Eliza_and_Rita

The characters, Rita in “Educating Rita” and Eliza in “Pygmalion” depict how people from the working class yearn for a change in life through education. Rita, a hair dresser and Eliza, a flower girl, struggle to live a better life by getting an education. However, both characters have lost their originality and social class in acquiring education. In the pursuit of becoming educated, both Rita and Eliza lose their originality. At the beginning, both characters have great personalities. In “Educating Rita”, Frank admires Rita and initially rejects her as his student as he’s afraid that she might lose her uniqueness. True enough, she loses her originality in her chase of education. She becomes less original in giving her opinions by quoting facts from other people. For instance, when Frank introduces her to Blake, she tells him that she has ‘done him’ at the summer school. She responds monotonously unlike the old Rita. Instead of giving her personal opinions, she is more conventional in her judgement on Blake. Likewise, Eliza loses her originality in her pursue of education. In order to transform Eliza into a duchess Higgins trains her to speak and act properly. The harsh training from Higgins changes Eliza; she starts speaking good English and gives up her cockney accent. Furthermore, she loses her originality when her appearance changes. These evidences indicate that Eliza loses her originality in becoming educated. However, unlike Rita, her character does not change; she remains spontaneous in her pursuit of education. Apart from originality, Rita and Eliza lose their social class in becoming educated. Both characters feel alienated from their social class backgrounds as they have advance socially through acquiring education. For instance, Rita feels that she is a half-caste when she does not go to Frank's dinner; she thinks that she would not be able to fit in with the other guests. When she goes to the pub, she does not fit in there as well. This evidence suggests that Rita loses her social class as she can’t blend in on both social occasions. Similarly, Eliza feels lost between the two social classes. She neither belongs to the working class nor the upper class. The evidence that supports this statement is when she goes back to the gutter. Everything looks the same for her but she realizes that she has changed. When Eliza bumps into a flower girl, she reminds her of her old self. Eliza realizes that she can’t go back to her past with the changes that she has gone through. This evidence shows that Eliza loses her social class in becoming educated. The differences between the two characters are Rita loses her family whilst Eliza loses her dignity in their pursuit of getting an education. Rita loses her family as she pays more attention on her study. She’s not ready to have a baby, thus she secretly takes birth control pill. Her marriage ends when Denny finds out the secret. Besides, Rita feels isolated from her family because of her changes. The scene when she can’t fit in with her family at the bar suggests that she loses her family as well. These two evidences indicate that Rita loses her family in acquiring education. As for Eliza, she loses her dignity in becoming educated. When Pickering dares Higgins to transform Eliza into a duchess, he takes her as a guinea pig for his experiment. Mrs. Pearce says that Higgins takes Eliza as if picking up a pebble from a beach. This evidence indicates that Eliza loses her dignity as she is treated badly by Higgins. In conclusion, Rita and Eliza gain many things in becoming educated but they have equally lost a lot of things along the process. Both characters gain confidence and knowledge. However, in their pursuit of education they have lost originality and social class.