Throughout the romance of Kane and Susan Alexander, we see Kane push her incredibly hard to become a star. He hires music teachers, and builds an opera house, and yet Susan doesn't ever seem incredibly driven herself. Susan even says, "I never asked for any of it." How come Kane pushed so hard for a dream that wasn't even his?
Watching the romance of Susan and Kane unravel is a refreshing new sight for the viewer in contrast with Kane's relationship with his first wife. In Kane's first marriage, we see the tension between the two grow over time. During the breakfast montage, we view their intimacy slowly disappear until finally they are so separate that Emily won't even read the Inquirer. Kane pushed Emily away as he was almost never home, only talked about his work and felt as if he was more important than his wife.
You may be asking yourself how this relates to Susan Alexander and why Kane pushed her so hard to become a famous singer. Well the answer is simple. All Kane ever wanted was to be loved. He saw that he didn't have it in his past relationship and he tried to fix that in this new fresh one. Kane saw the lack of love to be due to how Emily was never put in such a position of importance that it drove the two away from each other. Susan was Kane's fresh start. He had a second chance to receive love, and he thought the was to do it was to make his wife's life more important than his own.
In doing so, we see a dramatic change in his life. His work life becomes less and less present, and Susan becomes less and less interested in singing. Susan gets pushed completely to her breaking point, all because Kane wants love. He never truly received love from Emily, so he thinks that by doing exactly the opposite of how he acted during their marriage, he will be able to get love from Susan. This is why he tries so incredibly hard to make Susan a star. It's his idea that if he can give Susan something amazing like stardom, then she will give him love. However this is not the case as Susan cannot take the amount of pressure that their marriage puts on her.
Can love be earned by one who cannot and will never reciprocate that emotion?
In doing so, we see a dramatic change in his life. His work life becomes less and less present, and Susan becomes less and less interested in singing. Susan gets pushed completely to her breaking point, all because Kane wants love. He never truly received love from Emily, so he thinks that by doing exactly the opposite of how he acted during their marriage, he will be able to get love from Susan. This is why he tries so incredibly hard to make Susan a star. It's his idea that if he can give Susan something amazing like stardom, then she will give him love. However this is not the case as Susan cannot take the amount of pressure that their marriage puts on her.
Can love be earned by one who cannot and will never reciprocate that emotion?
This post makes an interesting point. All Kane wanted was to be loved, and he thought that buying Susan the best jewelry, clothing, and other things, he could buy her love. He didn't want Susan to lose interest like Emily did, but he pushed too hard and she fell apart under the pressure.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with what you said. I would also like to add that I think Kane himself has difficulty loving people. When he is with Susan and Emily, he never really gives anything. He just spends his money to buy them things they may or may not want (like the opera house and singing coach). Susan even points this out. She says that Kane just buys things, but does not really love her.
ReplyDeleteI never actually considered his actions in his second marriage with much relevance to his first, most since Kane's character had changed so much from Emily to Susan. However I was surprised by the point you made and it was a very interesting, and quality take on Kane's actions with Susan's opera career. Great job!
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