Despite this, Rita manages to keep most of their conversations related to the educational material they’re supposed to be covering. Before long, Frank starts to fall for her romantically, ultimately shifting the dynamic of their relationship. Meanwhile, Rita relishes the time she spends with Frank in his office, where they discuss not only literature, but life in general. She chooses the latter, moving in with an educated young woman named Trish and getting a new job at a bistro. When he discovers that she has been taking birth control to avoid getting pregnant (because she wants to “find” herself before becoming a mother), he tells her she can either stop getting an education or move out.
Unfortunately, Rita’s husband, Denny, disapproves of her academic pursuits. As a hairdresser, Rita hates that her clients expect her to somehow fundamentally change them for the better, since she believes change should ultimately come from the “inside.” It is this mentality that encourages her to enroll in Open University, a program that allows her to learn from Frank even though she doesn’t actually attend the university where he teaches.
Although she often wanted to show interest in academic pursuits when she was growing up, she felt as if she couldn’t outwardly show her intellectual curiosity, since the people surrounding her in her “working-class culture” perceive school as “worthless.” As a result, she distracted herself by frequently buying new dresses, which helped her stave off her lack of fulfillment. Rita is fiercely intelligent but has little in the way of a formal education. A twenty-six-year-old hairdresser who signs up for tutoring lessons with Frank, a professor at a nearby university.
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