Preview

Citizen Kane Literary Analysis

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1778 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Citizen Kane Literary Analysis
Citizen Kane was a film released in 1941 and it it was voted #1 in history of American film. It was written by, directed by and acted by Orson Welles. The story was set in Xanada in Florida and started with an introduction about that place. Citizen Kane has a strange opening as it opened with the camera panning a spooky haunted mansion and then the camera lingered and zoomed in closely to the sign saying ¡§No Trepassing, ¡¨ then the camera took us to the room in the house, we saw a person was lying on the bed and that was the main character of the story ¡§Charles Foster Kane.¡¨ (Orson Welles) We could see that he was dying and his last word was ¡§Rosebud¡¨, and then he dropped the ball, and it shattered. Because of the word ¡§Rosebud¡¨, people …show more content…
As in the beginning of the story, the narrative was introducing the city of Xanadu and Charles¡¦ colorful lifetime. The story were telling from 5 different points of view. It was Thatcher¡¦s point of view about Charles, but it was also Charles¡¦s employee, Bernstein, his closer friend, Jedediah Leland, Charles¡¦s ex wife Susan and the butler, Raymond. From their point of view, we knew that Charles was arrogant, lonely, thoughtless, morally bankrupt, desperate for attention, and incapable of giving love for his two wives. This faults eventually caused Charles to lose his career, friend and the beloved ones. Furthermore, the film gave the audience a feeling of supicious in the story. It also kept the audiences wanted to find out the truths behind the Charles¡¦s last word ¡§rosebud¡¨. Besides Citizen Kane opened with the camera panning across Charles¡¦s spooky castle and the camera lingered and zoomed on a ¡§no Trespassing¡¨ sign, made the film more mystery. I even thought of the film was about the haunted mansion. That really made the movie effective. The film was made smoothly. For instance, in the beginning, after shooting the sign of ¡§No trespassing,¡¨ the camera gradually made its way to the house, where it appeared to pass through a lit window, liked the camera lead us through the story. Also at the end of the story, where when Jerry was leaving the house, the camera paned a scene of workers burning some of Charles¡¦s possession and at that time we could the sled which painted the word ¡§rosebud ¡§on it. It was liked one image is wiped off the screen by another. The middle part through the ending was the most exciting part, as I curiously wanted to know about the ¡§rosebud.¡¨ Who was it or what was it, why was it so important as Charles was to whispering this word at last. This made it a question that we wanted to find out. The combination of lighting, compositing

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    It all started when Kane started running for Governor of New York, on the party line of improving the corrupt ways set up by the current Governor of New York, Jim W. Gettys. However, Gettys uses Kane's so called “affair” with Susan Alexander to blackmail him, which ends his marriage with his wife, Emily and this also brings an end to his bid for governor in just one tiny mistake. In that event of the scandal, Charles Foster Kane marries Susan Alexander and commits all his energy into building her career as a grand opera singer, even though she is not even nearly talented enough.…

    • 105 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The timeline of Citizen Kane is anything but linear. The film begins by showing us the last moments of Kane's life. Consequently, almost everything after that point is comprised of multiple flashbacks and first hand accounts of his life. The only exception to this is the timeline of Thompson, a reporter finishing a new-real on Kane, as he travels around asking the people closest to him for their accounts in the hopes of understanding Kane's last word, Rosebud. Thompson eventually gives up on figuring out Rosebud because no one can offer any "useful" information, the viewers just end up realize what Kane went through and what it did to…

    • 110 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film by Orson Welles, its producer, co-author, director and star. The picture was Welles's first feature film. Nominated for Academy Awards in nine categories, it won an Academy Award for Best Writing by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Welles. Considered by many critics, filmmakers, and fans to be the greatest film ever made, Citizen Kane was voted the greatest film of all time in five consecutive Sight & Sound polls of critics, until it was displaced by Vertigo in the 2012 poll. It topped the American Film Institute's 100 Years ... 100 Movies list in 1998, as well as AFI's 2007 update. Citizen Kane is particularly praised for its cinematography, music, and narrative structure, which were innovative for its…

    • 408 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Who is Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles) and what where the defining moments of his life? These are the questions that lead Thompson (William Alland) and the viewer on a captivating goose chase through the memories of Kane’s closest associates. Like the many possible meanings contained within the word kane, such as the Irish interpretation “little battler”, the Japanese translation of “money” and “gold”, the Welsh’s interpretation of “beautiful”, and the Hawaiian’s definition as “man”, friends and family each had there own interpretations of Charles Foster Kane. Collectively, these views show Kane as a character that was thrown into a position of power and money, and that underneath the façade of glamour and monetary possessions, he was a lonely and complex individual deprived of a normal childhood experience.…

    • 843 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Citizen Kane Reaction

    • 268 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Citizen Kane (1941), which is considered as the groundbreaking movie in the history of filmmaking is no doubt the most brilliant movie. This movie is the masterpiece of Mr. Orson Welles. Welles did not only written, directed and produced Citizen Kane but also played lead role in the movie.…

