Who Is Citizen Kane?
...who knew him. The character of Charles Foster Kane is represented by the enigmatic performance of Orson Welles. The inherent bias of the narrators creates conflicting accounts of who Charles Foster Kane really was. Kane was a private man; closely guarding his true self, making it difficult to discern the private Kane from his public persona. Throughout the development of Kane, several inconsistencies and contradictions arise in the depiction of the character’s personality. All of these factors make it difficult to form a solid characterization for who Kane actually was; however, there is enough evidence to conclude that Charles Foster Kane was a noble figure sabotaged by his own anti-social behavior.
To further examine Charles Foster Kane, the way in the film deals with point of view must be understood. Excluding the opening shot of the film in which Kane dies, the events of Kane’s life are told through a series of narrators. The audience is informed that the character of Thompson is charged with the task of discovering who Kane really was by decoding the meaning of his last words. This also plants the expectation in the audience that they too will be uncovering the true Kane via Thompson’s efforts. However, Thompson’s supposed first contact, the former Mrs. Kane, is a complete bust. This sets up a succession of broken expectations that distort and prolong the portrayal of Kane . Thompson’s mission leads him from one biased contact to the next, ranging from the money minded Mr. Thatcher’s memoir to Kane’s longtime associate Mr. Leland. In addition to the five contacts of Mr. Thompson, the reporter creates his own point of view as he interprets the individual stories of Kane. In the final scene, he eventually concludes
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that Kane cannot be defined by a word and that the conflicting testimonies only prove that the man is still a mystery. Another point of...
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