Susan Kane Worksheet

Charles Foster Kane was a man with an enormous amount of wealth and clout. He had it all, money, women, anything he could possibly want. But for a man who seems like he has everything, in reality he is missing one of the only things that money can’t buy, his childhood and happiness. Throughout his life he is desperately searching for the thing that can return his childhood. He searches so desperately that he pushes himself into solitude, and ends up dying alone.

This wish for control is also seen in his love life. His first wife is Emily Monroe Norton (Ruth Warrick), the niece of the current President of the United States. This connection itself gives Kane more power, even an opportunity to become governor. One can even say that is only reason he marries her: for influence, not love. When Emily starts to realize this, their marriage continually deteriorates until they are hardly speaking at all. Kane’s second love interest is Susan Alexander (Dorothy Comingore). The first time they met, he proceeds to control her. He insists that she sing professionally, even when she argues against it. Their relationship is uncovered, causing Emily to get a divorce. Kane marries Susan soon after. However, it is the same cycle over again. He tries to control everything, she gets annoyed, the marriage deteriorates. After he builds Xanadu, the palace, she is so fed up that she leaves him as well. His desperation for attention and control costs him a family.

Charles Foster Kane strived for the public’s adoration and for them to worship him. In trying to achieve the public’s appreciation and idolization, Kane buys the New York Inquirer. Kane publishes what is called “declaration of Principles”. In this declaration of principles Kane states he will not with hold anything from his readers and be truthful. Kane believes that with being honest that he will earn the readers trust when other newspapers are hiding the true details from them. Orson Wells leads the audience to believe that Kane craves this attention and desire for worship due to his childhood. Kane was forced to leave home at a young age to pursue better opportunities as an adult.

She soon makes it clear that his chances with her are exactly zero, ending with Susan paying for the meal and saying, “you get the next one”, and even though the narrator knows “there won’t be a next one” (Wolff, 162). So why don’t Susan and the narrator have sex? Susan already has the upper

Mr. Kane exclaims, “I can fight this all alone…I’m Charles Foster Kane! I’m no cheap crooked politician trying to save himself from the consequences.” (Citizen Kane) Though Mr. Kane was by no means a perfect character, up until this point he could be viewed as the “good”, slightly above average, citizen. But as this scene plays out, he begins to show his darker side to the audience.

Charles Arthur Kane, a man who yearned so desperately to fit into society. Once Kane’s corruption leaks into the public, Kane’s name carries a taste of bitterness. Kane is a man who tried to use his own corruption in order to try to rescue the society from its corruption. Kane wanted to be the man revered by society and a part of society and was willing to do whatever it took. From the moment Kane inherited his fortune he wanted to be liked by the people and be a part of society. In this constant quest for societies approval Kane never stops to discover his own individuality. Through power and greed, Kane believes that he can save the public from corruption. One of the first examples of Arthur Kane using corruption to try to gain power can be found in Kane’s rise

Bordwell and Thompson shared that the manipulation of story order, time and frequency in the plot illustrate how the audience actively participate in making sense of a narrative film (81). Bordwell and Thompson mentioned that typically, in fictional biographies, life stories are presented chronologically and let their plot present incidents in story order (80). In Citizen Kane, however, Kane’s life is traced through flashbacks by people who knew him, resulting in the creation of an unusual relation of the plot to the story. Furthermore, Citizen Kane presents an

     Citizen Kane is set at a time in American History where the world is changing and money is at the center of that world. For example, during this period of time wealth has become more important in America has more new money arrives. Kane is a part of this new money sweep across America and like everyone else is stretching his power and wealth. He stretches it so much that he loses sight of his objection, which is replaced by his obsession to be in control and make all the decisions, a power which he finds through wealth. But it is because of this obsession that his idealistic world is corrupted. Furthermore, the film revolves most around a newspaper. A newspaper reaches everyone and during this time one of the only few mass media. It is through the newspaper that Kane stretches his wealth and influence. He is corrupted by the power that the newspaper gives him. In addition, Kane is constantly surrounded by beautiful things and people, until the end of the movie when

