Final Task on Educating Rita

While browsing through different links and discussions about Educating Rita I found one that I really loved:

'After What you Gave me I Had a choice And I Chose Me' Educating Rita.

I found it really interesting to analyse it so as to see what these words exactly mean. First of all, and almost obviously, I have to say that these words could have been said by Rita to let Frank know how she has experienced the tutorials with him. Although it is true that at the very beginning of the story Rita wanted to change herself so as to achieve the life she wanted, as time goes by and she lives different experiences in her life, she ends up realising that the best she could do to succeed in life was to be herself. While taking a look at these words of hers, there are plenty of things to be said. Firstly, as regards the word choice, it is exactly that what Rita wanted from the very first moment: she wanted to get an education so as to be able to have a voice, to have the possibility of choosing the way in which she would live her life. We always have choices. Yes, it's totally true! Rita, as well as others who lived in the same conditions as she did, had different possibilities and different choices. However, it is necessary for us to grow brave and courageous so as to be able to face what life presents us with and to be able to decide whether to accept it or to challenge it by means of trying to change it. Rita did it. From the very beginning of the story we are presented with a courageous and determined Rita who will fight for what she wants: a new life. So Rita had a Choice. However, what this choice represents will change throughout the story to finally become this 'and I Chose Me.' When the story begins, it is clearly shown what Rita wants: she wants to become one of 'them,' she wants to be like 'the proper students' (and like the members of Frank's social group: upper-middle class). When Rita comes back from summer school, she seems to have changed completely. She speaks and talks like 'the proper students' and tries to imitate their manners. However, no matter how hard she tried, she would find it really difficult to forget her own self: Rita White is Rita White and changing her life does not mean that she has to change her self. And Rita will learn it. By the end of the story she will realise that for her to achieve the better life she was struggling for it wouldn't be necessary for her to become someone else. In fact, she will realise that what allows her to achieve her new life is not being able to analyse Macbeth but her own knowledge of what life is about. She will learn that changing her own self is not worth it for her new life has already started since the very first moment in which she realised she was not happy with it. I don't really know if I'm allowed to but I would love to include in this final post one idea I have discussed in a previous entry since I find it really interesting for me to link it with Rita's story. Although she has learned a lot during the play, I think that the most important thing she learned was that 'to change for others is to lie to yourself.' By means of her attitude during the last scene we learned that Rita has realised that for her to be happy she needed to be honest with herself and not to pretend to be someone she is not (as she did at the beginning of Act 2). She learned that changing her essence in order to be able to become a member of a group (the 'formally educated people') was not worth it since her person, her self, her values, ideas and thoughts are by far more important than 'being a member of...' Finally, as we have talked a lot about decisions, I would like to say that, after getting a lot of knowledge and information about what 'her better' life was about, Rita has taken a good decision in the end. Her deciding to go on being herself was the best she could do since, apart from it being good in itself and not going against anyone by deciding so, she didn't go against the most important person in all this issue: herself.

Do not let yourself change who you are. Others will love the person you are and not who you can be...