    • 268 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The concept of a linear beginning, middle, and end in the progression of time is thrown…

    • 789 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Though Money: The Unauthorized Biography & Ready Player One are vastly different books written for completely different audiences, major economic themes shine through in both pieces of literature. Money: The Unauthorized Biography is a non-fiction piece which focuses on the development of currency as we know it today, & the debunking of common inaccuracies in that history which many believe to be true. The novel, Ready Player One, is fiction in its entirety & doesn’t focus on economic themes. The novel follows the story of a teenage boy living in a not far off dystopian future, which inadvertently relays economic issues prevalent in its time period.…

    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Citizen Kane Essay Topics

    • 1837 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Movie Citizen Kane is about Charles Foster Kane, and his life story and it's kind of told by a reporter asking his “friends” order rather than make all them people whom he may have known deeper than just saying hello to. The movie starts off with Kane laying in bed and then dying while saying the famous quote from the movie “Rosebud”. Then it goes to reporters watching the news on the March which is a bit basically a short five minute documentary on Kane's life. Then after that they saw the reporter Jerry Thompson to go question for people about if they knew anything about “Rosebud”. The first person Mr. Thompson interviews is Susan Alexander. The first time he shows up she is drunk. And she basically yelled at him to leave and so he does.…

    • 1837 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The novel Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut depicts different periods of main character Billy Pilgrim’s life. Throughout the novel the reader follows Billy through his time as a soldier in WWII, life after, and the period where Billy thinks he lived on the planet Tralfamadore. These periods show the destructiveness of war on a person and its long-term effects after. Vonnegut actually fought in WWII and while at his war buddy’s house his wife talks about how Vonnegut and her husband were just children when they were sent to war. Vonnegut’s statement in the book, “We had been foolish virgins in the war, right at the end of childhood,” captures the quintessential idea…

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The non-linear narrative of Kane’s life is told from five distinct perspectives and the only thing that the audience hears from Kane himself is his final word, “rosebud”. The long shot of the nurse entering the room through the shattered glass of the snow-globe is representative that nothing is seen as it is and prompts the viewer to ponder on the appearance vs the reality. Subsequent to signing the declaration of principles which state “I will provide the people of this city (…) all the news honestly” the low angle shot of Kane tearing up the “Declaration of Principles” is symbolic of him being prepared to distort the truth for his own image. Robert Eberts 1998 review supports this claim by stating that the film “covers the rise of the penny press (…) the growth of journalism” Thus, the modern audience is able to interpret the sincerity and genuineness of media, which is integral in contemporary times, and comprehend the impossibility of completely interpreting an individual’s…

    • 902 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I really enjoyed watching this extremely interesting and entertaining documentary about all of the aspects of this film. In most aspects, Orson Welles was the most interesting and fascinating character. It was almost as if I had wanted to learn more about him for a really long time and I never had. It was very well put together and had some great stories.…

    • 341 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Death; a terror of fear Sanger Rainsford and Marshall Will Kane experienced as that got caught up into a bundle of panic. To start off with, in the film High Noon written by Carl Foreman we quickly find out that Frank Miller is coming back to town with his gang to get revenge on the Marshall Will Kane. Unfortunately Will Kane has trouble finding deputies and has to take on this challenge alone. As we read the novel, The Most Dangerous Game written by Richard Connell we observed that the protagonist Rainsford fell off his yacht to next wake up on the mysterious Ship Trap Island. With no one around to call for help he comes into contact with General Zaroff and is forced into playing a terrible "game". While analyzing both of the stories, High…

    • 1682 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    The story of Citizen Kane and its main character Charles Foster Kane is actually loosely based of the real-life media mogul William Randolph Hearst, and Chicago tycoons Samuel Insull and Harold McCormick. Considering that the movie is based loosely off the lives of famous individuals already brings in a strong sense of realism within the film that audiences can understand. Yet just because Charles Foster Kane is somewhat based on these figures does not immediately equate it to an intensified form of realism. In fact, what really separates Citizen Kane from many other films, in aspects of compounding realism, are its use of…

    • 1643 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 1941, the sophisticated and classical screenplay, Citizen Kane was released to the public in America. The motion picture is known to be as probably one of the world’s most famous and highly-rated films, with its remarkable scenes, and use of literary devices. Director, star, and producer of the film were all the duty of one man by the name of Orsen Welles. He stars as Charles Foster Kane, who was ripped away from his parents during childhood, then went on to live a very lavish lifestyle, but never knew what real happiness was. Throughout Citizen Kane, Welles presents the idea of the American Dream as living a rich and prosperous lifestyle, but illustrates at how unsatisfactory that this “dream” really is through the use of lighting, sound,…

    • 857 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The American dream is something almost every American strives for at some point during their lifetime. Who doesn't want to be extremely successful, have the perfect marriage, cute children, a beautiful house, and tons of money? All of those things have been what individuals set goals for from before 1941 and even now, to present day. Citizen Kane is a movie that shows a great example of the “American Dream” in 1941.…

    • 1024 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics