From what we are shown in this scene, we learn that, during the time Rita spent at Summer School, she has been going through some changes and they are shown not only in the way she dresses but also in her attitude towards Frank and the lesson. Her having being at Summer School makes her acting differently and also answering Frank in a different way. I would say that now she feels really more confident: she really believes that being there has improved a lot her knowledge in poetry and (why not?) her knowledge about 'the world' (that world that she was trying to reach no more than one or two scenes before). Though she admits that at first she was 'dead scared,' she shows and tells Frank how she gained confidence and knowledge from the moment she met a tutor with whom she spent a lot of time talking about American poetry and when she stood up and, in front of two thousand people, she asked a question to a professor...
Yes, it's true... Rita has changed! And, in my opinion, she has changed a lot... I mean, of course that being able to live such an experience will probably make anyone feel like her but there are different ways of showing so... I think that, because of being the first time in her life that she lives such an experience, she is not able to 'measure' the way in which she shows her 'new' feelings... I feel that she is acting 'boastfully' (for example, when she starts reciting the poem from memory) and, although I don't know yet how this goes on in the next scenes, Frank may not feel really pleased or happy after finding this new Rita...
Finally, and regarding Rita's words 'you don't do Blake without doing innocence and experience, do y'?' I would say that, judging by what has just happened with her reciting Blake's poem from memory, her attitude is, again, boastful because when Frank asks her if she has done innocence and experience at Summer School her answering in this way, at least for me, shows that now she feels that she has more knowledge and confidence so as to tell Frank 'yes, we did' but in a different way (in such a way to show him that the Rita that has come back from Summer School is by no means the 'ignorant' and 'not educated' that she feels she has been before). However, and despite her 'new' attitude, I think that we just have to wait a bit more for Rita to get used to having all these new feelings...She still needs to learn from this Summer School experience but, at the same time, she needs to learn how to cope with her new self but without leaving behind her essence: her humility, selfconciousness, naturalness and simplicity...
2 comentarios:
Has Rita really changed, Ale? Or is she just trying to change the way her customers (in the days when she was a hairdresser) used to try?
You say "her knowledge" has widened... True, but whose questions has she been answering? What do you think? Do Frank and Rita agree on what an "educated person" should be like?
Let's keep reading and find out together!
Warmly,
Gladys
Hello Gladys!
After ages, I'm back again! :P
I do agree with you, and I as think I wrote in the following post, Rita hasn't exactly changed but she is just 'acting' as if she had changed, I mean, she wants to show that having been to Summer School has influenced her not only in her wanting to dress up but also in her wanting to be called 'the new educated Rita.' (She wants to be compared with the famous 'proper students' she has described previously in the story).
Then, regarding her knowledge and her answering questions I think that the fact that she has gained knowledge does not make her 'more educated.' I think that she will learn much more during the next scenes in the play than what she has has learned up to this moment (especially during Summer School). Incresing your 'amount' of knowledge about a book, a writer or literature does not mean that you are now educated. However, the fact that Rita read books and learned a lot about writers means that she is now 'well-read' (or, at least, 'more well-read' than before) but, unfortunately, this being 'well-read' can sometimes be confused with being educated and that is exactly what happened to Rita: by this moment in the play she thinks that her being well-read and her having increased her knowledge about literature mean that she is now educated...
Luckily, during the next scenes, Rita will learn the difference between this two different concepts in learning: being well-read and being educated...
I hope I have explained myself clearly and that I've answered more or less your questions!
Thanks a lot!
Kisses,
AleZ
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