Foreman skillfully highlights the loneliness that Kane feels when facing Miller and his gang. Near the end of the movie, Kane was standing in the street waiting for Miller to arrive. Sweat was pouring down his face, and he was shaking with fear. Then, the camera slowly zooms out and the rest of the street is desolate. There is nothing but silence as the people fearfully wait in hiding for Kane to face Miller. Similarly, other works of literature praise those who fight for what they believe in, even if they

The structure in the film Citizen Kane is non-linear in that it does not follow any planned order. The story is well formulated and presented using flashbacks that pertain different times in the life of Kane (Welles). These flashbacks are unplanned search that they offer the viewer an incomplete glimpse of Kane’s life and essentially adding more suspense. It takes the form of the memory when a person tries to remember an event that took place a long time ago. The use of the non-linear structure helps to portray how complicated the life of Kane was. It is vital to note the film uses several narrators. The mystery of Kane’s life is also being put together like a puzzle (Welles). The audience is with the journalist in the quench to find what the mystery word meant to Kane. The layout of the story is also planned with

For citizen Kane, the most important assets of his life are not the political ambitions, successful newspaper business, nor his relationships with the significant others. Judging by his last word, “Rosebud,” the most important piece of his life is memory from his childhood. Although his life is changed for what appears to be better, from a materialistic viewpoint, it actually leaves him vulnerable and alone. Kane’s life is ultimately destructed by his lust to fulfill the American dream of fame, power and wealth. The inevitable struggle of Kane is reflective of the struggle of many must confront in this materialistic world, as one on his or her quest to find the true meaning of

Then there is a scene where Kane receives a gift from Thatcher and as he is opening it he is shot seated at the centre of the room alone being watched by men in suits. When he is an adult he is shot in isolation as well as he is sitting by himself in his newspaper office and Bernstein and Leland are talking about him. The discussion and the way this scene was shot illustrate Kane as an outcast. Eventually Leland leaves his life as well as the many other people that have left his life too. Throughout the whole film there are many shots of Kane being isolated from other people to indicate the loneliness of his life never having a lasting bond with anyone because of the corruption of money.

Because of the content of this film, Hearst tried to prevent it from being released. Kane, who was based on Hearst, was a very controversial newspaper tycoon. This makes the film more dramatic people there are characters that either love Kane or hate him. When Kane is caught in a love nest with s ainger, many more people disapprove of him.

This Women’s Day advertisement inspires Women to become the person they dream of being. Alluding to the timeless fairy tale “The Frog Prince” with a toy frog wearing a crown, the ad plays on youthful innocence. The classically magical tale recounts the events of a girl who is not suited for royalty becoming a princess, which a majority of American and British women were exposed to in their youth. Therefore, the frog is a happy reference to a time period that every woman has had or will have where they relate to the girl in the story and feel capable of becoming a “princess”. Because fairy tales never follow the “prince” or “princess” in the story after becoming such the responsibilities and life is left to the interpretation of the reader. This promotes imagination in children and may nostalgically remind Women of the previous ambitious of their childhood.

Through staging and proxemics we can understand more about what the director was thinking. Opening the scene at Xanadu, Susan is seen sitting at the table working on a puzzle while Charles Kane is standing on a quarter turn. It is shown that Mr. Kane bears dominance over Susan at this point. She is shown in a few different cuts with a puzzle representing her boredom. At Xanadu, that is the only thing that she could do besides conversing with her overbearing husband. The proxemics between Mr. Kane and Susan are quite interesting because Susan is shown further away from her husband as every part of the scene cuts to a new clip. This represents their distancing. Being at Xanadu represents the distancing between the Kane’s because it is such a large dwelling that they barely see each other. The distancing is represented physically and emotionally throughout the film. “I thought we might have a picnic tomorrow and invite everyone to spend the night in the Everglades.” (Kane). “Invite everyone? Order everyone, you mean. Who wants to sleep in tents when they have a nice room of their own.” (Susan). Orson Welles displays the tension between Susan and