drinking problem. Even dough he had one failed marriage and his present relationship with Julia is not an easy one, he appears to have a comfortable middle-class lifestyle and had also achieved some success as a poet. But his job bored him and by the end of the play he is really sent to Australia because of his drinking problem. Rita breezes into his life like a breath of fresh air, the story of the play is the story of their developing, both as a teacher and student and also on a more personal level.
             One of the main themes in the play is personal relationship. The play focuses on the way that Rita and Frank influence each other. We see Rita developing during the course of the pay. At the start, she is a nervous and cocky young woman who knows nothing about literature. We then see her become someone who acquires a superficial knowledge of the subject, but, by the end of the play, she has become a woman who is able to make wise and informed choices about the direction her life will take. Frank, on the other hand, does not really develop as much. Disillusioned and cynical at the start, the only progress he makes is downhill and, by the end of the play, he has effectively been dismissed from his post. At this point, Rita is about to embark on her new life, having passed her exams, whereas Frank is about to try resurrect his career in Australia. Even his contact with the bright and chirpy Rita has failed to halt his decline. In their conversations with each other, they also reveal much about their unsatisfactory relationships with their partners, Denny and Julia.
             The second major theme that Willy Russell deals with is the clash of cultures. Rita comes from a working-class society which she has grown to despise as she feels it is stifling her, although the play does show us that it can be quite a warm and close-knit community. It is a culture that knows and cares little about literature, though Frank tries to show Rita that it does have...