To What Extent Does the Role of Comedy Play in ‘Educating Rita’? Refer to the Exchanges Made Between Rita and Frank in One or More Scenes from the Play.

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Willy Russell is one of the most important working-class playwrights of our time and his politics and social attitudes are expressed through comedic value. It is in this way the paradoxical status quo of Frank and Rita is expressed through comedy in his play ‘Educating Rita,’ 1983 and it is this paradox that will form much of this discussion in looking at how the role of comedy highlights social differences and how these social differences could be viewed with hilarity rather than seriousness; in other words Russell wants us to laugh at social class because it is so ridiculous and that people should be judged on merit and not where they come from. Much of the comedy in the play stems from Rita and Frank’s conversations. Their cultural differences are a noticeable source of comedy in the play; where Rita speaks colloquially and has a working class accent, Frank speaks in Standard English without any accent. This is significant because Rita’s lively and irreverent speech is a source of humour in the play. For instance, when Rita animatedly refers to a painting, using words such as “erotic” and “tits” she is clearly comfortable talking in this manner to her lecturer, this makes conservative Frank feel uncomfortable and as a consequence he replies to her with brief answers. Just this conversation alone has comedic value as it shows how very different these two characters are, they have opposing lifestyles, behaviour and seem to be moving in opposing directions. In the first encounter between Rita and Frank, their dialect and everyday speech confuses them both as Rita speaks in a colloquial language and Frank in Standard English. Her understanding of a simple question ‘And you are?’ asked by a well-educated person confuses her and she fails to understand what is really being asked. As well as this her first words to Frank after he tells her to ‘Come in!’ are rude

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