed her completely? The kind of air that will change Frank and will turn him in the man she wants? Even when Frank starts looking for a great poet for her and finds out that Rita has already studied Blake we can perceive a certain frustration in both of them: in Rita because Frank is not offering her those new things she wants to learn; in Frank because he apparently has nothing to offer to Rita... How many times do we have this same feeling as both teachers and students? How many times do we feel that we cannot offer our students more than what we have already offer? I will leave the question open...