To What Extent Do You Agree That Educating Rita Is A Feminist Play? We have been studying a play by Willy Russell named “Educating Rita”. It is set in the late 20th century in Liverpool, England. Rita is a 26 year-old from the working-class who thrives to get an education. Rita along with Frank, a university teacher and alcoholic is the only character to speak in the play. The action of the play is singularly situated in the open university classroom. We hear about several other characters and events having happened in different locations but we never leave the classroom. It seems obvious that Educating Rita is a feminist play as it shows that women have a right to education and have a great potential as Rita learns in the space of six months what the “regular students” as she calls them, them have learnt in their lifetime. Before joining the open university, Rita has a very basic education. She has only attended school until the age of 16 and hasn’t learned much. She even admits having the urge to learn but being pulled out of it by her peers when she says “If I’d started takin’ school seriously, I would have had to become different from me mates, an’ that’s not allowed.”. A proof that she does not have a proper education before …show more content…
In conclusion, one may agree that “Educating Rita” is a feminist play as well as a classist one. This is shown by the fact that she comes from a very long way and manages to catch up on all the work that has been done by the “regular” male students, the goes despite everyone’s opinion and takes the initiative of attending university and she Becomes the first “educated” person in her entourage. One may therefore conclude that Willy Russel was trying to emit a critic on society exposing the obstacles a woman would face on the way to getting an education. This is clearly symbolised at the beginning of the play when Rita tries to get into the class and the door refuses to open signifying her difficulties in accessing the academic
In the play “Anna in the Tropics” the idea of gender roles is seen without being mentioned throughout the play. For example, Anna in the Tropics uses the idea of gender roles in the way in which females take the role a man would normally take. However, when reading through the play roles are played in many ways. However, I believe that when reading this play the reader must read and understand the play with an open mind for the opposite sex as at times he and or she does a task that can be difficult for the opposite sex. Anna in the tropics, in my opinion, is a play that can provide an excellent insight into how women can do the same things men can or are expected to do.
In the second paragraph she states, “Eventually a fortunate few will find their way into educational repair shops-adult literacy programs,such as the one where I teach basic grammar and writing.” This gives her a tremendous amount of credibility and expertise in this speech. Not only does she gain credibility by working in the education field, but she gains credibility because she works with the kids that have been failed by the education system. In the third paragraph she talks about how she found out first hand with her own son that when a teacher threatens to flunk a student they work harder and obtain the skills they need to
For the most part, women were receiving education up to the elementary level. Advocates for women’s rights to education rose up and soon, teaching became a feminine job and a wide arrange of seminaries and academies for young ladies were built. This boom in education for both genders happened during the years leading up to the Woman Suffrage Movement in 1848, where those in support of women’s suffrage gathered in Seneca Falls, New York to pass a resolution that gave women the right to vote. So the question is asked: did women’s rights to education lead up to their suffrage? Women’s Education in the United States by Margaret A. Nash gives insight into how women’s education came about and what its purpose was.
It is this male dominance that deems women as second class citizens who do not need an education. In ‘Alicia who sees mice’, Alicia attends university , due to her mother dying she has ‘inherited her mother’s rolling pin and sleepiness’ although she has the opportunity to study , it is not as important as looking after her family. Esperanza’s mother is not as lucky , she is a typical women in Latin America. Her life revolves around her marriage, family and children. Due to being a woman , Esperanza’s mother was not able to complete her education , instead she was forced to stay at home and look after Esperanza and her siblings while her husband provided for them, she strongly resents this ‘“I could have been somebody, you know?
Everyday, she excels in her job of caring for the children and making a difference in the community. Due to her kindness she would always bring thoughtful gifts for the children. She doesn 't have to do the classes with the children everyday but she continues to do it like Sylvia says “school supposed to let out in the summer I heard, but she dont never let up” (Bambara 96). The lessons learned while earning her degree has lead her to becoming a positive role model in the children 's lives; nonetheless, teaching them lessons that may never learn from others. She shows her passion in the story by saying “she said, it was only her right that she take responsibility for the young ones’ education.
