Citizen Kane Narrative

Citizen Kane,directed by Orson Welles, contains multiple narrators who knew the late Charles Foster Kane. Through these narrations one sees the life of how one of the richest men of his time dealt with his livelihood and the people who surrounded him. For a man who seemed to have it all people failed to realize that he lacked one thing: a childhood. Kane’s lacking childhood affected his adult life by hindering his ability to keep healthy relationships; Welles portrays this to viewers through distance, framing, and multiple narrators in order to show the audience that past events can have a lasting effect.
In the beginning of the film there is a news reel that plays a brief biography of Charles Kane. Some of the points made were that he came
from virtually nothing and developed himself into becoming a newspaper tycoon. At the end of the reel they showed how Kane built a gigantic palace for himself and his second wife, but when the Great Depression came the Inquire closed and Kane’s empire came to a hushed end with his last word “Rosebud”. When the news reel cuts and the camera beams out to show a room full of men in suits. They begin to critique the reel and the important question comes up, “Who was Rosebud?” This lead to one of the journalists seeking out the answer.
The journalist begins his interview process by visiting the vault in which Mr. Thatcher’s handwritten memoirs are kept. He is given the book by a guard in a highly secure establishment that Thatcher's belongings are kept. The journalist sits at a long table and begins to read the memoir which leads into a flashback to where Kane’s life started. The scene is set inside of a modest cottage where Kane’s parents are arguing about some unknown ordeal. The window in the cottage shows Kane as a child sledding outside and having fun. The scene includes the depth of the child in the background so the audience can witness the innocence of the child and how he was happy with the situation he was in, it was also there to show the distance between his parents and allude to what was going to happen next. The mother thought otherwise though and it is revealed that she is going to give Thatcher her son in a trade for money until Kane turned twenty-one. The father seemed to be against the trade and wanted to keep young Kane but his plea was ignored. This scene signifies the end of Kane’s childhood as he knew it. After Thatcher took Kane away from his home, Kane was then expected to live with Thatcher and make something of himself.
In further analysis of Thatcher’s memoir memories there is a scene where Kane first bought the Inquire. In the room Thatcher, Bernstein, and Kane were all in a room signing the needed documents for the exchange of titleship of the newspaper. In this scene Bernstein causally remarks how Kane “gagged on a silver spoon”. This line is significant since following that remark Kane expressed how he thought he would have been a better man if he was raised by his parents. This shows that from an early age Kane yearned for a childhood; the film elaborates on this idea more towards the end.
Next the journalist went to Bernstein who told him about Kane’s first marriage and an intro of how he also married Emily.
Kane and Alexander’s relationship started in the midst of his first marriage. At the point when Kane had the affair it was at the point where his marriage was extremely distant. The scenes in the movie show the degression of Kane and his first wife Emily’s relationship. The framing of the scene places the husband and wife opposite to each other at the ends of a long table to show the distance that is being formed. In the beginning of their marriage, they started out with constantly talking to each other and showing affection to one another, then over time they start talking less and less and becoming cold. The ending of that particular scene is when Kane and Emily are sitting in their designated spots at the table but not a word is being said, they both are reading the newspaper but Kane is reading the Inquire while Emily is reading the Chronicle. This is significant because it shows the audience how the relationship was in a bad place and how it caused Kane to become vulnerable to seeking out another relationship. This scene is shot at a low angle which mimics how a child looks up at his parents, it makes us feel like we’re helpless and can’t help the deterioration of Kane and Emily’s marriage, much like how Kane must have felt in his adolescent days when he was snatched away from his
family.
After talking to Bernstein the journalist went to go talk to Kane’s second wife Susan “Susie” Alexander. Alexander shared her ups and downs when she was in a relationship with Kane. When they first met Kane encouraged her singing and treated her nicely. The newly found love interest made Kane a pleasant soul to everyone and he treated Alexander like royalty, but Alexander reveals in her narration that that wasn’t what she wanted. Kane showed his affection by keeping Alexander to himself and showering her with gifts. He built an opera house for Alexander so she could show the world her beautiful vocals. He joined his wife as she toured the world singing for audiences, but the audience nor Alexander enjoyed it. Kane was under the impression that singing was her dream and that buying her material things would show his love for her. Alexander on many occasions throughout the film shared with Kane how all she wanted was to go out in the world and talk to people. But in Kane’s mind he needed to keep her close and he must show her what she would be missing if she were to leave him and have an actual social life. So Kane built a palace fit for the millionaire he was. One of the scenes when both Alexander and Kane were in the den of the palace. Alexander was sitting gracefully on the ground in front of the fireplace finishing a jigsaw puzzle she had completed multiple times. Kane entered the frame and went to go sit in a throne-like chair that was maybe 5 meters away from his wife. This is the scene where Alexander tries to express her disliking of being held up in the palace and wanted to go out on the town, but Kane was so far away he couldn’t hear her. As a result he goes on about his own ordeals and waits for Alexander to respond back but he can’t hear her either. The distance between them is yet another example of the disconnect Kane had with the people in his life.
No matter how many times his wife tried to tell him that the material things are not what she wanted Kane couldn’t fathom that thought. “It’s just money, it doesn’t mean anything!” Alexander says to Kane as the scene where she finally leaves her husband. Frustrated Kane tries to say he will make it up to Alexander but she refuses to let herself succumb to the love trap again and takes her bags, fleeing the premises. As Alexander walks out of the door Kane could be heard screaming, “You can’t do this to me!” This is a moment when both the viewers and Alexander come to the knowledge that he didn’t care about Alexander, he just cared about himself and his own feelings. After Alexander leaves her bedroom in the palace for good, Kane is shown destroying her room. Everything from trinkets on the shelf, shelfs, and curtains everything was thrown about in the room. This scene shows Kane’s regression. He is like a child throwing an upscale tantrum because he didn’t get what he wanted. When children are younger they learn that they cannot have everything that they want, but since Kane was taken away from home at such a tender age he was never taught that.