.
Conversely, Frank is not always able to understand Rita's working class form of speech. One example of this, whilst Rita is speaking about her mother:.
"She said I was off me cake-.
"What in the name of God is being off ones cake?- page 31.
Frank's middle class upbringing has not prepared him to teach a student from Rita's working class background. .
I now want took look at the education of the two characters. As I have briefly mentioned earlier in the essay, Frank's educational background is not covered in the play. We can see quite clearly he has had the middle class benefit of a public school education. The people who Frank was surrounded by during his educational years would have been more interested in academic results and a need to succeed, followed by a career to reflect this. He would have progressed naturally through the middle class educational system. His career in teaching would have been planned well in advance. He had the benefits of his class not available to Rita.
Frank explains to Rita that the type of book she is reading is not literature but "pulp fiction-. Frank only views the classics, as decided by the middle class, as worthy of the title of literature. When Rita asks with Frank how to recognise "literature- from ordinary "books- he replies:.
"One's always known really-, page 43.
Until Frank tell her there is a difference between book viewed by the middle classes as being in the "canon-, and the type of book Rita was reading, she felt that any book reading was good for her education. Her working class education had not taught her to be more discerning in her choice of reading material, but Frank's middle class education had. .
Conversely again, Rita's school education was governed by peer pressure:.
"But studyin' was just for wimps-, page 31.
"I would have had to become different from me mates an' that's .