"What's in a name?" she asks. "That which we call a rose, by any other word would smell as sweet" (II.i.85–86). Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
Name is what determines or distinguishes the nature of a person. It's what identify ourselves and makes us different from each other. No matter how much we change, our name is always there. Changing the name is changing the roots of who we are. However, are we able to change our own essence? In these scenes we are presented with a Rita that is making her best to pretend to be somebody she is not. She has a different attitude and what's more, she speaks with a funny accent, trying to imitate her new friends. She considers herself as "educated" now, but is she truly educated?
As we have been discussing throughout the year, being educated is much more than just being well-read. We, as teachers, should bear that in mind, since we generally tend to forget about the human being's education and foster the student's repetition of content.
As regards as what the whole change generates in Rita, we can infer that she is trying to cope with her new self, a to generalize that she is showing off, but we have to bear in mind that she needs to learn how to live with herself. While reading these scenes I came to think whether she is really conscious of the attitude she is taking "against" Frank, is she really aware that probably she cannot "do it without Frank". Frank has been an important element in the process of awakening to a new life. Is she ready to go ahead without his support? Personally, I don't think so. However, it is important for her to try on her own once and again, she will fail but she will learn in the process.
2 comments:
What an interesting link, Yohana! Will need some time to make up my mind about whether I agree with Ms Mohanan on her concept of educatedness, I'm afraid... Perhaps it's high time we started questioning the following quote?
Let us imagine that Einstein was an extremely immoral person who was ready to cheat, lie, and kill in order to achieve his own selfish goals. Would we consider him uneducated? Chances are that we would say no.
The challenge is not a minor one, since if we teachers want to allow "a personal involvement in knowledge as a set of beliefs", at least to a certain degree, we need to find a way to shift the focus of our teaching (at least partly) to the development of such involvement, which might easily be criticised as "lowering the standards"... Yet, I believe this is a question of "taking care of the pennies" (you know how the saying goes, I guess?)...
Anyway, why do you believe Rita is not ready to "go ahead without Frank", Yohana? Not that I disagree with you, but I'd love to hear why you think so...
Let's keep thinking together!
Love,
Gladys
... and the pounds will take care of themselves. (Just for the people who didn't know it) :)
Let's see, if usually people are afraid of the unknown and the new, it will be even more intense when you’ve learnt that this new unknown depends on your own choices... don’t you think that we always need a hand to help us cross the big avenue?
LOL
Yohi
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