Act 2 - Scenes 4 & 5

After reading these two scenes, we come to know how disappointed Frank feels towards Rita's attitudes. I say disappointed because he feels that Rita has completely forgotten about all they have done together and all they have shared. He feels that Rita doesn't care anymore about attending Frank's lessons as she hasn't gone to the previous one and she is late to the one in Scene 4. He even feels terrible when he realises that Rita is not working anymore as a hairdresser and she hasn't told him about it. He says 'it struck me that there was a time when you told me everything.'
When she says 'who cares that I've left hairdressin' to work in a bistro?' Frank answers 'I care.' With this we are shown how sad and helpless Frank feels about Rita's changes and her leaving behind what has made Frank care about her: her simplicity, naturalness and humility. Frank feels that Rita does not take in into account his feelings upon her and his care. Furthermore, not only does she arrive late but she also tells him that she has to go earlier to meet Trish. I have to say that at his moment of the story I complete empathise with Frank since I understand and can feel what he is feeling at this moment: he feels that Rita is disposing of him in a way since now that she is educated and well-read she feels that she does not need him anymore for now she is able to read and analyse any book on her own...
Haven't you ever felt like Frank? Haven't you ever felt that after having got what someone needed from you he then disappeared without saying even 'thank you'? Maybe I'm being too extremist in a way by saying this but I think that in a certain way this is what Frank feels now: he feels that after having learnt how to read and analyse a book on her own, Rita is giving an end to this 'period' of improvement and change in her life, and by doing so she seems to have decided that after this period of maturity there is no room left for Frank in her new life (as is many times the case with father-daughter relationships just as Rita makes the comparison between her relationship with Frank and that of a father with his suddenly grown-up daughter).
However, though I agree with Rita's comparison, what Rita believes is that Frank does not want to see her growing up and that is not true! Of course that Frank wants to see her improving, learning and growing up (as we as teachers want for our students)! The problem with all this situation is that Frank is afraid of Rita's changing what makes her being the excellent woman he got to know during this story. That is why, after Rita's saying that now that she knows what clothes to wear, what wine to buy, what plays to see, what papers and books to read she can do without Frank, he says 'is that all you wanted? Have you come all this way for so very, very little?'
Finally, regarding Rita's changing her name, I have to say that she decides to do so because of her wanting to show that she is not the same woman that she has changed and that now she is not the ignorant and innocent Rita... Now she is another person, now she has grown up and changed into a well-read and educated woman who cannot be called anymore Rita because now Rita and her essence does no longer exists... She wants to show that the essence of Rita is gone and which could be the most telling way of showing that Rita does not exist anymore? Acting as if she weren’t here... Now she is Virginia or Charlotte, or Jane or Emily (as Frank says). She can have any of those names or even any name but Rita because who she is now is not important. Who she has turned into is not as important as the fact that she isn't Rita anymore and that's why, for me, we are not told what her name is now... Her new name is not important. She is no longer Rita. And that's it.