In comparison to the movie, the play undermines male dominance by focusing on women’s efforts to solve their own problems. First of all, there aren’t even men in the cast of the play,
Equal treatment of the sexes is a cause many have been fighting for, for decades, and in this case, centuries. Slight rebellious acts of women bending gender norms can be seen as far back as Shakespearean plays, in particular, Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing. Olivia from Twelfth Night, and Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing showcase characteristics of being opinionated, assertive, and strong-willed; qualities that were rarely seen during that time period. Much Ado About Nothing was written around 1598 and Twelfth Night was written around 1601, which was the Elizabethan era. During the Elizabethan era, women were raised to think that they were inferior to men.
She again stresses that it is the equality of education that is being sought after. The essay by Murray is important because it demonstrates just one of the many thoughts that were increasingly being expressed by women of the time. The essay was written at a time where the prevailing idea of male superiority in society was still so ingrained, attempts at changing the status quo were impractical. However, it did help to foster the debate over women's status in the new nation that would continue over the next
A Modern View of Feminist Criticism William Shakespeare 's "Othello” can be analyzed from a feminist perspective. This criticism focuses on relationships between genders, like the patterns of thoughts, behavior, values, enfranchisement, and power in relations between and within sexes. A feminist examination of the play enables us to judge the distinctive social esteems and status of women and proposes that the male-female power connections that become an integral factor in scenes of Othello impact its comprehension. I believe that the critical lens that provides modern society with the most compelling view of literature is Feminist Criticism because it analyzes distrust and disloyalty among relationships, women being treated as possessions
Educating women was the primary focus for many modern feminists, explaining that if women were educated the opportunities
Trifles the Challenge The play, Trifles, places both men and women in sharp contrast to one another in relationship to their roles and social position in the society. While men occupy the important positions such as the Sherriff and the county attorney, women are basically attributed to no more than playing domestic roles. Indeed, even in the investigation of Mr. Wright’s murder, men are playing the core role of investigators while women are simply left in the kitchen to play the minor of collecting things requested by Mrs. Wrights. The social stereotypes of men playing important roles than women in the society is set and advanced by the setting of the play.
In comparing and contrast both drama A Doll House by (Henrik Ibsen), and Trifles by (Susan Glaspell). The authors shine a light on how a woman had no place in society in the nineteenth century .A woman place was in her home and her responsibility’s consist of taking care of her husband, her children and her home. Mrs. Wright was introduce to the reader as woman that was held for murdering her husband after a long time of abuse. Nora was introduce to the reader as woman that had everything in life.
Feminist theatre came into being as a by product of the experimental theatre movement of the 1970s’ and 1980’. It was an alternate theatre which enabled women to explore their creative talents on stage independently. Feminist theatre served as a means of constructing an exclusive feminist discourse on stage that questioned the patriarchal norms of female subjugation. Its movement was towards the construction of a theatre space where women are no longer mere stage props. They started functioning as the creators of drama rather than being confined to the roles of wife, lover, mother or lunatic.
Some key points she made were that we should raise our children differently and that gender matters. Adichie 's intended audience would be someone who simply may wonder “Why should we be feminist?”, or anyone who wants to listen. Adichie interprets some effective rhetorical strategies like allusions, and a few analogies throughout the talk. Her humorous tone and anecdotes gave the audience that sense of trust and their laughter let her know that they were really engaged into her topic. She effectively described why she thinks we all should be feminists and how the world would be fairer for men and women.
This play consists of a lot many themes. To cite a few: Rewriting the tale of Cinderella and Sleeping beauty, Class, language and phonetics and Independence. But in this paper, I would like to work on the feminist aspect of this play for this aspect, is the one which impressed me more. As this paper is based on Gender analysis I am restricting my analysis to the theme of Feminism in this play.