To outline the version of reality that is presented in any piece of literature, reality itself has to be defined. It refers to what is existent or underlies appearances or resembles the original. Therefore, the version of reality is how a person sees the real world. Individual experiences, beliefs, values and background must influence his/her perception of it. The social codes of behaviour and attitudes prevalent at the time also hold great significance in this. So, the creator's reality always colours the version of reality presented in his work. In "Educating Rita", Willy Russell has conveyed his reality through the illustration of Rita's and Frank's characters; the stereotypes attached to their behaviour; the clarification of their realities and the subsequent clash of their worlds.
Because there are only two characters who meet only in one setting, each represents the many different facets of the real world as the author sees it and the faults that accompany it. Characterization is developed through dialogue, their interaction and responses in certain situations.
In the case of Rita's character, her reality show how the general working class understand the machine of society to operate. Their status in life has been determined at birth by class. The majority of their class accepts their station in life because of the fear to change, the sense of hopelessness that change could ever amount to anything, or finally, the ignorance that change was possible.
The first fear is embodied in the form of Denny who resists Rita's education because he fears the disruption of his patriarchal world order - "Rita: … He says there's a time for education. An' its not when y'twenty-six an' married." The second and third are recognized by Rita - "… everyone behaves as though it's normal, y'know inevitable…" referring to the construction of people's lives as an unalterable course; and "Cos by us, there is no meanin' to life." If there is no meaning, then there is no need to change. Both these comments were made when Rita and Frank were discussing "working-class culture", an artificial term endowed on a coarser, lower level, less educated society.
The reader is made aware that there are also gender constraints that exist in this reality. Rita herself conveys this sense when she expresses the pressure that society is placing on her - "I should have had a baby by now; everyone expects it." The confinement of women to the domestic sphere applies to women of all levels of education. Frank's girlfriend who had achieved her master's degree is shown to be the one fulfilling the traditional female role of preparing the meals.
Pressure to conform to the group is deemed to be a solid entity. This aspect of real society affects Rita's initial lack of confidence and uncertainty in her ability when she starts out to change her life. "I would have had to become different from me mates, an' that's not allowed" demonstrates this. Many of Rita's astute comments about the way she conceives the world to be parallel the author's views. This is hardly difficult to ascertain as "Educating Rita" is largely an autobiographical work. Many aspects of Russell's background are not dissimilar to Rita's.
All rustic, lower class individuals like Rita, would have had a glamourised preconception of the higher social strata, attaching sophistication and power to it as a matter of course. She is naively impressed when Frank professes he had read all of T.S. Eliot's work - a stereotypical response to an accomplishment she deems to be way above her "low-down" capabilities. Her absolute belief that an education will giver her power, freedom and status is revealed by her outgoing action to gain it. In her reality, education is the only instrument by which she can attain greater control of her life.
What makes the character of Rita and her background all the more realistic is her use of language. Already, it has been established in the reader the type of speech that can be classified as learned and refined as compared to a more common form. Rita's verbal communication can be rather vulgar and obscene. Her directness and frankness, however, attribute to her simple nature. She has not developed the outward façade associated with polite society - the realm that Frank belongs to.
Frank's reality is one belonging to the bourgeoisie. His façade of a well-to-do middle class person only thinly veils his deeper disillusionment with life and the education system. This is symbolized in Act I when he "pulls out a pile of books to reveal a bottle of whisky." His alcoholism and hence, discontentment is hidden behind the medium of education. Frank's state directly contrasts Rita's generalisation that all educated higher-class members are happy.
