I consider this statement to be untrue. I believe Shirley and Rita both win in their own way. Both women get the main objective they were directed towards. Rita gets her education and Shirley gets the 'former Shirley Valentine' that was longing to get out. Her hope and self-confidence badly shattered by marriage and life.
             Shirley Valentine is a witty, British look at one woman's triumph over traditional gender roles, boredom, and the empty nest. She is offered a way out, a holiday and after many "hums and ahs," Shirley seizes the opportunity and goes to Greece, a world far away from her troubles. There, she sees a new life for herself, one that she would rather than back home in a lost marriage. Shirley brakes out of the mold set for her by society. She plays Joe for a fool well and in the end, gets him right where she wants him-him wanting her back, not just for his selfishness, but from a prompt from his son. Shirley needs him and he needs Shirley, just like it was in the beginning.
             Rita on the other hand wants to break out of her role as a working-class nobody she believes other people see her as. The two women's stories are similar, probably because Willy Russell had this experience in his life. Rita wants to be educated so others won't look down on her and so that she can have the choice of what she does with her life. Either it is children, a higher job, etc. I feel that Shirley wasn't content at the end. The story leaves you guessing, what is going to happen next after Joe takes his son's advice and tracks down his wife? Will a foreign land make Shirley and Joe rekindle their relationship?
             Will Shirley move back with Joe and become what she previously was, go back to Shirley Bradshaw and not the young, vibrant Shirley Valentine she so desperately craved for and now is again? I wish it ended with a good, happy, solid ending, but not all tales end up happy-well not for everyone. Rita felt that at the end she had to want...