Educating Rita: Important Quotations
Below is a selection of some of the best quotations from ‘Educating Rita’. Learn approximately 10 which cover various ideas- i.e. Rita’s struggle, Denny, Frank’s problems etc.
“I’m comin in, aren’t I? It’s that stupid bleedin handle on the door. You wanna get it fixed!” – Symbolises Rita’s struggle to enter academic world.
"Everything I know--and you must listen to this--is that I know absolutely nothing."
"Do you think it's erotic...Look at those tits!"
"God, what's it like to be free?"
“See if I’d started taking school seriously I would have been different from my mates, and that’s not allowed.”
“My mind’s full of junk isn’t it? It needs a good clearing out.”
"I've been realizin' for ages that I was, y' know, slightly out of step. I'm twenty-six. I should have had a baby by now; everyone expects it. I'm sure me husband thinks I'm sterile. He was moanin' all the time, y' know, 'Come off the pill, let's have a baby.' I told him I'd come off it, just to shut him up. But I'm still on it. See, I don't wanna baby yet. I wanna discover myself first. Do you understand that?"
"Found a culture, have you, Rita? Found a better song to sing, have you? No--you have found a different song, that's all. And on your lips it's shrill and hollow and tuneless. Oh, Rita, Rita…"
"I can't talk to the people I live with anymore. An' I can't talk to the likes of them [the academic crowd], because I can't learn the language. I'm a half-caste."
“Because I think your marvellous. Do you know you’re the first breath of fresh air that’s been in here for years.” – Frank is in awe of Rita
"I'd just play another record or buy another dress an' stop worryin"
Frank symbolically puts her essay on the pile with the others because it would not look out of place. “It wouldn’t look out of place with these.”
“The great thing about the booze is that it makes one believe that under all the talk, one is actually saying something.” – Frank’s alcoholism leave him with very low self-esteem.
“I don’t know that I want to teach you. What you have is already valuable.” – Frank recognises that Rita has something he will never be able to teach- honesty.
(Offering a haircut and perhaps more at the end of the play) - “I’m gonna take ten years off you.” –Rita is now the one looking after Frank
“He thinks we’ve got choice already: choice between Everton an’ Liverpool, choosin’ which washin’ powder…choosin’ between Stork an’ butter.” – Rita mocks her own cla...
