Sunday, September 28, 2014
Citizen Kane
Why is Kane so determined to make his second wife, Susan Alexander a star? I think he is obsessed with his status and what others think of him, because in the early stages of his life, he never had much money, and no one knew his name. So therefore, I believe that he wants everyone to think that Susan is truly the best opera singer, just so it makes him look good. In addition to that thought, I also believe that Kane feels as if he needs to almost make Susan as “good” as Emily was in terms of status and reputation. What I mean by this is, that Emily had a powerful status as the President’s niece, which not only raised Kane’s status, but it also helped him during his political campaign, despite the fact that he wasn’t with Emily at the time. But whereas Susan is a struggling opera singer who didn’t come from money. In the final scenes of the film, Susan even admits that she will never be as good as Emily. Specifically when she says that she didn’t go to a fancy school (this is during the scene where she and Kane find themselves in a big argument just prior to her leaving Xanadu). So it is clear that Kane wants his second wife to be just as powerful and helpful to him as his first wife was, and that is why he forces Susan to take private vocal coaching, and why he continues to clap when everyone else stops at the end of her performance. But what does this say about Kane as a person? To me, it proves that Kane oftentimes doesn’t really think of anyone but himself, and he will do anything to rise above, even if that means exploiting the people he is supposed to love. We as viewers not only see him do this with Emily and Susan, but also with his newspaper itself. He disregards the principals him and his colleagues set in the beginning of the film, promising to only deliver the most accurate and honest news, just so the paper will get ahead. In terms of understanding Kane as a character, why do you think Kane is so keen on exploiting the people around him when he knows what its like to have nothing? Are there any specific people or events in his life that made him like this?
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I completely agree that Kane was so keen on making Susan a star with the intentions of making himself look good. I think that because Kane was deprived of parental figures at a young age and was basically handed over to Thatcher (who was far from a father), he was basically forced to grow up really fast and learn how to create his own success at a young age. I think that this drive for success translates into his relationship with Susan because he views her as someone he can mold into something he wants. I don't think this was necessarily an intentional act for him to lead her to a suicide attempt because he genuinely did care for her and immediately called it off after her breakdown, but I think that he was subconsciously pushing her in a way towards success because that is what he had to do for himself and basically be his own parent at a young age.
ReplyDeleteI never thought about Kane comparing his two wifes, Susan and Emily but that is a good point. Emily did come from a prestigious family while Susan came from an unsupportive mother and had a struggling career. This makes me wonder why Kane chose Susan over Emily. Was it because he felt he wanted to fix Susan, to make her a star, or because he thought she was innocent? It also could have been because going back to Emily would have destroyed his career more than if he picked Susan. Did Kane ever love either woman or were their relationships merely for his image?
ReplyDeleteI think Kane is so willing to exploit those close to him in order to appear happy and successful to the public. Kane always craved the public's approval, something that he lacked from Thatcher, his parental figure, while growing up. He sacrificed Susan's happiness in order to make a name for himself and went against his own declaration of principals in order to make his newspaper successful. Both of these incidents prove that Kane wanted to be loved by thousands, and explains why he risked the relationships closest to him.
I completely agree with your reasoning as to why Kane is so determined to make Susan an opera singer. It always goes back to him. He does nothing for others, and the reason he wants her to become so famous is so HE can get more fame and publicity. Throughout the entire film, he is always ordering around others and doing what is best for him even if it means acting abusive toward his wives. Even though he knows what it is like to be so unhappy, he puts his anger in the wrong places. He is not intentionally mean in my opinion, he is just SO unhappy with his own life that his anger goes toward others who arent at fault. Like Susan for example, we see he is primarily interested in her for her youth, but slowly we see him become jealous almost and push her out of her childhood like thatcher had done to him. He may not realize it, but it is his natural instinct to do that because the same had happened to him. His childhood is definitely at blame and specifically his parents for not giving him the love and support he needed.
ReplyDeleteI agree as well as why you think he is so inspired to make Susan an Opera Singer. I think this comes from his growing up and how he was told what to do his entire life, he figured thats how you treat someone who shows small interest in something. He wasn't never given a choice in his life so he assumes that he can do to the same to people who are around him. Comparison to the scene when he forces the guy to print the article about the women being murdered with little background info
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