An Analysis of Citizen Kane
Aneesa Bennett
Professor Lauder
Philosophy 3920
7 February 2013
An Analysis of Citizen Kane For those who have never seen an old film in its entirety, Citizen Kane makes for a good one to start with. For two and a half hours Orson Welles takes one through the life journey of Charles Kane. The overall theme of this movie is that one simply cannot control everything around them and Welles exemplifies that through his character Kane. The character Kane started life in poverty and ended it in wealth. Throughout his whole life he attempted to control everything around him and every aspect of his life. Such as in the beginning of the movie where young Charles finds out he will no longer be living with his mother. Charles meets the man that he is being sent off with, kicks him, and tries to run away. He thinks that by those actions he will be able to stay with his parents.
Moving along to when Kane is an adult, his mannerisms in trying to control his environment are more evident. At first Kane is capable of this. His guardian tells him to settle down and take control of his businesses but instead opts to run a newspaper. Kane does this because his goal is to help the people and let them know what is really happening in America. His tactic, however, is really to gain the trust of the people in order to win power of them albeit he may have good intentions. That is the theme of the movie; that he exudes, or tries to, his power over people because he thinks he knows what’s best for them. The reason the relationship with his ex wife went sour was because he tried to control her. She liked to sing but he saw it as, “her dream is to be a famous singer and make a profession out of it.” He loved her so much that he thought he knew what was the absolute best for her, never taking into consideration or bothering to ask what she really wanted or how she really felt. This is because Kane “contained” all the power and he never needed to answer to or ask anyone about anything.
Professor Lauder
Philosophy 3920
7 February 2013
An Analysis of Citizen Kane For those who have never seen an old film in its entirety, Citizen Kane makes for a good one to start with. For two and a half hours Orson Welles takes one through the life journey of Charles Kane. The overall theme of this movie is that one simply cannot control everything around them and Welles exemplifies that through his character Kane. The character Kane started life in poverty and ended it in wealth. Throughout his whole life he attempted to control everything around him and every aspect of his life. Such as in the beginning of the movie where young Charles finds out he will no longer be living with his mother. Charles meets the man that he is being sent off with, kicks him, and tries to run away. He thinks that by those actions he will be able to stay with his parents.
Moving along to when Kane is an adult, his mannerisms in trying to control his environment are more evident. At first Kane is capable of this. His guardian tells him to settle down and take control of his businesses but instead opts to run a newspaper. Kane does this because his goal is to help the people and let them know what is really happening in America. His tactic, however, is really to gain the trust of the people in order to win power of them albeit he may have good intentions. That is the theme of the movie; that he exudes, or tries to, his power over people because he thinks he knows what’s best for them. The reason the relationship with his ex wife went sour was because he tried to control her. She liked to sing but he saw it as, “her dream is to be a famous singer and make a profession out of it.” He loved her so much that he thought he knew what was the absolute best for her, never taking into consideration or bothering to ask what she really wanted or how she really felt. This is because Kane “contained” all the power and he never needed to answer to or ask anyone about anything.